DOCTOR WHO: The Odd Life of Nova Sue--PART 2: Discovering

Chapter 16: Walk in the Park

Unable to sleep after her earlier argument with Hazel, Nova decides to take a short walk to clear her head. Little does she know, that ends up being one of the worst mistakes she's ever made thus far, and she ends up paying the price for it.

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Later that night, I have a seriously hard time forcing myself to sleep, for two reasons. The first is the noises I keep hearing inside the house as well as outside. Every noise I hear, whether it's just the light rain and wind from outside or the typical 'house noises' from inside, I keep thinking them to be signs of imminent danger instead. Also, I can't seem to shake the feeling that once I do manage to properly fall asleep, the danger will appear and interrupt me from my peaceful slumber, much like how it feels for someone to wake up hours before their alarm goes off and they can't go back to sleep thinking the alarm will go off anyway.

The second is that I can't seem to stop thinking about Hazel's and my earlier argument. As ridiculous as it all was, I can't believe we'd even had that argument in the first place. The things she said to me... How could she think all those things about me? Sure, I've been gone longer than I meant to, but deep down I haven't actually changed; why does she seem to think I have all of a sudden? Even after having witnessed my previous Regeneration firsthand without having any problem with it back then, why does she suddenly have a problem with it now? Why does she seem to think that I haven't truly come home—that I'm still out there somewhere in the universe, travelling in the TARDIS without a care in the world about ever returning to her—despite having stood right in front of her that whole time we were arguing?

Why does she look at me, but she can't truly see me? Why can't she see that I have truly returned, that I truly do still care about her enough to return? Why can't she see that I'm still me, despite everything I was taught while I was away and all the things she went through in my absence? What could I possibly do to prove that I'm still me, assuming she'd even let me? When will things ever return to normal between us?

When will things ever return to normal in my own life?

More and more questions keep popping into my head, and I can't seem to stop them from flooding in. The more questions that come flooding in, the less I am able to shut my mind completely down to get some proper sleep, which seems impossible now with the mental dam keeping the onslaught of questions back now broken. Because of this, I decide to get out of bed, get dressed, and quietly sneak out of the apartment to take a short walk to clear my head, bringing Hazel's spare key with me.

Even if Hazel hears me leaving (I doubt it, since she should be completely asleep by now, seeing as it's well after midnight—close to two in the morning), hopefully she wouldn't think I'm leaving her forever. I only plan to be gone for an hour and no more; no worries, right? Then again, even if she did hear me leaving, she probably wouldn't care either way, seeing as she's still quite angry with me for leaving her all alone for so long...well, at least before she met Billy. I imagine he took great care of her and assured her that I would come back one day (which I obviously did); surely, she believed him, right? At least I kept my promise to return, even if I'd returned an entire year late, which wasn't even my fault. Surely, even while I was gone that entire year, Hazel knew I'd return at some point and never truly lost hope, despite saying that she had.

I guess 'Rule Number One' has rubbed off on her too.

Since it's still lightly raining outside, I slip on my rain jacket and flip the hood over my head to protect my giant frizz-ball of auburn curls from getting too wet, and I step out into the chilly night, locking the apartment door behind me with Hazel's spare key (yes, I brought my sonic screwdriver as well, just in case I need to use it, even when I don't plan to since I plan on being human while I'm back on Earth).