Alex's Beginning

Chapter 7

The poor woman looked about ready to break apart, so she went over to the woman and put her hands onto her shoulders, trying to ease her panic.

"It's okay, Julia." She repeated, hoping that the woman would take her word. "We're going to figure this out. We're going to get back to Earth, somehow. I promise you." With her back turned, she hadn't caught the look that the Doctor shot towards her back.

"Well, we are breathing since we're not dead, so don't waste my time." Oh no he didn't.

She whirled around. "Doctor!" He looked startled at her tone of voice. "That is no way to talk to someone. You say sorry to poor Julia. She's in tears, you don't talk to someone like that when they're in tears."

"But -"

"Ah!" She held up a hand and walked over to him, lowering her voice so only he could hear. "I don't want to hear it, mister. That is rude, and I will not have rude behavior around me. She's close to crying, Doctor. Now, apologize." She looked at him earnest, making it clear through her face that she wasn't going to let it go. He took a deep breath, and squared his shoulders. He gave a quick apology to Julia before looking back at her, with a childish look of 'there? Happy?' She smiled to show she was happy - she knew that that was the best she would be able to get out of him.

"Now, Alex," He jumped down so he was in front of her. She tried not to back away from his proximity, pretty sure that his alien brain didn't quite understand the importance of personal space to humans. "Is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda, or...?"

She just continued to stare at him. "No idea." She confessed.

He blinked, clearly thrown by the answer. "But don't you work here?"

"Yessss..." She wanted to say no, hell no what the hell are you talking about, I'm someone completely different and I'm not Alex and this isn't my life. However, she knew that would be completely inappropriate to point out now of all times, so she went with a different answer, figuring that she could possibly be right - considering how eerily similar Alex and she is. "I can't remember what I had for breakfast, what makes you think I can remember what's on this floor?"

"You showed me where I had been staying."

"That's because you're pretty." She blinked a few times, mimicking him. "I don't know why I just said that. Martha, help me out," before I make a fool of myself again.

That little traitor had a twinkle in her eyes, and she knew it meant that she was laughing at not-Alex on the inside. "There's a balcony by the patient's lounge." Well, traitor or not at least she did help out.

"Fancy going out?"

"Sure." She shrugged. "I don't see why not."

"We might die." The Doctor pointed out. Oh, right yeah. She forgot about the whole no breathing in outer space problem. Except...

Martha voiced her exact thoughts. "We might not."

"We're breathing right here." The should-not-be-brunette pointed out as she gestured to the windows. "It's like we said before, these are air-tight..." When she looked back at the alien, he seemed almost impressed. She would take that look any day, she decided as she got a good view of it.

"Good!" He commented, and oh that just gave her a fuzzy feeling in the pit of her stomach and she - kind of, maybe, sort of - enjoyed it just a bit too much. "C'mon." He was quick to start moving, with those damn long legs that really should be illegal for him to regenerate into. "Not her, she'd just hold us up." He pointed carelessly to poor Julia and while Alex may have had a hard time keeping up with him - with that comment - she was certainly going to try.