"The Darleks?" I ask, rolling the r slightly.

"No, the DALeks." He corrects quickly. 

"Oh, excuse me, am I not saying it right? Like wingardium leviosA not wingardium leviOSA. OK then." At least it's less scary than metal things. Well they might be slightly less scary now that they have a name. "And the green alien things?"

"Some sort of mutants would be my guess. They looked human, but crossed with something - some sort of hybrid. Tell me, was there any sort of news of disappearances in the neighbourhood? Anything in the paper?"

"I don't read much." I mutter, staring at my hands. "Or get out."

"Well, no matter." He says cheerily, flipping switches. "We'll find out soon enough. I'll dispose of the Daleks and their little mutant friends and we'll get you home."

"Yeah." I sigh, looking back down at the panels of switches.

"You alright?" He asks absentmindedly.

"I'm cool." I lie. "Just glad to be going home. Why the long trip anyway?" It's a total lie but home is better than being trapped in an alien basement.

"You still don't know where you are, do you?" He looks at me with some amusement. "I thought maybe the name TARDIS might have given you a clue. You know - Time... and relative dimension in..."

"Yeah I stopped listening way before that part." I ask with a slight snigger. "Besides, I just appeared here, remember? How am I meant to know where I am?"

I look up as the machine stops. Well, the weird choking like noise it's making dies down. "What are we doing?"

He looks at me, grinning like he's just won the lottery. "I want to show you something. Come on!" He grabs my hand and drags me down the short ramp to the place where I appeared and points to the door. "You're in for such a treat. I love this part. Go on. Open the door. Have a look."

I look at the rounded knob. "Great, so we're having a tour of my street before we stop by my house, are we? Thanks for the ride...." I go to step out onto the bitcherman.

"Whoa!" He moves faster than lightning, grabbing my shoulders as my mouth falls open at the sight in front of me.

It's not houses - it's not bitcherman, it's not blue sky and is most definitely NOT earth. Trembling, I stumble back, almost tripping him. He stands beside me, smiling down at me. "This never gets old. And I must have seen it a million times."

It's absolutely breathtaking. For a start, there's a star so close I could touch it. But the... sky isn't black, or dark. It's a lovely shade of pinks and purples. And just when I think I've sorted out the colours I blink and they change, to brilliant reds and oranges, and yellows. So vibrant and colourful that I'm absolutely rendered speechless.

"A galactic sunset." He muses beside me. "Still takes my breath away after all this time. Better than anything you've ever seen before, am I right?"

I nod, not trusting my voice to speak, just taking in the absolute wonder of this place. "So..." I find my voice. It sounds a little tense and hoarse. "I'm... I'm guessing we're not on earth then."

"Darcy Lester." He leans agains the opposite door with a one sided smile. "You are a long way from home. I would have understood if I was on earth, and you'd somehow stumbled upon the TARDIS and managed to get inside. But I was up here - in space millions and millions of miles away from earth. I definitely was not expecting company, anyway. As far as I was aware there were no rifts in time, no shifts in the atmosphere - nothing. And how wrong I was. And how lucky I was that you came. And look - down there. That tiny dot." He points down to a miniature speck in the distance. "Take a guess as to what that is."

"That's Earth!" I gasp. "Teensy tiny little earth..."

"Makes you feel a little small, eh?" He closes the door and goes back to the control pannel. "Now, you might want to hold onto something. It can get a little rough."

He starts up the engines. They roar to life with a vengeance. Blue liquid seeps up the tubes in front of me. I half-heartedly hold onto the desk that the gadgets sit on until I'm thrown violently to the right. My fingers lose their grip, and I slide without any chance of stopping over the bumpy floor. I land about 2 millimetres away from a hard steel pole. And If I had've crashed into that I dread to think what would have happened.

"I sort of meant... hold on tight." He says with a small laugh, reaching down to grab my hand. "Come on, it's not long to go now."

I hold on for dear life as we once again race forwards, grabbing the desk with my free hand and digging my fingers into the wood until we jolt to a stop.

"I don't know how you get used to that." I pant, still feeling like we're hurtling through the air at God knows what speed.

"It grows on you after a while. You kind of get addicted." He closes the engine down, lets go of my hand and starts for the door, stopping to pull on a long brown jacket. "Right. I'm off to defeat the aliens... and the daleks. And you're staying here. When I get back I'll take you straight home."

"Hold on." I race down the platform. "You're not just leaving me here. Not inside the TAR... The TAD... I'm coming with you."

He stares at me. I raise an eyebrow and cross my arms. I imagine one of those Western movies where the main protagonist and the antagonist stare it out with the wind blowing their hair, tumbleweed flying in the breeze, hands by their sides, glaring at each other.

His eyes seem to bore into me but I meet his gaze and hold it, challenging him.

"Oh for..." He sighs heavily, dropping his gaze. "Fine. FINE! But stay close. And don't go wandering off, OK?"

"What am I, 6?" I roll my eyes. He sure gives in easily.

"Look." He turns around, a strange intensity in his soft brown eyes. They seem to light up with a passion I've rarely seen anyone exhibit before. "I've lost people before - people I care about very, very much. And it was my fault. Not long ago, there was a huge war. Everyone I'd ever cared about was standing in front of me. And I could do nothing for them. And my friend risked her life for me. Because of her, I'm here. Alone. I'm just trying to help you. I swore to myself I'd never make anyone go through that again not ever. Because I can't risk losing anyone else. I just can't."

I'm slightly taken back at the fury, fire and passion that shines from his eyes. But at the same time, there's guilt there - sadness. An unbearable sadness that I've never seen in anyone before. Then I swallow hard, nodding softly. "OK, OK."

We step out of his machine, and I almost reel in shock. It's not some weirdo space rocket. It's a box. A big, blue, old, wooden police box. Its paint is slightly faded - like it's seen better days. But it's a giant big blue box. Or should I say small, because for some reason it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. I'm taken aback by the sheer awe of the spaceship being an old police box, while I see the Doctor standing beside me, slightly amused at my shocked reaction.

"It's... it's...We traveled in that?" I ask with some amusement. "What even is a police box?"

"A lot safter than being out here in the open." He says convincingly - pleadingly.

"No. No way." I say, my gaze never leaving the amazing box. "You're not leaving me behind. I'm involved in this too. For some reason they wanted me."

"That's the very reason you shouldn't be here. But I fear if I left you behind you'd probably break my machine apart looking for a way out."

"You could lock it." I point out.

He shrugs. "You could pick a lock."

"You could do some weird stuff and cloak it or something?"

"Cloak it?" He snorts with laughter. "You have any idea how much energy and power it would take to cloak something like the TARDIS? I'd burn up a supa nova."

"But how come ordinary people walking down the street don't sort of question a random blue police box sitting in the middle of the street?"

"Well it used to have a Chamelon circut which blended into its surroundings automatically. That broke.. ages ago... and I haven't been able to fix it. So now I use a perception filter." He says with a smirk. "It messes with your brain - sends signals to your brain waves so that you see it but just ignore it. It's like you just saw the most ordinary thing in the whole world and you don't even question it."

"And how come I don't think it's weird?" I ask, crossing my arms. 

"The same reason I don't. We know it's there and what it does."

"You could... I don't know, do some weirdo magic stuff and make it invisible or something."I say with a shrug.

"I don't have magic powers." He says with a smile.

"Aren't you a magical alien being?" I whisper mysteriously.

"Eurgh." he makes a face. "THAT is science fiction. And I'm not magical. Just alien."

"WHAT?!" I jerk us to a stop, staring at him in horror and feeling my heart start racing. "You're a...a...an alien?! Are you one of those things?"

"No. No! Not them. I promise. I'm different. A different alien." He says with a sad smile. "I'm a Time Lord. The last of them, anyway. From the planet Gallifrey. All you need to know, though, is that we're going to defeat a few aliens. Other aliens... different aliens."

"You're... you're an alien. I've met... and am talking with an alien. A different alien. A good alien? Is there such a thing as a good alien?" I sigh. Wait until Alex hears this. He'll flip.

"Well, alien technically speaking but, you know, I look Time-Lordy. That counts, doesn't it?"

"You look too human." I say. "You look like me."

"Nah-uh." He objects. "You humans look like us. We were here first. But don't worry." He winks. "And I'll protect you, I promise. You don't need to be afraid of these aliens. They won't hurt you, I won't let them."

"How patronising." I say wryly. "I'm not a little kid."

"Well..." He pulls out his beeping device and starts scanning the place. "You certainly handled your first encounter surprisingly well."

I shut up after that. He's right. All I did to fight the aliens was let them inject me with whatever they did - and burn me. What kind of a fight was that?"

"Hey, I was just kidding." He says, shoving me lightly. "A lot of people would be dead. But you survived. Good for you. Now let's go get ourselves some alien!"