Hello,

I'm so sorry that I haven't posted in a little while. Grief really hit me after losing my granddad and since Willow is still trying to cope with the death of her mother, it really hit home for me. It's taken me ages to be able to get back into writing this story but I'm going to try and update again once a month. I've already started the next chapter as well. I hope you all enjoy and please let me know what you think.

Chapter 6

As though she were flicking through various channels on the television, Willow was thrown into the vortex. Flashes of images visualized in her minds eye but disappeared before she could process it. Unexplainable flashes appeared before her eyes and disappeared before she could process them.

She saw many faces along with a couple that she recognized. The faces flashed so fast that it was impossible to count how many she saw. As soon as her mind attempted to process, she was pulled elsewhere and the previous flash was left forgotten. Echoes of voices filled her mind.

"There's always something to look at if you open your eyes!"

"Will!"

"A little gratitude wouldn't irretrievably damage my ego..."

"Our destiny is the stars, so let's go and search for it."

"Willow!"

"Every great decision creates ripples..."

"Willow! Don't move, I'll..."

"In the end, every living thing has the same instinct..."

"Willow! I'm here. Don't...-"

"Would you like a jelly baby?"

"We're all stories in the end."

"Willow!"

The motion stopped and Willow opened her eyes.

No longer was she in Koschei's office back in London.

Cold pale blue eyes bore down at her two feet away from where she stood. The familiar strong cheekbones, the buzz cut hair along with the leather jacket. It was the other Doctor. His other face. The Doctor that didn't particularly know her.

"Doctor!" Willow called out towards him. Next to him stood Rose, her large brown eyes had widened to resemble a deer in headlights. Behind them, the planet behind them slowly dying. It didn't take a fool to realize by Rose's tears with her hands clutched onto her phone that it had been Earth. The shuttle they were in had darkened, the light from the dying planet shone inside to illuminate their figures. The Doctor made no move towards her and Willow choked back a sob.

"Help me, please!" Rose took a step forward and the Doctor grabbed her arm and pulled her back. His eyes never left Willow's and she was forced to choke back a sob. Rose tried to pull her hand away but the Doctor didn't budge.

The familiar tug returned and Willow heard herself scream and the sickening feeling of being pulled into another timeline appeared. It would be a long time before she could forget the cold look he gave her. Had he forgotten their conversation back on the Tardis a while back?

The next second, Willow was thrown into intense heat. It was the type of temperature that you'd expect to find if you travelled to Dubai. She found herself surrounded by sand, as far as the eye could see. In front of her, a shell of a burnt out bus stood. There were multiple voices, but none that she recognized. The was a pause, until she felt a small tingle of hope.

"-outside? Who's out there?!" The familiar voice of The Doctor had drifted into her line of hearing. She waited with baited breath.

A face that she had grown accustomed to popped his head out the wrecked bus and Willow felt an immense sense of relief. She let out the breathe that she had been holding. It was her Doctor. Not the Doctor that seemed to hate her but the Doctor that was her friend. His eyes lit up at the sight of her.

"Wills!" He jumped out of the bus with little to no difficulty, with his eyes never leaving hers.

As Willow tried to speak again, the lump had returned in her throat and her eyes flooded with tears. When she was this Doctor, she felt safe. In such a short amount of time, she trusted him. Them risking their life to stop aliens in a school worked wonders on building trust between them.

"What's wrong?! What's happened?!" The Doctor's smile had faded and before waiting for a response, he ran towards her.

Willow's legs wobbled as she tried to take a step forward. All energy had drained from her and she knew without even trying that she had no energy left in her to walk or reply to him.

It was only until his hand had been inches away from her did she feel the tug again. If this was her fate for the rest of her life, she'd rather someone put her out of her misery right now. She tried to stretch and grab onto the Doctor before she was pulled away but it was no use. The Doctor and the scenery had disappeared and Willow felt herself close her eyes again on instinct. This time it felt slightly different to the previous. Whilst being pulled into the void, Willow felt like she was being though a small hole as though she were toothpaste. The wind had been knocked out of her and a huge amount of pressure on pressed on her head, giving her a migraine.

xXx

"Hey, hey, hey!" Willow's eyes opened only to close them abruptly at the harsh light which had appeared. Her legs buckled at the same time arms had wrapped themselves around her and the voice in which she heard seconds ago had returned. "You'll need to calm that down before you burn your life out like a candle. There's only so much that your body can withstand. You look exhausted." He pulled out his sonic and used it on her device. The device gave a loud beep and the Doctor visibly relaxed with her in his arms. It was then Willow finally felt like she could breathe again. She gasped in some air as though she had been drowning. Her eyes had adjusted to the light and she was able to open her eyes. Relief flooded her veins once she had taken note of the familiar sights around her. She was back in the Tardis. The Doctor was with her. She was safe.

"I keep telling you to be careful about that." The Doctor repremanded softly, his tone contradicting his words. Willow felt more tears fall down her face as she lowered her arm. The Doctor used his available hand to wipe the tears away and he gave her a forced smile with the intent to calm her down.

"It's not fixed, however I've managed to stabilize it more." Willow placed her hand on top of his that rested on her cheekbone. Taking in his warmth as she felt a few more tears trickle down her face. "Where did you come from?" He asked in the softest, most fragile voice that she hadn't heard from him before.

"You said I could get back home and I tried to go but I was stopped on the way. Koschei, he-" The Doctor pulled her into yet again, another hug. His hug was tight and his attempt to comfort her was not lost.

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop that from happening." He apologized. Willow found herself instinctively hug him back, instinctively hugging him just as tightly. It was only until she get the Doctor's arm slacken, did she do the same.

"What does it mean?" She found herself asking him. The Doctor gave her a saddened look as he tucked some stray hairs behind her ear.

"It mean's you're going to be doing a lot of traveling back and forth during my past and future."

"How do you know that?"

"Because you've already been in this Tardis more times than I can count." Willow flinched slightly when he wiped away a couple of her tears. His behavior was strange. Every time she met him, there was always something different about him. First he was a child, then he was an aggressive northern man and now he was a tall, lanky bloke that before seemed to be overly keen on what she had to say and now overly affectionate. On top of Koschei's newfound appearance and hatred towards her, it was just too much.

Willow pulled away from the Doctor and felt herself stagger on the spot. Her muscles screaming at her to relax and her subconscious begging her to close her eyes.

"You're pale as a ghost, Wills. You're going to have to go for a rest." He announced. His voice was laced with concern.

"Where would I sleep?" Her voice was cracked and weak. A headache was forming from being so sleep deprived.

"Not in the chair if that's what you're thinking. C'mon, I'll take you to your room." He tugged her softly and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to guide her further into the Tardis. "Even the Tardis is concerned for you. Before you got here she was traveling a little rocky but now she's smooth sailing." He commented as they walked through the first set of doors and into a corridor. Willow was too exhausted to care about looking on in awe at the interior.

"Where's Rose and Martha?" She asked as the Doctor dragged her along to her supposed room. She felt him stiffen instantly at the question.

"Home." She hadn't been able to see his face but she could imagine it had been hard. It seemed to be a rather sensitive topic, and she decided that should be left for another day. The first priority would be for her to sleep.

"Here you are. This is your room." On the door was a golden plate with the name WILLOW SMITH engraved. The Doctor smiled at her confusion, her previous question drifting away from his mind.

"The others got a silver plate. I think she likes you." Willow tentatively touched the nameplate in wonder.

"She?" The sides of the Doctor's lips tugged a little more as he placed his hand on the door handle and opened her room. She let out a short gasp. The room was just how she had her room back when she taught in China.

The walls were painted a rich cream which allowed more light to enter the room. Large windows were across the room on the left. Back in China, she would have a view of Yangtze River. She wondered what kind of view she would have from the Tardis, if she even had a view. The flooring was acacia wood and immaculate. Willow often cleaned her flooring, finding the polished flooring beautiful when cleaned correctly.

Her built in wardrobe was next to the door; though how she was supposed to use it, she didn't know. The Tardis hallway hadn't blocked off any space for her wardrobe inside her room. Either the wardrobe was fake or magic was involved. She wasn't sure which it was yet.

Her bed. Oh her beautiful bed, Willow had slept on the floor with her mattress when she first arrived in China. There was a low risen bed that caught her eye but she couldn't afford it until her first two months of salary. Like her floor, it was acacia wood. It had been five inches off of the ground and Willow had thought it would've perhaps been a tad too low on the floor. The worry had been misplaced however after her first night. Along with the memory foam mattress, her bed could only be described as sleeping on a cloud.

Various other pieces of furniture was scattered. She spotted her Vanity table in the corner of the room. Her bedside tables had returned along with her chest of draws. Even down to the personal touches of an old tshirt of hers on the back of the chair was there.

Willow heard a chuckle by her side, inches away from her ear. The Doctor laughed at her reaction.

"It's the way you last left it. Well, the last 'you' from my timeline. ' You' told me that this was your room when you lived abroad. My Tardis was able to find it in your memories and altered your room to what you unconsciously wanted your room to look like." Willow then noticed a pile of clothes ironed and pressed on her bed. She tentatively took a few steps into the room and lifted up the sapphire blue article of clothing on the top and lifted it up to get a clear view of what it was.

The clothing in question was dress she had never seen in her life. She didn't dare say she disliked it though. The dress was perfectly her size and stopped at her knees. It flared out at the bottom. Her attentions drifted back to the clothes piled onto the bed and rummaged through.

"Doctor, these aren't my clothes.." She heard him chuckle again and noticed he learnt on the doorframe.

"The Tardis made them for you. This ol' gal is good at figuring out what people like." He stroked the doorframe in a tender way, as though pouring his love and affection into that action. Willow eyed him warily, he must have seen this in the corner of his eye as he abruptly stopped and gave a small cough in his fist. "First, get some rest. I'll answer any questions you have when you wake up. When was the last time you rested, anyway?" Willow's gaze drifted away as she looked (yet again) around her room. This time to avoid his gaze. She suddenly felt weak and tired again.

"I haven't since this all happened to me." The Doctor left his spot at the doorframe and walked over to her.

"Well, no wonder you look a state." There was a slight condescending tone in his voice. "Pajamas are in your top draw over there." He dragged her across the room by the side of the bed and towards the chest of drawers. He beckoned her to open the top draw to grab a pajama set and once she did, he took a few steps back. "I'll leave you to change and go to bed. If you need anything, I'll be down the hall." The Doctor turned on the spot ready to leave.

"How did you know where my pajamas are?" The words left Willow's mouth and the Doctor instantly had paused on the spot.

"Ah- yes, well..." He turned to face her again and stammered, he was uncomfortable. "Aren't they always in the top of people's drawers?"

"I guess so..." Willow contemplated. Something had been nudging the back of her mind since she had arrived in the Tardis. "Doctor?" She called to him.

"Yes?" The Doctor's eyes connected with hers and she felt a pang of pain from them. She took a step forward back towards him.

"What's wrong? You're looking at me in a weird way." The Doctor took a step back.

"It's nothing." He answered instantly. He averted his eyes from her quickly which caught Willow's attention instantly.

"Did something happen?" She pushed.

"I've just had a difficult year." The Doctor answered dismissively. Mental walls built up around him and the tone of his voice gave Willow a clear understanding that, this was the furthest their conversation would be tonight.

"Well..." She paused. She tried to think of a better way to put her feelings into words but all that could come out was, "thank you."

"What for?" The Doctor raised a brow. His eyes were back on her and he looked confused.

"For being here when I need you." Without warning, he took a step forward and wrapped her into his arms. The hug had been so tight that Willow's air supply had been cut. She had a suspicion that it had been him that needed the physical contact more than her. She hugged him back for a brief moment before he pulled away from her and recomposed himself. He gave a small awkward cough.

"Goodnight Wills."

xXx

Willow had no idea how long she slept. She had no view from her windows, nor a sign to indicate how long she slept. As though the Tardis knew her every moment, it had dulled the lights out the windows as soon as her head hit the pillow. Once she woke, she windows gradually lit up again.

She looked down at her wrist. The device still strapped on. Would she ever be able to go home? What had Koschei done to her?

Something warm and wet trailed down her face as she bit back a sob. How could she just leave her family the way she did? It was a completely different situation from leaving to go to China. She was unexpectedly thrown into Theta and Koschei's life and she shouldn't have gotten involved. She should've never found the boys. Her father had been known for his terrible gift giving over the years. This had been no different.

For what felt like hours, Willow allowed herself to calm. From what she could gather, the Doctor already knew her relatively well. She had already used this room before. She could tell by the book that was on her bedside table. It was half read and she had never heard of the title in her life.

Deciding it was probably best not to stay cooped into her room for too long. Willow opened the side door in her room to the bathroom and freshened up. Once decent, she left her room and explored the corridors that she had been too tired to take an interest in yesterday. How she thought she'd be able to find her way back to her room, she didn't know. The corridors were an endless maze.

After walking for what felt like the length of a football pitch, Willow found herself in the kitchen. She hadn't realized just how hungry she was until her stomach made a loud noise and she felt the familiar pang of hunger in her gut. She almost salivated at the sight of eggs in the refrigerator and she made quick work of cooking them scrambled. She barely chewed as she ate her food, she was so hungry.

After finishing her food and cleaning the dishes, she made her way through the Tardis. Willow could barely remember walking through the night before with The Doctor but she allowed her legs to carry her aimlessly through.

As though it were in her subconscious, she was able to find her way back to the console room. The Doctor was stood in the center with his back to her, shoulders slumped. She took a few silent steps forward.

The Doctor's jerked and stood straight as though alerted to her presence. He turned his head slightly to her an almost convincing fake smile.

"Wills, did you have a good sleep? You slept nearly a full day!" Unable to find her voice, Willow gave the Doctor a meek nod and looked around the room. Her eyes aimlessly wandering around to find something that caught her eye. She didn't want to be here. After what had happened with Koschei, all she wanted was to wrap into her grandmother's arms and cry. She had disappeared for three weeks and she dread to think how her grandmother reacted. Three days were the general consensus of being found before being presumed being dead. She knew her father had alcohol and his gambling addiction to keep him busy but her grandmother had already lost too many people in her life for her missing to take its toll. She felt her eyes sting and she blinked away the onslaught of tears that tried to battle their way out. It was then, that Willow noticed a slip of paper in the corner of her eye.

On the dashboard was a picture. It was a picture of both her and the Doctor together. It was the same Doctor she was with now. His arm was around her, and she leant on his shoulder. She had never seen herself smile that wide since her mother passed away, nor the Doctor. Was that her future? A future of them both together and she could no longer find her way home? It felt that way at least.

"That picture..." Willow found her voice croak. Her voice screamed at her for barely being used since she woke. Her trembling fingers picked up the picture and the Doctor's eyes widened wide as saucers as his hand hand shot out. He roughly took it from her hands before quickly shoving it into his pocket, but the damage had been done.

"You shouldn't look at it." The Doctor Warner but Willow frowned. She didn't like being told what to do if she could help it. It made her want to look at the picture even more.

"It was a picture of us together." She announced. The Doctor nodded.

"Yes." He answered. As though to try and end the conversation as quickly as it started, he turned his back to her and started to fiddle with the dashboard as he pressed some buttons. Willow was sure he had started doing it just to look like he was busy and she moved to try and get into his line of sight.

"Why can't I look at it?" Willow asked, frustration evident in her tone.

"Because it hasn't happened for you yet." The Doctor answered matter-of-factly as though speaking to a child.

"No kidding, but why does that matter? If you have it, it means that it's going to happen anyway." She countered. Willow didn't care how annoying it made her sound. She was fed up. She wanted to go home and she hated that she felt as though everything was being kept from her. The Doctor glanced in her direction and sighed defeatedly.

"I hadn't expected meeting you this young now of all times." There was a slight bitterness in his tone."What great timing." He muttered under his breath.

"Excuse me?" All patience had left her and her previous distress had left her to be replaced with misdirected anger. The Doctor seemed to sense this as he turned in his chair and stood a foot taller than her.

"You're now considered a time traveler, Willow. Whilst you may only be traveling during my timeline, you are still entering different centuries and millenniums. You must follow the Laws of Time." The anger left Willow as quick as it came and the fists she didn't realize that were clenched slackened. She was getting an answer from him which is what she had needed.

"There are laws?" The Doctor nodded.

"Yes, and Time Lords have to follow these laws to preserve the history of greater importance."

"But I'm not a Time Lord, I'm human." She countered, but the Doctor shook his head.

"Time lords created these laws for everyone to follow regardless of species."

"I don't understand." The Doctor smiled at her softly and offered the chair next to him for her to sit down. His previous bitterness was left forgotten. Willow complied and he sat in the chair next to her.

"I know you don't but these will be some laws that you'll have to abide by to keep the balance of time and to avoid paradoxes." He waited to see her nod before continuing. "The first law, is to keep linearity. It's the most important Law there is and it means you cannot interact with your past or future. You cannot change those events. This also means you cannot meet yourself during events either. I don't know if you ever have done or will do so, but it's important that you are aware of this. If you are stuck in the same time, you need to avoid your other self.

"The second important law you must follow, is that you cannot allow any object be in the presence of others if it is nonexistent in that current timeline. An example would be that you cannot use your smartphone in the Elizabethan era." Willow scoffed and the Doctor's eyebrow raised.

"Why would I try and use a smartphone in the Elizabethan era? I wouldn't have a signal." The corner of his mouth tugged. He was amused at her reaction.

"What if you wanted to check the time?" He asked her.

"I would use my watch." Willow countered matter-of-fact.

"Hah!" The Doctor yelled in triumph and Willow smile faltered. "Wristwatches were not invented until 1868 by Patek Philippe. Clever man but he had a severe case of OCD. Don't ever spill ink on his desk, he'll try and throttle you for that.

But this is why these laws exist. We don't want to cause a temporal paradox. Imagine losing that wristwatch and some random Elizabethan person has it? It would cause chaos! The people would've accused you of witchcraft-" Willow went to speak but the Doctor cut her up, knowing what she planned to ask.

"No. There's no such thing as magic or witches but there are some aliens that can use word based science and yes, some people would consider that witchcraft. Helen Scovell is a descendant of one of them, and that's why she was the creator of 'Sabrina the teenage witch'.

"She made the show but Sabrina was already a comic book. She just based the events around her daughter and based the episodes and spells on her own experience. How else do you think that show stayed popular?" Willow pondered. She had always loved the witty way Sabrina and made the spells and it was the highlight of her afternoon watching it on Nickelodeon with her Mother. She hadn't needed to tell him that, she had a feeling that he already knew this by the way his eyes diverted from hers.

There was a moment of silence between them. The Doctor had given her some space to adjust and collect herself after mentioning her mother. He had respect for her, she had noticed this very early on and she was grateful for it. The Doctor had aimlessly looked around his Tardis to see if there was anything else that needed to be tinkered with.

"Doctor?" Willow's voice broke the silence and he spun his head towards her so fast that she wouldn't have been surprised if he had whiplash.

"Will I ever be able to go home?" The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. If he knew her as well as she presumed he did, he'd know she'd not back down.

"You go visit, yes. You never stay though." The Doctor answered truthfully.

"Because of this?" Willow showed off her wrist that the Vortex Manipulator was strapped onto and he nodded. In response, Willow shook her head vigorously. "My family need me, Doctor. I can't stay here."

"I can't fix what happened to you." The Doctor's voice had hardened in the finality of his voice. "I'm sorry."

"What am I going to do?" She resigned herself to ask. If she couldn't go home, she damn well wanted to know her fate.

"You're going to go on so many new adventures. You'll make new friends and be able to see the beauty of this universe." Willow felt a few stray tears fall from her face and the Doctor wiped them away. She shook a sharp intake of air and sniffled.

"Will I see it all with you?"

"Always." The Doctor smiled. "You helped me all those years ago. I can finally do the same for you."

There was a moment of silence between them. It was the first time she felt more at peace with there being silence since being thrown around in time like a baseball. Willow could tell that The Doctor in front of her had been colder than the one she had met at the school. Whilst his appearance didn't give much away, the slight creases in his eyes did. It felt to Willow that the older he got, the more accustomed he was towards being friendly towards her.

The Doctor had returned to his control console and whizzed around in a circular motion. His demeanor had changed and he looked excited. He shifted gears and pressed buttons in a frenzied motion. A devilish grin had appeared on his face, as though the conversation moments ago never happened. The Tardis shifted a little under their feet and Willow quickly grabbed the bannister to steady herself.

"So where are we going?" The Doctor glanced over at her, the grin widening as he pulled down a lever. Excitement radiated off of him as though he were a child about to be given a bagful of sweets. Jelly babies popped into Willow's mind when she thought of him. Had that been the Doctor that spoke to her back then? Thoughts trickled in the back of her mind. If she was going to have to stick around before she could go home, she may as well try to enjoy herself. If not, she was in for a lot of mental torture. She was going to make sure she was going to go back home. It didn't matter how long it'd take.

Willow noticed that the Doctor looked at her expectantly and Willow flustered slightly in response. The Doctor chuckled, finding her behaviour none the wiser as he pressed a few more buttons before speaking.

"Well after having your lesson about time travel, why not put everything to the test." The Tardis shifted again and almost done a ninety degree angle. Lights flickered in the room the more he pressed buttons. "Fancy a trip to see Charlie Chaplin? Or how about John Lennon? Actually, maybe not. I owe him a car..."

Willow gave him an odd look, which make the Doctor laugh slightly in his own defense.

"A Sontaran was stuck in Abbey Wood studios. Well, John told me that if his favourite rehearsal studio got wrecked, I would owe him a car. Low and behold, I had to leave rather quickly after that." Willow felt her jaw slightly drop at the blasé tone in his voice. She hadn't heard about anything happening in Abbey Wood studios and if anything had been a threat to John Lennon, her grandmother would've definitely told her considering her obsession over the man. The Look on the Doctor's face gave Willow a feeling that he knew exactly what she was thinking, the twinkle in his eyes sparkled in mirth.

"Maybe not, let's leave that for another day." The Doctor's eyes light up and he pressed more buttons on the console before he continued. "Actually, let's take you somewhere completely different. It's not everyday I have you here so.. young." There was a pause in his voice as he spoke out loud his thoughts. His face scrunched slightly and his eyes looked distant as he thought of the millions of planets in his mind as he processed each and everyone to find the perfect starter planet for her.

"I've got it!" The Doctor yelled after a couple of minutes in silence. As though he were in overdrive, the Doctor ran around the console and started pressing buttons. Before Willow could open her mouth the Doctor continued, his face beaming. "We're going to Venvilia.