Beyond The Void || doctor who

Chapter Seventeen: Something Small, Something Blue

"What the hell do you mean, 'someone's coming'?" Jess looked up at the Doctor through a window of raindrops. 

"The letter I was sent," he said, almost reluctantly, "it said someone's coming, and they'll do anything to steal my TARDIS. I don't know if it's UNIT or Torchwood or something more dangerous, but either way, I'm playing it safe."

Jess's forehead creased in confusion. "But we shouldn't have a UNIT," she said, her voice almost entirely washed out by the precipitation. "There aren't any aliens here."

"You can't know that for sure."

"What's UNIT?" Elaine pondered. She stood a few feet from Jess and the Doctor, her golden curls now a wet mess clinging to her skin. She stood with her arms crossed, annoyed that she didn't understand anything that was going on.

"It stands for 'Unified Intelligence Taskforce'," Jess said. "It's basically like an alien-driven CIA."

Elaine chuckled. "Doesn't that make them the same thing?"

Jess rolled her eyes comically. "You watch too much X-Files."

"Hey," she said, her hands raised in mock-defense. "You've got your sci-fi, I've got mine."

"You just like it because of Mulder," Jess accused, a giggle escaping her lips.

"Um, obviously you don't know me at all," she said matter-of-factly. "I watch it for Scully."

The two girls let out a soft cacophony of laughs before they noticed the Doctor wasn't standing where he'd been only moments before.

Both girls looked at each other with confused expressions on their faces before looking down. The Doctor was leaning against the invisible walls of the TARDIS, his damp hair shielding his eyes. Jess knelt down in front of him, the rush of blood pulsing in her ears.

"Doctor?" she said softly. The rain was now just a slight drizzle, and it echoed off the nonexistent walls of the police box.

He didn't respond. He didn't even look up.

Jess looked to Elaine for help, but she had as much of a clue to what was happening to her friend as she did. 

"Doctor," she said, her voice only loud enough for him to hear. 

Still, he didn't move.

"Try saying whatever you said earlier to him" Elaine suggested, tapping her on the shoulder. She had her thumbnail in between her teeth anxioiusly, sky blue eyes wide in uncertainty. "Can't hurt to try," she added.

Jess felt something against her knee. She looked down to see the Doctor's wrist grazing her maroon-striped trousers. She flipped over his limp wrist, and revealed the mundane watch that read 11:32. It wasn't moving.

"Laine," Jess whispered, still staring intently at the clockface. "What time is it?"

"Eleven thirty-four." She knelt down next to Jess, trying to read her face for answers. "Why?"

"His watch stopped two minutes ago," she said, more to herself than to Elaine.

"What does that mean?"

"I wonder if it happened earlier too." She pursed her lips, racking her brain in an attempt to remember what she said or did that brought him back to reality.

She sighed, remembering vaguely what she did. It can't hurt to try. 

Jess placed her hand on the Doctor's cheek and tilted his head so he was looking at her eyes. Before she said anything, he was already coming to terms with what was around him. And just like it had that morning, whatever kind of trance the Doctor was in disappeared.

"Blimey, how'd I end up down here?" he whined. He stood up and attempted to brush off the water droplets that still clung to his suit. "I'm soaked."

"You had another one of those things where you totally spaced out, Doc," Elaine said, getting up herself. Jess followed, but she wasn't too interested in the conversation. Her head raced with thoughts about what had just happened: How come I was able to fix him, if that was even the right word to describe it? Why is he like this all of a sudden? What's so special about me that I can cure whatever he's caught?

"Look," Elaine said, pulling Jess from her thoughts. "If you're all set with your space stuff, why don't we go back to the house?" She pulled her sweater tighter around her body. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to drip."

"Sure, yeah. I hope Mom isn't too freaked out," Jess said as she absentmindedly made her way back to her house. 

"There isn't much left to freak out over after having you for a daughter," Elaine said lightly, bringing Jess into a one-armed side hug. Jess giggled as the three of them made their way to the small periwinkle house.

And sure enough, Melissa was only slightly fazed as Elaine recalled what had happened. "... and supposedly we should probably get ready for something that may or may not be potentially dangerous ..." 

Jess could feel the weight of the unread letter in her pocket grow heavier and heavier until she couldn't take the waiting anymore, she had to see what it said now; that was, of course, if she could actually read it. It's not like the Gallifreyan looked like English to her, but somehow she could make out what the circles and lines meant while she was in the TARDIS.

Making her way to the kitchen counter, she set the letter in front of her.

Jess picked up the envelope, tracing her fingers along the sleek penmanship of who she could only conclude to have come from Elaine herself, maybe from sometime in the future, or perhaps it was just clever purgary. Either way, it was important, she could sense that without even opening it.

Her finger found its way under the flap of the envelope, pushing it upwards. She pulled out the faded white parchment from inside and unfolded the secret: five separate circles with dots and lines and crescent-like spots that Jess could understand perfectly, all alligned within one larger circle.

Five simple words that sent an eerie chill down her spine. 

It's all up to you.

And then there was a knock on the door.

wowowow i just saw the purge earlier nd it was sO GDOOD fuzkK ME UP