Stellar Collision

Chapter 29

"Come on old girl. Someone's in trouble."

"What about this has you so skittish?"

"Calling space capsule, this is the Doctor in the TARDIS. Can anyone hear me?"

A bell tolling. A deafening alarm buzzing. A blinding flash.

Dayle awoke on a Monday morning in Shawn's motel room. It was raining. She sat and smoked, feeling sorry for herself. Got ready and went to work before Shawn could wake.

Dayle tossed in her sleep and turned over, mumbling.

"What on earth are you doing in my hallway? What the HELL has happened to you?"

"I don't know any professors. Is she supposed to live in this apartment building?"

"My neighbor is a nurse. Let's just pop over and see if she might be of any help..."

Dayle was awoken on a Tuesday by her friend Clari's three year old son. She was excited. She'd get to see Savannah today, spend time with her at the library. First, she should attend an NA meeting though.

Dayle regained consciousness all at once, like being startled awake from a dream of falling. She couldn't recall the details of her dream but found herself recalling instead the words from a book on parallel universes she'd read a full three years ago in a booth at Waffle House.

There's no such thing as a road untraveled. Yet each such road- each reality- is hidden from all others.

She tried to sit up and realized she was in the woods and it was dark. And worse, her hands were tied together tightly in front of her. She was bound at the ankles too. She shook her head trying to clear it and that was when the pain hit her.

"Oh god." She groaned. She raised her arms in a futile gesture, trying to touch her face. She could tell she was bleeding and her nose throbbed. She wondered if it was broken. The side of her head hurt as well. She attempted to sit fully upright, managed to scoot herself to lean against a tree.

She remembered the disgusting creature in Melody's apartment then and gasped. "Motherfucker cold cocked me." she muttered bitterly.

Just then, a growl came from off to her right. A gargly whisper, "Dayle Mossssss..." the Zygon hissed.

Dayle swung around to face the creature. He was even more ghastly than she could have imagined and she was truly terrified. But she'd sooner die than let this bastard know it. She straightened her back, made a disgusted face. "Arc I presume?" she said calmly.

Arc's expression was difficult to read, seeing as he was an alien being that Dayle had never seen before (at least not in his true form). But she was satisfied to detect a bit of surprise that she knew his name.

"So you and your Time Lord did your homework." he whispered ominously. "Is that why you followed me into this universe?"

Dayle played dumb. "I don't know what you mean. I've always been in this universe. I'm a nurse and I have a lovely apartment that I share with my fiance Jesse. No Time Lords here."

The Zygon chuckled, a wet gargly sound like a backed up drain and Dayle threw up in her mouth a little. The Doctor had failed to mention how fucking disgusting these things were.

"You are not the Dayle of this universe." Arc hissed confidently. "You reek of the Time Lord with whom you share a bed."

Dayle blushed despite herself but recovered quickly. She set her jaw and got straight to the point. "What the hell do you want with me?"