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XXXMANDYXXX

I woke up feeling refreshed and my internal clock told me it should be around 9:30am. I slowly sat up and the lights in the room slowly got brighter. I gasped. At first I had no idea where I was but then the night’s previous activities came back to me. I groaned and rubbed my face and lay my head back on the pillow. My head hit something and I winced. I reached up to find my cell phone on the pillow. How it got there I didn’t want to know. Visions of the Doctor walking in and seeing me sleeping made my heart skip.

I looked around the room again only to realize the entire room had changed from when I’d went to sleep. The furniture, the walls, the everything! The walls were a creamy brown and the floor and furniture was a rich chocolate colored wood. The furniture was modern and smooth with Victorian accents on everything. I looked down to see that even the sheets and blankets were a different color, chocolate sheets and a cream comforter. The pillows were a rich chocolate with cream lace and embroidering. I then noticed that the bed itself wasn’t the same. It was a queen sized canopy with the drapes tied open. I remembered for a fact the room I’d been in had been all orange-ish brown and that the bed had been a twin.

I frantically reached for my clothes, which were laying in a pile on the floor just like I’d left them, and changed into them. I was going to find out what the hell was going on. Who the hell moved me, why, and how! Granted I really loved the room, from the color choices to the furniture to the décor. But that didn’t give anyone the right to move me in the middle of my sleep without my knowing.

I stormed across the room and passed an open door. I glanced at it on my way by. Bathroom. I decided I probably looked deranged with my blonde hair all over the place and my makeup fully smeared down my face. I sighed and went into the bathroom to take care of the necessities of morning. A couple minutes later I was heading out of the bedroom in search of that pompous ‘Doctor’. Oh, I just knew it had to be him.

I somehow found the control room with the large machine like thing that glowed. I passed the woman Donna as she brightly said good morning. I would have felt bad for ignoring her if I wasn’t feeling so damned violated from waking up where I wasn’t supposed to be. I noticed the man’s lanky body hanging out from underneath the central machine half hidden inside of a panel.

I stormed over to him and grabbed his ankles pulling him out and glowering down at him. His eyebrows were raised up to his forehead in surprise to find me standing above him.

“What, may I ask, did you think you were doing last night?” I asked angrily.

“What?”

“Did you really think you’d get away with it?”

“What??”

“I mean seriously! Don’t you have any sense of decency?”

“Now, hold on…”

“God! You’re such a creep!” I snapped and headed for the door I remembered coming through last night.

I raced down the ramp to open the doors.

“No, wait!” I heard him and Donna yell.

I swung the doors open and went to step out and lost my balance in shock. All around me was a swirling of darkness and stars. Layers of colors shifted like clouds in the darkness and then faded away. I felt myself falling forwards where my foot had not found ground. Strong arms caught me and pulled me back just in time.

I felt myself pressed against the Doctor in protection and I held my breath. My nerve endings were on fire and I felt a strange attraction to him I didn’t understand. I noted that the top of my head came only to his chest and exactly how much taller than me he was. I swallowed hard and blinked, staring into the swirling masses outside the doors.

“You’re in space,” I heard his carnal voice say slowly. “Outer space.”

I shook my head and felt myself tremble slightly. Part of me was in awe of the magnificence and the rest of me was terrified. I felt my body shivering against the harsh cold coming through the doors.

“But… H-” I tried to ask, it came out as a whisper.

“This is my… space…ship.”

“Don’t worry, I felt the same way.” I heard Donna say.

Of course. He’s an alien. He would have a spaceship. Of course I’d be abducted by aliens on my way home from work. Of course I’d wake up in a totally different room. Of, freaking, course!

“How did you move me?” I asked him.

Slowly the Doctor uncoiled his arms from around me and shut both doors in front of me. I stood there unmoving, breathing slowly.

“Would you care to elaborate on that?”

“When I woke up the room was different. Different walls, different furniture, even a different bed!”

“Tardis!” He groaned annoyed.

I heard him head away from me and turned to watch him approach the large machine.

“Oh, you’ve been a busy girl haven’t you?” He said crossly. “You don’t have any say over who stays! No wonder she was miffed at me!”

I gaped at him. He was yelling at a machine. Talking to it like it was a person. I heard Donna laughing hysterically as the Doctor waved a large mallet-like hammer at it. He was now threatening to rewrite its system or some such… my god was he threatening a machine? Really? Oh this couldn’t get any worse.

“I’m sorry about the Tardis. She seems to think she owns the place!” He said glaring at the machine. “But I can guarantee you I did not move you while you were sleeping. The changing of the room would be her doing completely. Apparently she likes you and wanted you to feel comfortable. Unfortunately for her you won’t. Be. Staying!”

The way he articulated those last three words jarred something in my heart. For some reason I was rather hurt by that statement, not that I had any need to be. I didn’t know these people nor did I want to exactly. Apparently my feelings were written on my face because the Doctor gave me a tender look and came back over to stand in front of me.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean it like that…”

“Don’t,” I whispered. “It’s fine.”

“No. I shouldn’t…”

“Just don’t,” I said more firmly. “Just see to it you get me home.”

I could hear the sound of his heartbeat with him so close. Donna walked over to join us and wrapped an arm around mine.

“Oh, he’ll get you home safe and sound. He’s been at this a loooong time,” she gave him a look I couldn’t decipher.

Apparently he could because he turned his head to stare at something else.

“C’mon love. Let’s get us some tea, yeah?”

I silently let myself be pulled to my feet and then led back up the ramp. I stared at my feet as she led me out of the room. I could feel the Doctor’s eyes watch us go but I said nothing. I couldn’t. Pretty soon I was sitting in a chair holding a hot cup of tea in their kitchen. I took a deep breath and smelt the chamomile.

“Drink up. It’ll make you feel better.” Donna told me.

“How?” I asked looking around.

“How what?”

“How do all these rooms fit in a six-by-six foot box?” I asked.

“The Tardis does it. It’s like a living creature somehow. Don’t ask I couldn’t begin to tell ya. Just accept that it does and that it’s pretty damn convenient.”

“Alright then, a different question. Why’d you bring me with you if you didn’t want me here?”

I heard Donna sigh. I looked up to see her face a mixture of feelings.

“It’s not that we don’t want you here…”

“He sure doesn’t seem to…”

“The Doctor has been through a lot. By a lot I mean a huge freaking amount that you couldn’t even fathom…”

“So what does this have to do with you abducting me in your spaceship?”

Donna rolled her eyes.

“You remember that thing that was chasing us?”

“Yeah…”

“It isn’t supposed to be on Earth. There are places all over the world where a rift acts as sort of a doorway to other times and planets…”

“What do you mean rift?”

“A rift is a gap or break where something has split apart. In this case it’s a gap in space, connecting millions of others of places to it. That creature, though generally harmless, was pulled through the rift to Earth and being incredibly confused went kinda crazy.”

“Again, what does that have to do with me? I must be missing something cause I don’t understand what I have to do with aliens or rifts or… or anything!”

Donna sighed again.

“Well, I’m not completely sure. We’d been watching the thing for three days and found that it had been tracking you wherever you went. It seemed to be drawn to you for some reason. When it semmed to attack you last night we did the only thing we could think of to help you. We brought you on the Tardis to keep you safe until that thing has been sent back to its own planet.”

I stared at her and didn’t know what to say. The creature had been stalking me? A creature from another planet? So then they were just trying to help. But another question popped into my head.

“He says I’m not completely human. So am I like him then?”

“The Doctor? No, there’s never been another quite like him. Of course there were plenty of his species at one time or another but you aren’t like him….”

“Who is he?” I asked interrupting her as she tried to stumble over an answer.

“He’s just… the Doctor. He’s what’s called a Time Lord. He’s from a place called Gallifrey. But his home was destroyed centuries ago and he’s all that’s left of his kind. He’s been alone a lot ever since. That’s what I’m here for. To keep him in line sometimes and to offer company. Someone to smack him out of his depressions and ridiculous ideas.”

“What’s his real name? It can’t just be ‘The Doctor’!”

“Don’t know. No one does but him. As it is it’s just the ‘Doctor’ to everyone.”

I thought a minute and rolled thoughts around in my head. A vision of a giant city danced across my eyes but then disappeared. I felt like it was familiar somehow, like I was on the verge of remembering something.

“He’s all that’s left? Of his… race?”

“Yeah. They all died when his planet… was destroyed.”

“That’s awful,” I said meaning it. “No one should be alone.”

Donna must have seen something on my face because she reached across the table and held my hand. I stared at it a minute before attempting to smile.

“What about you? Tell me about yourself.”

I thought about it. I wasn’t sure what I should or shouldn’t say. She was a complete stranger. And my life wasn’t a happy one. Full of sadness, hatred, mistrust. I didn’t know what to tell her.

“Oh, well. I was raised in Michigan. Grew up on a retired farm. Holidays were great until I hit fifteen. I had loads of friends to hang out with on and off throughout my school years. Normal life, really.” I said with a shrug.

“I see…” Donna said catching that I didn’t really want to talk about me.

I ran my fingers through my hair repeatedly, fixing my cup of tea with a bewildered stare. Aliens. Home planets. Gallifrey. Questions exploded inside my head like fireworks. It was all finally sinking in. Aliens really existed.

“Gallifrey…” I said rolling the word off my tongue.

There was something so familiar about that word. I felt like I should be remembering something. I supposed it had to do with my blackout from childhood. I couldn’t remember anything from before the age of eight. Maybe I’d heard of it when I was a child and just forgotten

“What happened?” I asked.

“There was a war.” I heard the Doctor say behind me. “A time war.”

I turned to look at him. The look on his face was indifferent but I could see the hidden sadness in his eyes and hear it in his voice.

“The last great time war. My people fought a race called the Darleks for the sake of all creation and they lost.”

My heart seized at the name Darleks and I didn’t understand why. I felt my eyes well up with tears. I looked away from him. No one wanted pity, no one. I felt immense anger building somewhere in my heart and I wanted to smash something as he continued.

“They lost. Everyone lost. They’re all gone now. My family. My friends. Even our sky. Oh, you should have seen it that old planet. The second sun would rise in the south and the mountains would shine…” He got a far off look as if he were watching it now, a wistful smile on his face.

Donna stood up to make another cup of tea. The Doctor was leaning against the wall staring off at nothing. I got a sense of déjà vu listening to him. I could almost see what he was describing. I tried to focus on the fuzzy picture in my mind only to get a severe headache. I shook my head and sipped my tea.

“The leaves on the trees were silver they caught the light every morning and made the forest look afire. It was beautiful. We used to call it the shining world of the solar system. On the continent of wild endeavor. The mountains of solace and solitude. The best of the citadel were the Time Lords. The oldest most mighty race of the universe. Looking down on the galaxies below. Sworn never to interfere, only to watch.”

Donna sat a cup of tea down in front of the empty space at the table. The Doctor sat down absently. He sipped the tea and set the cup back down. I saw Donna reach her hand across to him and he took it in his own without hesitation.

“Children of Gallifrey were taken from their families at the age of eight. They went to the academy. Some say that’s where it all began. It was as a child that we saw all of eternity. As a novice we were taken for initiation. Staring into the gap, the fabric of reality. For which can be seen the hole of a vortex. We stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of time and space, just a child. Some will be inspired, some will run away, and some would go mad….”

I stared into the depths of my cup. I could see images swirling there. Something tugged at my mind. Eight years old. Gallifrey. The vortex… An image came to me. I could see the breeze rustling the dark red grass in a long field as someone walked towards me, a large crystal dome surrounded a beautiful city in the distance. The woman was tall with long shining blonde hair catching in the wind and blowing like a flag. Her dress was an old style, Victorian. It was my mother I realized. The scent of the grass filled my nostrils as the memory floated away.

“Sweet red grass…” I mumbled.

“What?” The Doctor asked loudly.

I looked up startled. What was that? Did I really remember something from when I was a child? That didn’t make any sense though, grass wasn’t red. The Doctor stared at me hard and I swallowed.

“The red grass… it smelled...sweet. I… I just thought of it.”

“How do you know that?” The Doctor asked.

“I don’t know…” I said, and I really didn’t.

The Doctor and Donna stared at me for what felt like ages. I curled my hands in my lap and wished I’d said nothing. Suddenly the Tardis began to rock violently and we all tumbled out of our chairs. I hit the floor hard and winced.

“Doctor? What’s going on?” Donna yelled trying to climb to her feet and stumbling back on the floor.

Our tea cups crashed off the table and shattered around me. Things were falling out of the cupboards and adding to the mess. I tried to crawl away from them and gasped as my hand was sliced with glass.

“Mandy!” Donna hollered.

I looked up to see the heavy wooden table tipping towards me and squeezed my eyes shut. I felt something cover me before I felt the heavy weight of the table on top of me.

“Argh!” I heard the Doctor groan in pain.

I realized the Doctor must have jumped on me to keep the table from hitting me. I didn’t have much time to think over it as the whole room seemed to spin faster.

“Doctor!” I heard Donna yell.

I saw a large shelf ripping off the wall and tumbling towards her as she tried to crawl out of the way. I felt the Doctor shove the table back and scramble to his feet. Without thinking I followed him and we reached for Donna. She grabbed both of our hands and we pulled her out of the way of the shelf. Unfortunately my reaction time was too slow and I didn’t get myself out of the way in time. I saw the Doctor and Donna rushing out of the room in blurred freeze frames. I opened my mouth to holler at them as I felt myself flying backwards into the wall and the shelf crushing me into it.

My head cracked against the solid wall and brought tears to my eyes. I screamed in agony as I felt excruciating pain in my left side where the shelf had hit me in the chest and was now pinning the left side of my entire body. I was having a hard time keeping focus as I tried to shove the cupboard away with my free arm. Things started to blur as I gasped for air. I knew I needed to get free. I felt a growing pain in my left side and bit down on my lip to keep from crying out. I hated weakness, especially my own. I didn’t want or need rescuing. I just needed me.

With that thought I tried to figure out how to get myself out of this mess, and out from under the cupboard. Wedged between the wall and the shelf I had no way to move. As quickly as the ships violent tremors had come they went. I felt the ground beneath me stop moving and I heard the stillness around me. I tried to focus. Where were Donna and the Doctor? Was anyone there? Had they been hurt too? I tried to look around but couldn’t turn my head. Suddenly I heard voices.

“What the hell was that all about?” I heard the Doctor’s voice far off.

“Jack!?” I heard Donna exclaim.

“Hello, Red!” I didn’t recognize the male voice.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I heard the Doctor’s angry voice.

“I was just testing out some new settings. Huon particles!” The man said sounding proud of himself.

“No freaking wonder why the Tardis went insane! She was trying to dislodge you! You practically killed us you…” The Doctor was yelling.

I could hear Donna talking to someone. I realized it must be another woman as I heard the other person’s voice.

“Honestly, Martha! How could you let him even try that out? I thought you had more common sense than that! Do you want to end up billions of years in the future again?” The Doctor changed his attention to the other person.

Suddenly the voices started to fade a bit as the pain took over. I moaned in agony and gasped for air. I was afraid one of my lungs was bruised. I knew my ribs, if not broken, were definitely bruised. I could feel my whole left body stuck. I tried to pull my body free again but the pain was so awful all it did was make me cry. Suddenly I heard Donna’s voice close by.

“Wait a minute… Where’s Mandy?”

“Who’s Mandy?” I heard the other woman ask.

I heard the long pause as there was complete silence and jumped when I heard the Doctor yell loudly.

“Miranda!”

I heard the collected stomping of people running and felt my head throb. I began to lose focus again as I saw the blurred forms of four people running into the room. I tried to hold my head up high. I wasn’t weak. I was fine, just fine…

“Oh my god!” I heard the other woman’s voice say.

“I’m okay,” I said.

I felt the shelf being moved as the Doctor and the other man grunted to pull it away from me. As soon as it gave way I felt my whole body collapse to the floor. I couldn’t breathe well and the pain was disorienting me.

“Oh god! Miranda? Are you alright?” I heard Donna’s voice all around me and felt her hands stroke the right side of my face.

“I’m okay,” I repeated.

I felt firm hands feeling my left side gently. I tried to look at the woman examining me but my vision kept swimming. I could make out that she had light chocolate skin and dark hair. I could tell the Doctor was on my other side.

“Is she all right?” The other man asked. I could see him standing close to us.

“She has at least three broken ribs…” I felt my button up shirt being lifted and felt something cold touch my skin. “One of her lungs isn’t working properly… and…”

I felt the coldness being removed and saw the woman stand. I heard the caution in her voice and wondered what was so wrong with me that she couldn’t say it out loud.

“Martha?” I heard the Doctor ask. “And what?”

I heard the long pause. It was getting too hard to hold my head up so I let it roll to my shoulder. I felt Donna smoothing my hair and heard her whispering little things like ‘it’s okay’ and ‘you’re alright’ that I couldn’t focus on. I could hear the new man talking about something called Torchwood and a hospital. The Doctor and the other woman were silent.

“And her left heart isn’t working.” Martha finally said.

There was an eerie silence as even Donna seemed to go quiet and remove her hand. I wondered silently what that meant as tears fell from my eyes hot and salty. Was I dying? Is that what that meant? Wait, if my heart isn’t working then I’m already dead. But… that didn’t make sense either… I was breathing, I felt pain, I was alive.

“I’m not okay…” I managed to say before falling into darkness.

In the last moment I was awake I felt myself lifted off the floor into the Doctor’s arms and the excruciating pain made me cry out. I bit down on my lower lip. I didn’t know what was happening anymore as I started drifting into the darkness. Pretty soon I felt nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing. There was just darkness and at that moment, I didn’t care.

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Thanks for reading Chapter Two! Rate and Review, please? :)