Not This Time

Chapter 6

Yaz's POV

I run down the beach. I don't know where I'm going but I want to be alone. I can't stand the idea of the doctor being with another girl. I want her to be happy but I also can't watch her stare at Rose like she has the answers to the universe.

I'm running faster and faster, the sand coarse beneath my feet, the wind wipping my long black hair into my face. I run and run until I get to the edge of the ocean.

I take off my shoes and socks and dip my toes into the salty water. The biting cold travels up my legs but it feels strangely refreshing at the same time.

Suddenly I see The Doctor running towards me. Her blonde hair is messed up from the wind and her jacket is trailing in the sand.

She's getting closer to me but I don't run away, instead I stay standing on the edge of the ocean, staring out into the endless blue sea. It feels like being on the edge of the universe.

The Doctor stands beside me, looking out at the ocean. She doesn't say anything for a very long time, we just stand beside each other on the edge of something unknown and uncharted.

"I never meant for you to get hurt" she says, looking at me for the first time.

"Mission accomplished" I gesture to my bloody face and legs. The Doctor winces.

The Doctor obviously never intended to hurt me, she threw herself in front of the falling debris to save me, but if she hadn't decided to bring me and Dan on some grand new adventure then none of this would have happened.

"You really love her don't you?"

The Doctor sighs. "Me and Rose go way back, thousands of years back, although for her it's only been five"

I'm trying to follow what she's saying. She knew Rose thousands of years ago but in this dimension it's only been five years of Rose's life? Wow. Maybe travelling with The Doctor has made me smarter.

"I used to travel with her, but there was a war in our dimension between cybermen and daleks. The cybermen came from a parallel universe and I...I was the one that brought them to our universe"

The Doctor's eyes fill with tears. She quickly dries her eyes with the edge of her jacket and continues.

"Me and Rose opened a temporal breach that was meant to send the daleks and the cybermen back into the void they came from"

The Doctor notices the look of confusion on my face.

"Do you understand so far?" she asks with concern.

I'm not sure I do but I say "Yes" in the most confident voice I can muster.

"Okay" The Doctor takes a deep breath "but Rose let go of the lever and almost got pulled in with them. But her dad saved her by teleporting her to a parallel universe before she fell in"

"So her family is in this universe with her?"

The Doctor nods "And Mickey" the ghost of a smile appears on her face. I don't bother to ask who Mickey is because we could be here for the rest of the day if I do.

Then she stares at the ground as if counting the grains of sand. "I've never told anyone that before"

Suddenly her deamener changes from remorseful to desperate. She grabs my shoulders and looks intensly into my eyes "You can't tell anyone about what I've told you, Yasmin Khan"

I've never heard The Doctor use my full name before so I know this must be serious. "I won't, I promise"

She realxes a bit. Then her usual bubbly smile returns "We better get back to the others, they must be wondering where the hell we are"

She begins walking back the way we came but then stops abruptly "Oh, and get you patched up of course" she eyes my many wounds.

Hearing about everything the doctor did to save Rose makes me wonder what other secrets she's hiding.

Exactly how long has she been alive for? I don't usually ask those kinds of questions but her story about Rose has piqued my curiousity.

I'm going to have to keep a lid on my questions for now, The Doctor is a private person and I really don't want to intrude on her privacy. But she's just so mysterious and interesting that sometimes I can't help wondering how many companions she's had or how many universes she's visited.

My life was so boring until I met her, and I never want to go back.

Rose's POV

The Doctor and her friend run up to us. I was beginning to wonder where they'd gone. "Hey" says The Doctor, out of breath.

"Hey" I say, staring at her. I can't believe it's really The Doctor after all this time.

"Listen, my friend Yaz is badly hurt, we had a rocky journey getting here you know"

Despite Yaz's outburst earlier, I want to help her. She seems like a nice person, if a little prickly. I don't  know how Dylan would react to these three strangers turning up at our house though. But I can't refuse The Doctor.

"Okay sure, I'll drive you into a hospital in the city, it looks like you need stitches" I glance at Yaz.

"Thanks" says The Doctor. All four of us walk up the pebble path to my car.

When we get there I awkwardly gesture for the doctor to get in. She smiles and sits in the front seat next to me, while her companions sit in the back seat. I hesitate before starting the car.

"What happens after this?"

"What do you mean?" asks the doctor.

"After we get you're friend some medical attention, what do we do then?"

The Doctor falls silent, she fingers the hem of her jacket anxiously.

"Are you just going to leave me again?"

"No of course not, I'm never leaving you again" her face is so firm and serious that it makes my heart melt.

"But I have a life in this universe, my family is here, do you expect me to just leave them?"

The Doctor is silent again, clearly she expected me to do just that, because she thinks she's the most important thing in the multiverse.

I start the car without saying another word.

"Rose-"

"Just shut up okay! You leave me for five years and then turn up looking like a blonde woman and you expect me to just leave my family behind to go travelling around with you!"

The Doctor bites her lip as we drive. An uncomfortable silence settles in the car.

Soon we pull up to Greenfeild Hospital.

"Remember that hospital in World War two?" asks the doctor.

"The one with the gas mask zombies?" I raise my eyebrows.

"Yeah" says the doctor "wasn't that fun?"

"They tried to kill us" I say sceptically.

"We always had stuff trying to kill us" she says nonchalantly.

I can't help but laugh at her and she laughs back.

"Right" I say, glancing at Yaz "we better get you patched up"

"What about me?" asks Dan.

"You can wait here" I say "It's not going to be some exciting adventure just because The Doctor happens to be here, it's just a normal hospital"

Dan nods. I haven't heard much from him or Yaz this entire journey, I guess they don't know what to say.

Me, Yaz and The Doctor get out of the car and walk towards the tall grey hospital building.

Once we get there the receptionist asks us if we have an appointment.

"Yes we do" says the doctor. She pulls out her pychic notepad and shows it to the receptionist. She grins at me and I smile back. She hasn't changed a bit.