Chapter 1: You Can Call Me Alex

The Doctor was wandering through an alien market place, wearing his usual bow-tie and braces. Also, in addition to this was a fez, which lots of the surrounding beings seemed to feel the need to stare at a lot. The marketplace was quite dirty, and as it was dark there were dim green and purple lights illuminating the streets. The Doctor coughed slightly as he inhaled some of the smoke that seemed to encompass the area.

Just then, he spotted a girl, well, she was more of a young woman, running up ahead. She seemed to be terrified of whatever was following her. Non of the crowd seemed to bat an eyelid, as if this kind of thing happened all of the time. She was wearing a patchy and dirty dress that ended in the middle of her thigh, and her face was smudged with dirt. Her hair was a wild mess as she ran, and the Doctor noticed that she was in bare feet.

She didn't look where she was going and smashed into him at high speed, knocking him over. She landed on top of him, her eyes wide.

" Please help me!" She begged him. The Doctor got up and retrieved his fez, which had fallen on the ground.

" Please, they'll take me back!" She shouted hysterically, tears falling from her eyes. It was hard to see clearly what colour they were in the lights. The Doctor took her by her bare the arms.

" Where, where will they take you?" He asked her.

" There isn't enough time!" She screamed, beginning to hyperventilate in her hysteria." Please help me!

The Doctor grabbed her hand and pulled her up the street, heading for the TARDIS. He could hear shouting from behind them, and glanced back to see who it was. He spotted several men trying to catch up to them. He sped up, eventually getting to where the TARDIS was.

" Shhh, try and be quiet," The Doctor told her. She nodded, swallowing, her eyes still leaking. The men ran past the alley that the TARDIS was parked in.

" There, their gone," The Doctor told her. Without warning she threw her arms around him tightly.

" Thankyou, thankyou!" She said gratefully. She stepped back and-

Pulled a gun on him.

" Now give me a ride," She said, all traces of fear and hysteria gone. The Doctor put his hands up, taken by surprise.

" Well, I didn't see that one coming," The Doctor admitted.

" I know," She smiled." You just can't resist a damsel in distress, can you Doctor?"

" How do you know-"

" Who you are?" She laughed." I'm just-very clever, let's say. Now, open it."

" Why did you feel the need to trick me, exactly?" The Doctor questioned.

" I'm running from some people, and I need a ride, what better than a police box that can travel through time?" She said, shrugging." Now, I want you to open it."

" What if I refuse to travel when we're inside?" The Doctor asked her." You can't exactly shoot me, can you?"

" Why not?" She asked him.

" Because you need somebody to drive."

" Oh, honey," She laughed." What makes you think that I can't drive it myself?"

The Doctor was taken aback for a second, before he composed himself again.

" Who are you?" He asked. She narrowed her eyes at him, before answering.

" You can call me Alex," She told him." Now, the key."

She held out her palm. The Doctor was about to place it in her palm, thinking quickly about how he was going to get out of this one, when there was shouting again. Alex turned her head, keeping her gun trained on the Doctor.

" I think your friends are back," He said. Sure enough, the men that had been chasing them before ran into the alleyway, two of them grabbing Alex and jabbing a needle into her arm. She struggled and spat at them before flopping, unconcious. One of them grabbed the Doctor as well.

" What's your part in this then, eh?" A grizzly, middle aged man demanded of him." An accomplice? Not likely, somehow. A sort of honorary relative, perhaps?"

" Well I-ow!" The Doctor shouted as one of the men jabbed his finger. A drop of blood dripped onto a piece of technology that had been positioned under his finger.

" No, even better," The man holding the technology said." Look at these readings. See the similarities!"

" Well, I never," the middle-aged man said." No wonder she had a gun to your head."

" And why exactly would that be?" The Doctor asked him.

" She doesen't like your kind," He laughed." Not that I blame her. Well, come to take her away, have you?"

" What do you mean, take her away?" The Doctor asked.

" You don't know her?" the man frowned.

" No, I've never seen her before in my life," The Doctor said. He noticed that Alex was very still, to still in fact.

" What was in that needle?" The Doctor asked, feeling his arms being released.

" Just a sedative," was the reply.

" How much, exactly?" The Doctor asked, feeling Alex's pulse. It was quite slow, and her breathing was minimal.

" Roughly 2.1 mg," the man who had injected her told him. The Doctor looked up in shock.

" That's more than five times the amount of recommended dosage!" The Doctor said." It could kill her!"

" It's the only thing that takes her out for more than an hour," the man told him." Trust me, we've tried the normal amount but it barely makes her sweat."

But the Doctor was suddenly aware of something strange going on with Alex's pulse.

" No," He said to himself." That can't be right."

" What can't be right?" The middle-aged man asked him.

" Her pulse, it's-"

" Check her heart," The Doctor heard him say." Then you'll know her a bit better."

The Doctor moved to touch where her heart was, brushing against the right side of her chest as he did.

" No, no, she can't-" The Doctor said, checking the right side of her chest to see if he had been imagining things. But, to his astonishment, he felt a heart beating on the right side of her chest. He moved his hand to the left side, then the right again, before looking up.

" She's-" He began, but the middle-aged man nodded.

" Yeah, we know."