Authors notes: Okay. Already a sizeable chunk has been cut from the original story. I did have a scene of Raven trying to learn how to swim in the TARDIS pool to re-establish that she could not swim; and later had her stumble upon a sensory deprivation pool. But the pool ended up not going anywhere and plans I had change. I might still use some of it as a flashback in this arc. But I'll put it somewhere that better fits the flow of the story.

Here I just jump right into the action with Raven having to deal with one of the most infuriating things in life.

I only just released chapter 62 yesterday and already there is an edit. Lol. The book Raven picks out of her trunk now has a blood stain on one of the pages.

Chapter 63

Why can't I stop looking?

Car. Car. Car. Car. Car. A gap, finally!

Raven looked to her right. The indicators on the steering column signalling her intention to turn right.

Car. Car. Car. Car. Car. A gap!

Raven looked back to her left. The first gap had gone, and she was back to car counting. Car. Car. Car. Car. Car.

Another gap was coming on her left. She turned to her right. There was a sizable gap. This was the perfect opportunity to turn. But when she turned back to her left a selfish turd of a man had sped up to close the gap Raven was going to take advantage of. Was the Universe conspiring against her to piss her off?! Why do drivers have to be such arseholes?

"Patience." The Doctor said from the passenger seat. "If in doubt, don't move. We're in no rush." Raven looked in her rear-view mirror and saw the column of cars mounting behind her.

After a while, the Universe decided to take pity on her, because there was a break in the traffic in both directions and it was clear to move off.

The screeching was loud, and annoying. She could feel the Doctor wince in pain as she tried to push the lever forward and make the gears mesh together.

"Can it play any other tunes?" The Doctor asked dryly.

"Why won't it go in there? Get in there!" Raven said in frustration, ramming the lever backwards and forwards.

"It doesn't look good." The Doctor said. "It looks like you'll have to resort to using the clutch."

"I am pressing the clutch!" Raven fumed.

"The clutch is the peddle on the left, not the right. That's the accelerator." The Doctor said. "You can tell by the way it revs the engine. Listen." She had thought the engine had gotten particularly loud all of a sudden.

"When I said I wanted to learn to drive, I meant the TARDIS!" Raven fumed. "Not this box of tinfoil!"

"Raven, don't be so mean to her. You'll hurt her feelings." The Doctor said, stroking the padded dash of his purple, beetle car.

"It's a lump of metal. It's not like the TARDIS. It has no consciousness, and why couldn't you have picked a car with a quieter engine!?" Raven said as she pressed on the clutch and embarrassingly the gear lever moved silently into first gear. She put her foot on the accelerator and turned the steering wheel. The car turned right and merged into traffic.

She was gaining on a car in front and she slowed down to match its speed. Her ankles ached from the constant shifting between peddles. The car ahead was slowing her down. Really slowing her down. She manoeuvred to go around, but she saw a conga-line of cars going off into the distance.

"Pull in behind that car and stop." The Doctor said. Raven gently pressed on the brake. The car suddenly started bucking like a horse for no reason.

"Clutch, clutch!" The Doctor called. Raven stabbed the clutch and the bucking stopped. A dark cloud formed over her head reflecting her mood. It took a while, but the traffic started moving again. She expertly slipped into first gear and set off. She felt like she was getting the hang of this at last.

She shifted into second gear.

The cars in front started to slow down again. They were moving but at a crawl. The beetle started bucking backwards and forwards again.

"First gear! First gear!" The Doctor cried.

"I was in first gear!" Raven argued, pulling out of second gear.

"You're going too slow, you need to change down now, or disengage the gearbox." Raven popped the car into first gear and stabbed at the accelerator. The car bucked, and stalled and came to an instant stop. Not a fraction of a second after stalling the car behind them blared its horn very loudly and very rudely. Raven had had enough. She undid her seatbelt, flung open the car door and stamped towards the car with a B.M.W. logo on its bonnet and raised her hands to crush the four wheeled, noise polluter.

"Raven!" The Doctor called. Instantly, Raven checked her mood. The driver of the B.M.W. car looked at her like she was insane. She turned back and retreated back to the bug slamming the door. She felt smugness radiate from the driver in the car behind. It took great effort for Raven to hold on to her powers in check to stop herself damaging the B.M.W. Not just for her sake, but because the Doctor would never buy that it had been an accident.

She sat down in the car again, gripped the steering wheel and took a deep breath of the fresh, country air from through the window.

The B.M.W. Sped past, and Raven got a lung full of the exhaust fumes. She coughed. Her knuckles cracked on the steering wheel. Something went ding in the B.M.W. as it drove past. She sensed the cars radiator now had a subtle, little leak in it.

"Whoops." Raven said flatly inside her head. She started the beetle again with the key, stabbed the clutch and wrenched the gear lever and stabbed the accelerator. It took a lot of effort to get the car to move.

"Handbrake!" The Doctor instructed.

"I didn't put the handbrake on!" Raven said.

"I know, I did." The Doctor said. "It stops the car rolling while stopped." Raven took off the handbrake. Now the car started to buck again. "You're in second gear, drop down into first."

The car shuddered and died again. Raven slammed her feet on the brakes and her hands on the horn in frustration. The beetle car sounded the scream Raven wanted to make. She flung open the door and dived out. "For fuck sake. You drive it! I'm hopeless!"

"Rae-Rae,"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

"Raven, if you can't drive a car, how do you hope to fly the TARDIS?" The Doctor said climbing out of the passenger side. They met at the bugs rear engine cover.

"Easy, ones a machine with hard to understand controls, no brakes, centuries on the clock, repaired by someone who I'm convinced didn't know what he was doing, and the other is the TARDIS!" They walked past each other. Raven resisted the urge to kick the car in the backside for being so uncooperative. The Doctor removed two magnetic, white signs which had large, red letter L's on them from both the front, and back of the beetle. Raven didn't understand why he'd put them on. They seemed to have the magical effect of making everyone on the road drive like a total dickhead around her.

Raven flung open the passenger door, dived in and slammed the bugs door shut. It clanged like a metal tank.

"I hate this thing." Raven said when the Doctor climbed into the driver seat. They both clicked their seatbelts into position. Raven's mood didn't simmer down much when the Doctor annoyingly shifted into the correct gear and drove the car as smoothly as if it was an extension of himself. Why couldn't he drive the TARDIS as smoothly as he drove this relic from an age where air-conditioning consisted of opening a window? Raven adjusted a vent down by her foot to stop it blasting scolding air onto her ankle. It was only lucky she was wearing her non-Azarathian garments or her left ankle would've cooked through. Thankfully the jeans protected her from that.

"We're going to spend a few nights in a place nearby that I know. You'll love it. It's called Devil's End. It's peaceful, tranquil, a perfect place for a holiday. Just what the Doctor ordered for a powerful psychic like yourself."

"I told you. I've disconnected myself from my powers. I will never use them again." She leaned against the cool glass of the door frame. "As long as I live." Sadly, if it was that simple Raven would've done it years ago. All she could do was suppress them.

The Doctor smiled, but didn't argue.

Bushes past by the car window as they drove in the boring English country side. The Doctor had said the TARDIS would be alright where it was by the side of the road cooling off.

Neither of them could say who actually caused the accident. Though Raven insisted it was the Doctor's meddling. Deep down, Raven was certain it was her own dark soul sabotaging her efforts to shrug off her powers. The Doctor had been showing her the basics of how to fly the TARDIS, but the moment she began adjusting controls anxiety had flooded her. The Doctor had made light of it, but she was worried if she touched the wrong control she'd rip the universe in half. She knew in her anxiety power had leaked out and done something. There had been a crash and mercury vapour leaked from under the TARDIS console. The ship was forced to land and the Doctor had disengaged something from the console and everything went crazy.

"What happened to the TARDIS?" Raven had asked when they stepped from the Police Box after nearly being squashed together in its collapsing dimensions. They emerged into the pleasant English countryside by a road.

"I disengaged the Time Vector Generator. It alters the dimensions of the TARDIS, and ejects its occupants from the interior as a safety precaution." The Doctor had explained. The inside of the TARDIS consisted of just three black walls now, plus a small slot to replace the vector device-thingy.

The two time travellers dived out of the way when an awful lot of stuff was ejected from the black void in the TARDIS shell. It was mostly junk, but importantly and unfortunately the Doctors bubble like car.

After tidying up the crash site with what little the TARDIS had coughed up, -Raven was exhausted after moving it all by hand,- everything was piled into the trunk of the bubble like car. The trunk was weirdly in the front of this car rather than the back and appeared to be slightly larger on the inside than out.

While filling the trunk the Doctor had tossed Raven's jeans at her, which had also been ejected, and demanded she put them on.

"You can't walk around the English countryside in a leotard and bear legs, it'll frighten the sheep." He'd said.

"I'm sure it'll scar them for life." Raven looked down at her legs. She liked her legs bear, they kept her cool and on some level she felt like she was annoying the snootier members of the Monks of Azarath. But her bear legs had often gained Raven and the Doctor the wrong kind of attention on their travels. The kind of attention that reflected badly on the Doctor, since they never believed her attire was of her own choice. That was partly the reason why she wore a bear legged leotard in the first place. It was because people didn't want her to and sticking her middle finger up at everyone was tiresome.

Raven removed her jewelled belt and put her jeans on over her leotard. Her cloak and soft boots were put into the trunk of the beetle because she'd found her blue hoodie hanging from a bush, and her platform boots hanging from a low telephone wire by their laces.

After the Doctor had gotten his bearings and locked the TARDIS Raven found herself assaulted by a set of keys thrown in her direction.

"What's this?" Raven said, holding up the keys like they were something smelly.

"You're going to learn how to drive." The Doctor said.

"Yeah, very funny." Raven said, deadpan. Then her face fell. "Oh God, you're serious." The Doctor had climbed into the passenger side.

So they'd set off in the car, -Raven fighting with the steering wheel,- in search of something to repair the vector generator. Specifically they needed mercury, the substance that had almost poisoned them.

As they drove they had come across a sign post for a place called 'Devil's End.' The Doctor got super excited and so now they were heading for that place because he fancied a holiday. Raven didn't. His holidays usually devolved into adventures, and she didn't want one right now.

Their last adventure had been exhausting. The Beaches of Zeston IV. They had ran into the TARDIS and had escaped by the skin of their teeth. Raven had only just been able to keep a lid on her power.

The time rotor had been set in motion.

"Right, where to next?" The Doctor had said, clapping his hands together and operating the controls.

The time rotor came to a crashing halt. The brake had been pulled firmly down. Raven's hand was on it, her head and body drooped.

"No more adventures." Raven said, her voice heavy and exhausted, "I'm tired, Doctor. I just want to sit in the TARDIS for a bit and catch up on my reading. I want to 'chill.'"

"Chill?" The Doctor said the word as if it was unfamiliar to him. Was he mocking her for picking up on the Americanist way of speaking?

"Yes. I want to chill for a while and do nothing." Raven said. "I'm not built like you. I need rest."

"You want a holiday? I know just the place!" He set the controls, but the time rotor refused to move. Raven still held the brake down.

"No Doctor. Your holidays devolve into adventures. I want to stay in the TARDIS where I can't hurt anyone, or damage anything." Raven stared into the Time Lords grey eyes. The Doctor could see how tired she was. "Please."

"Alright," the Doctor said softly, "it'll give me a chance to repair the console, and..."

"No it won't!" Raven cut across. "Your repairs result in adventures. I swear, if you come within twenty feet of this console I'll cram you into a shoebox and leave you in the boot cupboard for a week." The Doctor laughed. Raven stared at him. "I wasn't joking."

"I know." The Doctor laughed. "Alright. I guess I can 'chill' for a few weeks. It'll give me a chance to catch up on my own reading."

"I'd prefer that."

After three days of 'chilling' Raven had made the mistake of asking to learn how to drive the TARDIS. That's how they got into this situation.

Raven's brain was currently spinning trying to find some way to blame the Doctor for her current situation, but every time true fault always pointed right back at herself. But Raven was never going to admit that to the Doctor's smug arse.

"It's been a long time since I visited Devils End. I was stranded on Earth and worked for U.N.I.T. some time in the seventies... or was it the eighties?" The Doctor mused. "I'd crashed the TARDIS racing a temporal skipper and needed to effect repairs before I could move on."

"Hey, I thought you..." Raven paused. "Never mind." She was going to state that she thought he'd been exiled to Earth at that point by the Time Lords for mucking around with history. But she still didn't want to reveal to him that she'd been inside his mind all that time ago.

Raven took out a book from her pocket and tried to read, it was difficult because the noise of the cars engine was distracting. Her feet rose up and laid, against the padded dashboard until the Doctor swiped at her feet with the back of his hand. Rolling her eyes in an 'Okay, Dad' kind of way Raven dropped her legs back down into the footwell.

The horrid suspension of this car also made reading impossible, and she was starting to feel car sick. She put the book away, and wound the window down to get some more of the fresh air, then wound it back up again when she smelt a new component to the English countryside. Strong manure.

"Don't play with the window." The Doctor said. Sighing, Raven started playing with the radio knobs on the dashboard and waited for something to leap out at her.

Pop songs of the era, -whatever era it was,- blared from the cars speakers. The music was... tolerable, and was better than the Doctors smooth jazz collection. Amazingly, the Doctor made no attempt to change the station.

"If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends

"-Gotta get with my friends-

"Make it last forever, friendship never ends

"If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give

"Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is."

Raven shook her head. She hated love songs, they always sounded so false and forced. Raven subscribed to the philosophy of a man called Archibald Rimmer. "Love is a device invented by bank managers to make us overdrawn." Raven could add to that. It was just there to distract you from working on yourself by focusing on another. Specifically on either a stupid boy, for the sake of producing kids, -which Raven didn't want.- Or focusing on a girl, -if you were that way inclined.- All for the sake of companionship, -which Raven also didn't want, or need.-

Thankfully that song ended, and those thoughts faded.

Relaxing in her seat Raven tuned her brain into the next song. It wasn't as bombastic as the last one.

"She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge

"She studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College

"That's where I...

"Caught her eye."

Raven closed her eyes and began to sing with the chorus when it came around for the second time.

"I wanna live like common people

"I wanna do whatever common people do

"Wanna sleep with common people

"I wanna sleep with common people

"Like you."

That resonated with Raven. All she wanted to be now was like the common people. Not some magic, half-demon monk from Azarath.

The song was essentially about a rich girl who'd never understand what it was like to be one of the 'Common people,' because she came from a privileged position in society. She only hung out with the 'Common people' because she personally thought being poor was cool. To her it was retro, a fad, and a lifestyle rather than a situation. But ultimately, if the girl wanted out she could call her rich dad to pick her up, where the singer had no such person to pull him out of the squallier he was trapped in.

Raven came to the conclusion that any bad situation could feel somewhat attractive if you had the option to remove yourself from it. An echo of something the Doctor had said while in the Land of Fiction came into the front of her mind. He'd mentioned he was careful about how he interfered with history and human progress. He never liked to stick around and tidy up after himself, that was up to other humans to do since they would be living in whatever was built. The Doctor didn't want to settle and unlike the people of the planet, he could always run away. A luxury the people trapped on the planet wouldn't have. If he stayed, and interfered more in how humans recovered then the Doctor would be responsible if it all went wrong.

That was not to say the Doctor was trying to avoid being helpful. He just felt humans should govern themselves and not appeal to a higher, alien authority. Especially when they couldn't get their own way after the Doctor had put them on an equal playing field.

Raven respected that.

It felt good to peel off the jeans and collapsed onto a freshly made bed. They were in a Bed and Breakfast pub in the centre of Devil's End. The Doctor apparently knew the bartender from a previous incarnation. Though the man reacted to the name 'Doctor,' he was confused by his physical appearance. But again, the Doctor worked his verbal magic; and flashing some correct currency from the time helped.

The room was small and was barely decorated. It had just the essentials, two beds, dressers, a mirror, a bathroom.

She held up a book to her eyes and just read while the Doctor unpacked stuff from a suitcase he'd had on the back seat of the car. But his case did not contain clothes. It instead contain a jumble of odd devices. From the case he plucked out one thing in particular. Something he placed into a glass by the sink. A toothbrush.

"Are you going to spend our holiday in here reading?" The Doctor asked, pulling the curtain aside to allow sunshine in. Without looking up from her book Raven took the curtain and pulled it closed.

"I'd be able to do it peacefully if you'd go away." Raven bit, but waved her hand in a shooing motion she hoped conveyed more playfulness than aloofness. "How long will it take you to repair the TARDIS?"

"Don't you want to go out there and meet people?" The Doctor asked, waving his hand to the curtained window. "Wouldn't you like to interact with kids your own age?"

"I'd rather meet the Cybermen again." Raven said without looking up from her book. Other kids would force her to change to suit them. Other kids would find her weird. Especially kids in rural towns. In most books they were always backwards people duelling with banjos or something.

"There's a lovely tea room in the village." The Doctor said. Raven sighed. In her experience tea rooms were usually quiet, but busy.

"There's probably a large compost heap somewhere in the village too." Raven rolled her eyes.

"There's also a bookshop." Raven's eyes rolled over the top of her book. That had her attention. She'd only brought one book and she'd absorb this in a few hours.

From his pockets, the Doctor produced a small, velvet sack. He tipped the contents onto the table. Several coins, wads of paper and what looked like an electrical scarab beetle with wriggling legs fell out.

The Doctor plucked out certain coins from the pile, including the electric insect and presented Raven with the money that was left.

"Thirty-six pounds and nineteen pence." He'd said, placing it on the dresser beside her. "That should be enough for a book or six."

"Thanks." Raven said with disinterest, her attention back on her book.

"I'm just going out for a while. I might be some time, but don't worry." The Doctor reassured her. "And please, try not to get into any trouble." Raven gave him a look one would give a hypocrite.

"Yeah, whatever you say, 'Dad.'" she said in a mocking tone. She swallowed and her eyes rolled back up to his. "You just keep yourself out of trouble."

The Doctor patted his coat pockets searching for something. He produced from an inner pocket a black slab of plastic and glass. He held down a button to turn it on.

"Here you go." The Doctor said holding out the plastic slab, "this is a mobile telephone. It has my number in it." Wait, the Doctor carries a cell phone? That was news to her.

Raven rolled her eyes. "You must really think me simple, Time Lord." She hissed.

"Well, you didn't know what a washing-machine was last weekend, Rae-Rae." The Doctor said.

Raven seethed at him over the pages of her book.

"Just give me the damn phone!" Raven said, her mouth hidden by her book. She snatched it from his hands.

"Don't snatch! What would your mother say?" The Doctor said.

"Please, be good for once." The Doctor's face fell.

Raven held the phone from its corner like it was something disgusting to be put in the trash. Raven held the power button and turned it off before setting it down on her bedside cabinet, disinterested.

With that, the Doctor left the room and Raven was on her own.

Ravens concerned eyes looked over the top of her book. Had she been too rude? Had she hurt the Doctor's feelings?

"Sorry." She croaked to the air. "I'm just annoyed." She stared at the door, but he didn't come back. She'll make it up to him somehow, later.

She looked at the window with light struggling to penetrate the curtain. Beyond was the quaint English village. She could still hear and sense the world outside through the Aether. The chirping birds, the sounds of traffic, the laughing and playing children.

Raven went back to her book.

Finally finishing the book Raven pondered on what to do now. Meditate? Sleep? There was a small TV in the room and after flicking through a few channels on the idiot box she gotten bored and turned it off. Her thoughts went to what she'd seen through the windows of the beetle car. Raven was beginning to understand why Bram Stoker had a dislike of the countryside. It was vast, and you could easily get lost.

Looking back at the book she wondered if she should read it again. It was a book called 'My Darkest Heart,' and it was a dark romance novel with echoes of Lemony Stickets A series of Unfortunate Events about it. The plot revolved around two teenage protagonists who start to fall in love with each other, but they don't want to as they were both so damaged and jaded that love was alien to them. So they keep trying to put each other off, but only succeed in bringing them closer to each other. It was entertaining, but it did feel like the author was making the universe conspire to bring the characters together. The two did get together in the end, but Raven felt the female protagonist should've followed her head, not her heart and furthered her education. The boy. Well, what about him? He was happy experimenting with worms and spiders.

Raven looked at the cover, which depicted the two protagonists holding hands. She found herself stroking the face of the male character and tracing her finger down to his hand. She checked herself and tossed the book onto her bed to forget all about it. No boys were like the ones in books. In Raven's view, boys only fell in love with a girls shape, not her mind or her soul. No boy would want to go out with her. They wanted pretty girls. They wanted baby makers. They wanted a helpless princess with flowing hair and healthy skin. Not a demon's half-breed daughter who looked like a dug up corpse with hair so greasy you could strain it and cook Fish N'Chips.

She was on her feet and pacing the room to deal with the stress of her thoughts.

Boys wanted a body shape that was impossible, that's what Raven had read whenever she'd picked up girly magazines. They wanted a narrow waist, broad hips and bust and shapely legs. In the early twenty-first century some of them must've developed a fetish for swollen lips that made women look like they had a baboons rectum stuck to their face.

Raven caught her reflection in the mirror on the dresser. She stared at herself for a good long while. Okay, she admitted she wasn't that bad looking. But her intense eyes carried a murderous intent with them. She tried to pull a smile, but she looked like she was having a stroke.

She pulled her jeans and hoodie back on to hide her shape before she flopped back onto the bed and stared into the ceiling at nothing in particular.

Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored! Her mind flashed. She found some hygiene products in the Doctors case so she'd washed, cut her nails, brushed her teeth. She even had a go at flushing the toilet. Her hair was grease free now, but it'd come back in a couple of days.

She spent a couple of hours played with a deck of tarot cards she had in her pocket. Despite her powers being suppressed this should still work as it was not demon magic. But all it proved was that Death had a sense of humour, considering how many times his card showed up. Six times. There were only four death cards in the deck.

When that lost its entertainment value she read yesterdays newspaper, which had been left in the room. Nothing very interesting had happened. Some Prime Minister was stepping down. A New Book on Stonehenge had been published. Complaints about the weather interfering with a locally held rugby club. None of it interested her. She looked for the date. The year was smudged, but it was some time in May. She just couldn't exactly say which May though.

Bored, bored, bored, bored. Her eyes rolled to the closed curtains.

Should she go outside?

There was an irritating itch, but Raven wasn't sure what it was.

'Okay then, I'll go outside!' She decided, grabbing her hoodie on the way out. The mobile phone was left on the bedside cabinet.

Opening the door and taking a key she walked down the stairs, and attracted some looks from the pub's patrons who hadn't seen a girl who looked like her before. She walked out and emerged into the sunshine.

Raven instantly pulled up the hood of her hoodie to shield her eyes and face from the bright May sun.

The Doctor's car was parked outside and looked at home in front of the village pub. God, the car was an ugly thing. It was like a tank, but made of thin metal that wouldn't protect you from a fart. It's smiling face reminded Raven of cute puppy dogs in that she wanted to wrap the car in a sack and toss it into the river.

There weren't that many shops in this small village as it turned out, and the bookshop turned out to be a charity shop filled with peoples old belongings that were of no use to them any more. But it did contain a great deal of books. The shopkeeper demanded Raven lower her hood upon entering for some reason. Not wanting to cause a scene she obliged. The owner seemed taken aback by Raven's hairstyle. Raven's dagger like eyes made the owner stop staring.

The selection of reading materials was limited. It was all either tourist books about the local area, or else it was soppy romance novels and kids books about stories she'd already read. Like Robin Hood.

Raven couldn't help but notice that she'd caught the eye of someone. Three girls were looking at her, she could sense it. They were clustered together in the way that 'girls' did. They didn't say hello, or greet her, they just gave her the cold shoulder and went back to whatever it was they were talking about. But kept looking over at her and whispering. That suited Raven fine. She didn't really want to make friends with people anyway.

One girl was tall and lanky with blond hair. The other short and squat and not very girly looking. She was more like a bull in a dress. The other had lovely, curly hair and stood with her back straight like she came from an upper class family. Raven's mind instantly went back to that song about the 'Common people.'

Eventually, Raven picked up a book that looked interesting from its cover. It was leather bound and really well made with the carving of a wolf on it. Weirdly, she felt a connection with the animal. A lone hunter. A creature that was comfortable walking its own path away from the pack. Opening the book she found it was full of blank pages.

An idea. Perhaps Raven could write her own story. She bought the book and a pen too.

As Raven opened the door to leave she saw a flier in the window.

'Book club held tomorrow night.' it read. Raven wondered about joining. It was something to do after all, and maybe they had some extra books. She became more interested when it said, 'girls only. No boys.'

Just so the Doctor didn't moan at her for staying in the room all day Raven pulled up her hoodies hood, sat down in the park, opened her book and pondered on what to write. A diary? A story? Her experiences? Her thoughts?

She tapped her pen on the open book, but inspiration didn't come. Raven thought after reading countless books she'd have some ideas for stories. Sighing, she looked around the place for any inspiration. Some topic. Anything.

Perhaps she should make something for the Doctor. She didn't know if she'd upset him earlier.

That's when she noticed something she hadn't noticed originally. In the front of the book there were tiny shreds of paper in between the inner cover and the first page indicating some of the pages had been torn out. She felt the shreds with her finger tips and snatched her hand back. They were sharp and had cut into her fingers. A few drops of blood fell onto the front page and soaked into the paper. The bleeding wasn't bad and would heal quickly. She instinctually stuck her fingers in her mouth for a few seconds. Her attention returning to looking for inspiration.

There was an old woman walking her dog. There was an old ruin to her right which looked like the remains of an abbey or a church. Across the road two men stumbled out of the pub and began swaying down the street. What was with the British obsession with pubs and drinking? They were all alcoholics.

To her left there was a boy sitting on another bench with quite a large book on his lap and he was scribbling. He looked up, glanced in her direction, looked back down again and scribbled.

'What is that creep doing?'

Again, he looked up at her, back down again and scribbled.

'What is he looking at me for?'

He did it again! What was wrong with him?!

He did it again! That was it! Raven felt creeped out. She could just go back to the pub for some privacy, but she'd just gotten comfortable. She marched over there with fury in her eyes and glared down at the boy as he looked up again. He jumped to see her looming over him.

"What? What is it?!" Raven fumed.

"Huh?" The boy looked clueless like he'd been snapped out of some dream. He reached up and pulled on a black wire which snaked from his pocket and up to his ears. Two earbuds popped out. "Sorry, can I help you?"

Raven pulled down on the paper to see what the hell he was doing. Raising an eyebrow she had to twist her head to see it properly. He was...

He was just drawing. He was drawing the town park with the ruin in the distance. Raven saw herself sat there with her book. The boy was just drawing in the details around her like the shop and brickwork. She certainly wasn't the focus of the drawing as he'd put just as much detail into the drunk men and the old lady.

Raven glanced at him before looking back at the book, then up at the scene, then back at the drawing. The likeness wasn't that bad. In fact, it was very good. Raven noticed the detail he'd gone to on each individual person, including herself. It was almost realistic. He drew her eyes in a really striking way that looked dark and mysterious from under her hood.

Did they look like that? It was quite flattering.

"Umm, sorry." She said sheepishly, her face going a little red. "I thought you were... never mind."

"Thought I was what?" The boy asked. Now that she could get a good look at him, she realised he was at least her own age. Maybe a year or two older.

"Nothing. I'm just in a bad mood." She sighed. She put a hand up to her forehead and gently stroked the gem there. She motioned to leave.

"Why are you in a bad mood?" He asked. Raven stopped and looked back at him.

"Just stuff. Personal stuff." He had some really pretty, blue eyes. He was pale, though not corpse grey and he had some glow about him that made him easy to look at. Raven looked down at his drawings. "Why do you do that? Why draw stuff?"

"Because I enjoy it." The boy shrugged. "It's what I do in my spare time."

"Isn't it kind of pointless?" Raven asked. Weirdly she felt like she had to clarify what she meant. "I mean, can't you take a photograph?" Drawing was a waste of time when you knew the world was going to end. Might as well do things quickly.

"Where is the art in that?" The boy asked.

"Art?" Raven said the word like it had no meaning to her.

"Yeah. Personal touches and interpretation. Sure, I can get everything quickly with a snapshot from a camera, but there would be no... no..." He rolled his free hand as he searched for the word. "Texture, no life to it. Do you see what I mean?"

"You sound like my Da... I mean the Doc... I mean..." might as well pretend, what would be the harm? "My Dad. He talks nonsense too."

She expected him to get offended, instead, he laughed. "So you're a no-nonsense kind of woman." No one had ever described Raven as a 'woman' before, she felt grown-up. "I guess it is difficult for somebody to understand."

"Why have you drawn my eyes that way?" Raven asked, looking back at the drawing.

"Don't you like them?" Raven shrugged, "I draw how I see the world, and I draw it in a way that expresses it. Your eyes look dark, mysterious, cold from the outside and yet..." he gazed into her eyes. "I can see there is a hidden warmth to them just underneath, hiding by the mask you wear." Raven touched her face around her eyes. "Your eyes are kind of pretty, like sparkling amethyst jewels. So that is what I drew."

'Bullshit!' She instantly dismissed, but he was sincere, she could feel it. Raven swallowed, why was she suddenly so nervous? She didn't know what to say, but she felt like she wanted to say more.

"Umm... thanks. Umm..." The hand on her face moved to her hair and she started to curl the strands around her finger. "Do you sell these drawings?" She asked.

"Why, are you interested?" He asked.

Raven subtly leant away from him. "Maybe." She didn't know what else to say.

"Well, it's not finished yet. But if you want to check out my drawings I'm usually in the coffee shop at eight AM most mornings." He suggested. "I also do portraits for a couple of quid."

"Umm... okay." She found herself saying. Now the boy held out his hand to her.

"My name is Hopkins, Tobias Hopkins." He said. Raven liked that name. She looked down at the hand like an intrusive object. She found herself taking and shaking it. His hands were colder than hers.

"I'm... I'm Raven," She blanked on her surname for a second, "Raven Hopk..."

'FUCK!'

"...Roth."

Yeah, run with it.

"Raven Hoperoth. Just call me Raven, it's easier."

"Raven?" The boy asked, "What an enchanting name."

'Enchanting?'

"Yeah, umm..." What was this? Some kind of magic spell he was casting? She felt really weird. Her stomach was churning like butter. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess..." Raven stepped away and nearly fell over a loose stone as she walked backwards to her chair and her blank book.

She tried to focus on the blank pages and force herself to write something. But her mind was only being filled with one subject. Raven held the book up to her eyes to hide them, but she kept peering over the edge of the book at the boy who was scribbling away like she'd never really existed. When he looked up she hid her eyes behind the book again.

Only when he moved on to some scenery on the other side of the square did she risk another glance.

From this distance Raven could see Tobias was slim, with broad shoulders and a slight barrel chest. He wasn't buff, but he wasn't unattractive. His hair was lovely and full of life. She scolded herself for wanting to run her hands through it. It would not be appropriate behaviour. There was also a familiar aura about him that Raven couldn't put her finger on.

But she'd met better looking guys before.

'So why... why can't I stop looking at him?' Raven thought, her heart thudded in her chest.

The penny was in the air...

Then it dropped, with a horrible clang.

Raven clamped her eyes shut in despair.

"Oh, God no! Please no!"

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: It was after this point I felt the old story started to fall apart. At the time of writing the story originally I was very love sick after a breakup and I channelled that heartache through the story with Raven and the new male character. This influenced where the story went as I didn't have the heart to go with my original intentions. I tried to fix it, post-hoc by altering the ending but it never sat right with me. (Just FYI, as of writing this I have currently been in a new relationship for three years; and my old girlfriend and me broke up on good terms. We even keep in touch and check in with each other. We broke up because we were of two different worlds. But once you're used to someone it can feel lonely when they aren't there any more.)

Another change is the name of the potential love interest. It was originally Russel Hopkins, named after Russel T. Davis. The show runner who brought Doctor Who back in 2005. But when I read the name Tobias I instantly knew I'd made a mistake.

There was a funny bit I came up with where the Doctor came across a couple of tents in the collection of stuff the TARDIS vomited out. The Doctor suggested to Raven that they go camping in the great outdoors. Raven responded by burning the tents in black fire. But Raven was supposed to be supressing her powers, and disposing of the tents by any other non-magical means just wasn't as funny.

Question to you all dear readers. Is the start of this chapter hard to follow? I know it jumps around a bit in Raven's recent past, but does it make sense?