The Unexpected Hero

A Lost Rubie. Damn it.

LACEY

"She fell into the Time Vortex? Are you crazy?" I shook my head, not believing what I was hearing. The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"What?" He murmured.
"What did you do to her? Why would she do such a thing! YOU DID SOMETHING!" I snapped. The Doctor's mouth began to smile.

"Interesting story, actually. Rose let's her mouth run... And I was an easily agitated character back then. Well, let's just say, that was the last time she would ever say she enjoyed hot tea... Literally." The Doctor played with the TARDIS controls, avoiding further conversation. My mind began to process his words. Whatever happened, it wasn't good. Rose could be anywhere in space. Sorry, not Rose. Bad Wolf.

Dilly stood on my shoulder, singing at me joyfully. I felt a strange feeling of sympathy wash over me. But it wasn't for the Doctor, nor the missing Rose. It was for me. All my joints locked up in an unfamiliar stance.

...Could I do it?

Could I run?

My hands clamped tightly around my phone that I had fiddled with for a while.
"What are you doing?" The Doctor had muttered without looking up.
"Take me home," I snapped. "Take me home now."
"I can't do that, Lacey," he answered with an empty tone. "You're being hunted, now. Just like me. You're a criminal."
"No!" I growled back, "I don't give a flipping fuck, Doctor! I don't give a damn about you, or the stupid Master or bleeding aliens! Take. Me. Home."

"I can't," was all he said. So many thoughts were racing through my head. If I was now a criminal on the run...

Where the fuck is Rubie? I tried thinking sweet thoughts, that she was fine, that she was at home, probably watching the Harry Potter movies. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't believe anything at all.

I just wanted to go home and lie in my bed. I just wanted to talk to Rubie and hang out with her without this whole crazy business.

Dilly made a sighing sound while sitting on my shoulder. I felt like sobbing. I didn't ask for this, nor did I ever imagine it to begin with. Suddenly I felt Dilly buzz away somewhere. For a moment I just sat there, not really bothered to move. The fae started to fly around my face, as if slapping me with her transparent, red wings.
I got up slowly, and followed as Dilly lead me to the Doctor's wardrobe excitedly.

"What?" I eyed the several outfits, feeling so glum my whole body felt sluggish.

She sat on top of a pile of shirts, staring up at me, as if she was saying: "duh, it's right here! The solution to your sadness!"

"I don't want to touch that," I murmured, flipping over a bunch of the shirts, to find my saviour. A vortex manipulator.

I slipped it onto my wrist. Dilly was now a flower in my hair, allowing me to get a good look at the contraption.
"What do I do..." I murmured, and then in a weird, transgression moment of all that I knew, I was standing in my living room. I looked around, taking the thing off my wrist and placing it on the table in front of me. I walked around the room suspiciously, hoping I wasn't somewhere I had mistaken as my house. I noticed an outline of the TARDIS on my carpet, noting that it was where the Doctor had appeared right before I was eaten by an angel statue. Eurgh.

My house didn't looked touched by anything. No hands, stone or... Whatever.
"He lied to me..." I sighed, "the damned fool!"

I slouched down onto my sofa, taking my phone from my pocket in automatic response to my boredom.

No job.

No money.

Where the hell was Rubie?!