Escape (ON HOLD)

Chapter Seven

Great. So now I wasn't even normal. I hated my life so much as it was already, now this? I didn't even know myself. Supposedly. But had I ever? I didn't know anymore, even if I had to begin with.

"Zayta."

I looked up to see both Clara and the Doctor looking at me. "What?"

"How'd you do it?"

I groaned. "I told you already, I don't know!"

"No, I believe you do," the Doctor said.

I shook my head. "No, I don't. Besides, who are you to ask so many nosy questions? I hardly even know you and right now I'm not exactly fond of you either."

"He's just trying to help. We're trying to help, but you need to let us, Zayta. We can't help you if you don't tell us anything," Clara spoke up.

"Why should I even trust you to help? Last time you just abandoned me in a very active volcano. And if you don't remember, that was hardly even ten minutes ago! You haven't exactly given me any reasons to trust you."

"I've given you plenty of reasons to trust me, but apparently you're too stupid to see them," the Doctor snapped.

"So I'm too stupid to see them. Then tell me, Doctor, what reasons have you given me?"

"From the moment I first saw you I knew something wasn't right, that you weren't right. So I took you to that planet as a test. I wanted to help you see who you truly are."

"A fat lot of good that's done me so far. Besides, I thought you didn't want to go there and that you had absolutely no idea what that place--"

"I'm not finished," the Doctor said with a frown, interrupting me. "Obviously you're a troubled child. I let you on my Tardis, didn't I? I even helped you with your ankle. What more do you want?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose in an attempt to stay calm. "I want someone who won't lie to me. I want someone who won't risk my life just to prove a point!" Apparently it didn't work. "I want... I just want someone who will be there for me. Someone who actually and truly cares... Someone who won't abandon me the next chance they get..."

Clara walked over and sat next to me, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Zayta, we're trying to be there for you. I know it may not seem like it, but he is actually trying to be rather nice right now. In his own way that is. All we want to do is help you, but we need your help to fix the problem."

"Oh, so now I'm just a problem that needs fixing? On top of everything else? Really?"

"That's not what I said. I--"

"What if I don't want to be fixed?" I asked, pulling away from her and standing up. "What if I don't want to know who I really am? What if I just want a normal life?"

"A normal life?" the Doctor scoffed. "Oh please. Normal is so... boring."

"Normal is safe. Normal won't change."

"But normal isn't worth it," Clara added. "There is so much out there to see... To do... I haven't even begun to see it all with the Doctor. But I know one thing: I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. And he's offered it to you now too, and better yet, he's also offered to help you sort out your life and discover who you really are. So many people spend their entire lives wanting to know, and yet he's offering it to you. To be honest, I think you're crazy to turn it all away," Clara said.

I wrapped my arms around myself, knowing the outcome either way. I was going to find out who I was, whether I liked it or not. But I had only ever wanted a safe, normal life... That had always been my one wish, but the more I thought about it, normal was boring and not worth it, like they said. My one wish might have been changing...

"All right," I finally said.

"Yeah?" Clara asked with a smile. I nodded.

The Doctor sighed. "Now that we've got that all cleared up, tell me, what else do you remember?"