Adventure of a Lifetime

Packing Bags

[A/N: Thanks Itsthemavengersagain for reading over my work, and the wonderful compliment. It was really encouraging! If you're a Tom Hiddleston fan, go check their page out! Also, this picture doesn't belong to me. I found it on Tumblr. Original artist seems to have been devoured by a black hole.]

I was asleep for what felt like years. When I finally woke up, my eyelids felt like they were weighted down with lead sinkers. My left arm felt like ice, and my fingers were numb with the chill. The Doctor was near the sink, pouring a glass of water from the tap. Struggling and shivering, I sat up.

"I'm not sure if those are in your size. I thought you might want clean clothes. This is what the TARDIS spat out." He gestured to the neatly folded stack of clothes at the end of my bed. There was a sports bra, (sensible Doctor,) some comfy underwear, a pair of skinny jeans, and a funny looking jumper. It was black, printed with little colorful dinosaurs. As I put on some socks, I noticed a pair of Doc Martens on the floor. I'd always wanted a pair, but they were too expensive.

"Doctor, where did you get these?" I said, leaning over, but instantly pulled back when a sharp pain arced from my IV port. Multiple machines beeped at me, which scared me.

"Oi! Stop that! You'll hurt yourself!" The Doctor dropped the glass, letting it shatter. I almost lost my balance, but he caught me. Slowly, he sat me back up, grabbing me by my shoulders.

"You should be more careful. You nearly fell out of the bed!" He said, looking very cross with me. I instantly clammed up. I really admired the Doctor, and would rather fall out of the bed than have him be cross with me. A single tear slipped from the corner of my eye before I could stop it. The look he had on his face reminded me of my mother's face. It usually meant I'd fucked something up again.

"I'm sorry... I'm no good. I'm clumsy, and I wreck things, and I'm strange-" I prattled on. The Doctor's face fell. He sat beside me, placing his hand on mine.

"You're fantastic. A little clumsy, too. And strange is never a problem. In fact, strange is welcome." He said. I stopped crying, and smiled. The Doctor beamed down at me.

"How are you feeling, Miss Penelope?" Someone said, as the door opened. A cat-nurse came through, and gently shut the door. From her pocket, she drew a small white device, and grabbed my hand. The device beeped when she turned over my hand and put its tip on my wrist.

"We'll need to take a few more blood samples, and detoxify you." She said to me. "Chemotherapy has been outlawed for over 90 years, Doctor. Where did you find this young woman?" She asked, disconnecting me from my IV. The Doctor began to look very nervous, plucking at the blanket on the bed and shifting around. I took this as my cue to get dressed. I'd never moved so fast in my life.

"Miss, we still need to detoxify you. You might want to keep your gown on. It's going to be a bit messy." The Nurse said. I'd come to the conclusion that the cat-nuns ran the hospital, and that this was a nurse. She was the same one from earlier. She had orange and cream coloured fur that was long, but neatly kempt.

I looked in the mirror behind me and gasped. My hair had come back. It was thick, dark, and indecisive, like a flighty teenager who couldn't make up their mind. Some of it curled, other parts were just wavy. I let the dark brown locks slip through my fingers in awe. My cheeks had filled back out, my colour had improved.

"Doctor, we have rules! If you brought her here from the past like that other girl-" she continued, but now I was paying attention. I wasn't jealous, really. I was scared. Maybe the other girl was booted out because she wasn't interesting enough. I hoped she was okay.

"I know it could be dangerous, sister. I am trying to be careful. But please, just do this for me. She needs this. You saw how sick she was. The people from her time were running out of ways to help her. I promise, once she's done, I won't bother you again. Well, unless the problem is more important than this." The nurse shook her head, pressing a call button on the wall. The Doctor frowned, and made some weird eyes at me. I nodded, and began to try to tie my boots, now fully understanding our current predicament.

"I'm sorry Doctor, but we're going to have to take disciplinary action. You've definitely crossed the line this time." The nurse said. I could hear footsteps coming from the corridor. I finished dressing just as the doors burst open. My boots weren't laced up, but I didn't worry about that just then. The Doctor grabbed a wheelchair and pushed me in it.

"Hold on, because this is going to get ugly!" He practically had the chair on its back wheels. My heart thumped wildly, sounding much like the Doctor's shoes hitting the floor. I was terrified, not that we would get caught, but that the Doctor would trip over his own feet. He was rather clumsy, from what I'd observed in our short time together. We rounded the corner, and came to a flight of stairs. A lift stood beside us as well. The doctor began to take the lift. I planted my feet on the ground awkwardly, trying to stop him.

"The stairs-" I said, trying to come up with a coherent explanation. He scoffed.

"That would take far too long." He said. I jumped up and grabbed his arm, pulling him down the stairs with me.

"They'll be waiting for us. They won't take the stairs. It would take far too long." I said in between choppy breaths. Suddenly, I felt my feet leave the stairs, and the stairs met my face. Damn these laces! Blood oozed down from my nose, dripping into my mouth. Fuuuuck.

"Hurry Penelope! The quicker we get to the TARDIS, the better!" The Doctor hoisted me up, and hurriedly stuffed my laces into my boots. We continued our mad dash down the stairs, and found a set of dingy doors, locked, much to our dismay. The Doctor pulled a device out of his pocket, something that looked like a wand, a robot wand.

"Stand back. Could be some sparks." He pointed the robot wand at the control panel, and as promised, it blew out an array of sparks. The doors flung open, revealing another set of stairs. More stairs... With a short sigh, we began to thunder down the stairs, our steps nearly in sync. More steps joined us, both humanoid and robotic.

"Doctor! They've got a robot! What do we do about the robot?" I looked over my shoulder in sheer terror. The robot was brandishing what looked like a needle. Were they going to tranquilize us? Kill us?

"Doctor!" One of the cat nurses called, "Doctor, please stop! There's more we need to tell you! Please stop!" She sounded desperate. The Doctor grabbed me, and held out his robot wand as if it were actually threatening. Honestly, it might be. It really did a number on that door.

"Not a step closer! I just want to return Penelope to her time. She doesn't deserve to be punished. Just let us go." He was panting, as was the nurse. She shook her head, doubled over with her hands on her knees.

"Doctor, that's not even my concern anymore. I was looking at some of Penelope's blood work, and I found something interesting. It might be why she didn't respond to any of Earth's treatments." My heart stopped. I pushed the Doctor's arm down, and began to walk toward the nurse. The Doctor reached out for me. 

"What are you talking about? Chemotherapy doesn't always work. Radiation doesn't always work. It's just that way. It's relatively new in my time. There are a million reasons why it didn't work." I was worried. What was wrong with me that had this nurse so wound up? She held up my blood work results, and across the top, in bold letters, was written:

PATIENT: PENELOPE L.
SPECIES: UNK
RESULTS: INCONCLUSIVE

"Penelope, I have good reason to believe you're not entirely human."