Running and Remembering

All it took was one goodbye and suddenly, all of it was gone. My hopes, dreams, accomplishments, everything.

It happens in slow motion, yet unbearably fast.

My letters I wrote lay on the ground in front of me. My blood splattered on a few. Suddenly my body drops to the floor, and I see the gun fall out of my hand.

It takes so long, yet happens so fast.

My vision blurs and suddenly I'm scared. So scared. I'm dying. The bullet through my head did its job. It's killing me.

So scared.

I don't want to die.

My vision goes black.

One word echoes in my mind, the only thing that's not fading.

Doctor.

Over and Over.

It seems like forever. Blackness all around me. That one word echoing and ever repeating.

Doctor.

Suddenly, there's a light. The light clears and I'm in what looks like an Emergency Room.

A voice tells me everything is going to be alright. The voice isn't familiar. It's a man's.

"It's okay. Everything is going to be alright. You're fine."

The voice sounds more like it's consoling it's self rather than me.

My vision clears. There's a man to my left, the one who owns the voice that consoles itself.

And to my right, there's a... Lizard person?

Suddenly, the lizard talks.

"Doctor, there are more important things than this girl."

The lizard appears to be aggravated. The man who is petting my hand replies to the lizard as if a talking lizard-person is perfectly normal.

"Vastra, she was under my protection when the siren convinced her to kill herself. I have to stay with her. She can't die again. I'm not letting her die. She needs to be with me."

Wait one second. I know this guy?! He knows me?! I need to be with him?!?!

Lizard lady walks out.

"Clara, if you can hear me, I love you. I want to spend the rest of my Time Lord life with you."

Whoa there. This guy loves me?! I only just woke up from a coma!

The man sits down next to my bed. He appears to go to sleep.

"You don't need to go to sleep you know." I somehow mumble out.

The man's eyes shoot open and he's right next to me in less than a second.

"Clara?" he cups my face in his hand. "You're awake." his smile seems so kind, so gentle.

"Yeah, I'm awake." I say, only slightly creeped out that this man is obsessed with me.

"My impossible girl does it again." he says with such care and love, that I realize I have a few questions to ask him.

"Um, I have a couple questions…" I say, sitting up in my hospital bed.

"Okay, I'll answer them." he responds, helping me sit up, like I can't do it myself.

"Who's Clara?"

His eyes go wide, suddenly he's shaking and pacing around the room.

"Um, so I have another question, I hope it doesn't alarm you like the last one did." I say, keeping a watchful eye on him, and then I notice his hair, and how it falls just right on his forehead, and his green eyes, so bright and intelligent, yet so old. I realize that I've been staring at him while he was waiting for my final question, and I feel my cheeks go red.

"Um, so, here’s the question," I say, "Who are you?"

He looks up at me with complete and total fear.

"Clara, you don't know who I am?"

"So... I'm guessing my name's... Clara?"

He looks so worried.

"Um... Err... Excuse me." He says as he walks outside the all-white room around me. The door closes and I hear him screaming, but it’s not just screaming, it’s like he’s scream-sobbing. He curses in a language I cannot understand. Then it stops. Suddenly. Like the storm is over. The door opens and he comes back into my room.

“So, Clara. You have absolutely no idea who I am?”

“Yeah. You are a complete and total stranger.”

“Oh. Oh my.” He says, completely embarrassed with his lovey behavior from earlier. His shaking hand brushes through his hair, his dark brown, thick, straight, perfect hair. I realize that I’ve been staring. Again. He looks up from staring at the ground and looks at me.

“I’m the Doctor. I’m from the planet Gallifrey and I’m over 900 years old. I’m also a Time Lord.”

I stare at him in disbelief. He’s an alien?! But, he looks so… Human!!

“You look so human… and… young.”

“Yeah,” he laughs, “I get that a lot.”

Our eyes lock, and I see the color of his eyes, like lost planets.

We blush, like we were both observing each other’s eyes. I look down at my bed, twirling the paper thin sheets in my fingers.

“Doctor,” I say, “how long have I known you?”

“2 years. We’ve been traveling together for 2 years.”

“Travelling?”

“In the TARDIS, my… time machine.”

“Time machine?!” I say in shock.

“Well… More like time and space machine…”

“Are you serious, Doctor?”

“100%”

I stare at him.

“So, where am I now?”

“In the Tardis.” He says, as if it’s completely normal to have a time machine and be an alien.

“Can you show me around?”

“Not until you have recovered a little more.” He smiles.

“Okay. I guess I’ll sleep then.” I say, and I close my eyes. I hear him walk out of the room and close the door.

A woman and a man stand outside a small blue box, chatting. The man is trying to convince her to get inside the box, but the woman refuses.

“So you think that you can just crook your finger and I’ll travel in your little snog box?” the woman asks the man, who has his hand in his thick brown hair.

“Well...” he says, sounding like he did expect her to travel with him.

She looks at her house, thinking.

“Come on Wednesday, I’ll have made my decision by then.”

The man smiles at the short, full of attitude woman. She walks into her house, her decision already made.

When the woman is inside, and the lights are off, the man opens his police box and runs into it, and right into the console room.

“And Wednesday we go!!” he says as he runs around the central console and flicks switches and buttons and levers.