A/N: This is the fully revised and edited version of this chapter.

To my new readers, each chapter is titled by the name of an episode. And yes, there will be lots of Classic Who and possibly some audios. Don't forget to review. :)

My eyes snapped open and I took a slow, easy breath. There were hooded figures, tree-humanoid hybrids, and a small, blue creature on a floating chair all conversing with various other aliens. The scene was familiar; I recognized it immediately without any difficulty.

"Space Station One," I breathed in surprise as I titled my head back to stare at the ceiling. "Never dreamed about this place before."

I looked down, noticing the enormous window that offered me a view of the Earth below the ship. I walked towards the window, scooting awkwardly past a few large aliens that stepped into my path. When I reached the window, I reached my hands forward and lightly pressed my fingertips against the surface. The Earth was large and still, no lights illuminating the darkened side of the planet. A shiver ran up my spine when I realized what would happen to my home in mere hours.

Suddenly, there was a loud whispering behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that some of the aliens in the crowd I had just passed through were parting to make way for the Face of Boe. I pulled away from the window to fully face him.

Jack's voice echoed in my mind when he spoke. "Hello again."

"Jack," I replied mentally.

"Do you remember me?" he asked, halting just a few feet in front of me.

"Yes."

The corners of his mouth twitched upwards for a moment. "It is good to see a familiar face after so many years. I've missed you and the Doctor."

I nodded sympathetically. "I'm sorry you have to live like this. I know it's been hard," I told him as I thought back on all the hardships Jack had faced after the Bad Wolf made immortal.

"I don't blame-"

"Diana!"

Startled, I turned away from the Face of Boe and towards the direction the voice that had called my name was in. My eyes grew wide when I saw the man to whom the Northern accented voice belonged to running towards me. Within seconds, I was enveloped in two strong, leather-clad arms.

Then the Doctor suddenly pulled back, his hands firmly gripping my upper arms. Our eyes met and then his mouth came down on mine in a bruising kiss that stole my breath away. My breath caught in my throat and I froze. In all my dreams, the Doctor had never kissed me before. I didn't know what to do.

"Diana," the Doctor gasped when he finally pulled back. "Rassilon, Diana, I thought you were- I saw you-… Never mind tha', you're here!"

His hands came up to cup my face, the pads of his thumbs rubbing lightly against my cheeks. I could feel my face burning at the sudden attention from the Time Lord. He kissed me again, the second time less eager and frantic and instead more gentle and loving. When he pulled away again, I quickly looked down at his chest and started to chew nervously on my bottom lip.

"Diana, it's been almost five years. I thought… I thought something had happened. I thought maybe the Master had-"

"Doctor," a young, blonde woman interrupted form behind the Time Lord. It was Rose. "People're starin'."

The Doctor grabbed my hand and dragged me off behind him. I looked over my shoulder and said a mental apology and farewell to the Face of Boe. He smiled slightly at me and returned the goodbye before I looked away.

"Diana, at least say something," the Doctor urged as he walked me to a more private corner of the room. "What happened?"

I shook my head in confusion. "N-Nothing happened," I replied softly.

His hand cupped my cheek again and tilted my head up so that our eyes met. "Where are you? Are you still early? It's hard to tell with you sometimes," he teased with a strained smile.

"What do you mean?"

His smile dropped and was replaced with a worried expression. "You're not yourself," he noted. "What's wrong?"

"I-… Nothing's wrong. I just don't understand what you're asking me."

"So you're… very early, then. Yeah?" He grinned. "No problem."

"Early for what?"

"In our timeline, Diana. Are you early in our timeline?"

"What timeline?"

The boyish grin on the Time Lord's face fell and his face suddenly aged ten years. His eyes darkened to a gray-blue color that looked like the sky before a storm. The lines of his mouth drooped and his shoulders fell.

When he spoke again, his voice was low and strained. "You don't know what I'm talking about. You don't even know who I am."

I gave him a curious look. "You're the Doctor… from Gallifrey. Of course I know who you are."

He shook his head. "No. You don't underst-." He paused when something behind me caught his eye. Alarmed, the Doctor looked over my head and started scanning the room. "Damn. She's run off."

"What?" I asked incredulously.

"Rose, Diana. She's wandered off! I told her not to- Oh, come on," he moaned, grabbing my hand and dragging me after him again.

This has to be the most confusing dream I've ever had, I thought to myself as we ran off.

The Doctor and I stood in front of a doorway. The doors were made of some kind of metal and reached about fifteen feet into the air. The Doctor glanced down at his sonic and nodded, then stuffed it into his jacket pocket. He knocked on the doors with his free hand, his left hand still wrapped around my wrist.

"Rose? Are you in there?"

When there was no response, the Doctor pressed a white button on the control panel and the doors slid open. He saw Rose sitting down and starting out the viewing panel and sighed. Releasing my hand, he walked down the steps and sat on one opposite Rose.

"What d'you think, then?"

Rose briefly looked up from her hands at him. "Great. Yeah, fine. Once you get past the slightly psychic paper." Rose paused for a moment, then continued. "They're just so alien. You look at 'em... and they're alien."

"Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South."

I laughed, startling Rose. She jumped slightly and turned to look at me. "Oh. Hi," she said awkwardly. "Diana, right? The Doctor mentioned you earlier."

The Doctor sat up a little straighter. "She's a friend of mine," he told Rose as I made my way down the steps to stand by him. "Good friend. Fantastic friend. But not quite for her, I think."

Rose nodded, looking a little confused but otherwise at ease. "So where are you two from?

"All over the place," the Doctor said as I answered, "Earth".

Rose's eyes lit up in joy. "Like me?" she asked excitedly. "You're like me?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm American and not blonde, but other than that yeah."

She smiled at me, obviously relieved not to be the only human around. She wordlessly patted the space beside her and I walked over to sit where she gestured. I smiled shyly at her and the young woman flashed me her famous tongue-in-teeth grin.

But then her smile faded slightly as she seemed to contemplate a new thought. "They all speak English," she noted.

The Doctor shook his head and leaned back in his spot, supporting his weight with his right forearm. "No, you just hear English," he explained casually. "It's a gift of the TARDIS. The telepathic field gets inside your brain and translates."

"It's inside my brain?"

"In a good way," the Doctor added hastily when he sensed the hostile tone in Rose's voice.

"Your machine gets inside my head. It gets inside my head and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?"

"I didn't think about it like that."

"No, you were busy thinking up cheap shots up the Deep South." Rose stared at the Doctor, confused and annoyed. "Who are you, then, Doctor? What are you called? What sort of alien are you?"

I noticed the Doctor's body freeze for a millisecond before he sat up and set his jaw, looking out the viewing panel. "I'm just the Doctor."

"From what planet?" the pink and yellow girl demanded.

"Well it's not as if you'll know where it is!" he snapped.

I rested a hand on Rose's arm and shook my head. "Rose, hang on-"

"Where are you from?" Rose asked again, determined to get an answer.

"What does it matter?"

"Tell me who you are!"

I wanted to try to keep the Doctor from getting too upset. "Doctor-"

"This is who I am!" the Doctor snapped, his hands shaking slightly. "Right here, right now, alright? All that counts is here and now, and this is me."

"Yeah, and I'm here too 'cause you brought me here," Rose retorted, "so just tell me."

The Doctor got to his feet and walked forward, stopping a few feet away from the viewing panel. I quickly followed him in the hopes of comforting him. It didn't matter to me that I was in a dream because I finally had the chance to do something I'd always wanted to do: I could comfort him.

His arms were crossed over his chest as he stared at the Earth below us. I gently touched his bicep and looked worriedly up at him. "Doctor?" I asked softly as I took another step closer to him. "Look, um, I'm sorry that I didn't understand you back there. I didn't mean to make you upset or sad, but if you'd just explain it-"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

He gazed down at me and a sad smile worked its way onto his face. "Spoilers, love."

"Oh." I chewed on my lower lip again and sighed, popping my left hip out as I tried to think of something else to say to the Time Lord.

The frustrated, sad lines across the Doctor's face suddenly softened and he exhaled softly. "Diana, I-... I thought you were-..." For some reason, he couldn't finish the sentence.

"What?" I asked. "Thought I was what, Doctor?"

He started to reply, but stopped himself and looked away. Rose took this opportunity to come stand next to me and give her own shy version of an apology to the Doctor. After she did so, she took her cell phone out of her jeans pocket and held it up like she was trying to get better reception.

"Can't exactly call for a taxi," she mumbled. "There's no signal. We're out of range."

"Just a bit," I said in sync with her, causing both of us to giggle.

The Doctor smiled and reached around me to take Rose's phone. "Tell you what, Rose," he started as he took his sonic out of his jacket pocket. "With a little bit of jiggery-pokery-"

"Is that a technical term, jiggery-pokery?" Rose teased.

"Yeah, I came first in jiggery-pokery," he replied, pointing his sonic screwdriver at Rose's phone. "What about you two?"

I shook my head. "Nah, we failed hullabaloo," I said, stealing Rose's humorous response.

The Time Lord smiled, his eyes crinkling at the edges, and I felt my heart flutter in my chest. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and grinned. Then he chuckled and handed Rose her phone.

"There you go."

Rose took the phone and quickly pressed a few buttons. She brought the phone up to her ear and gasped when she heard her mother's voice on the other end. I quickly turned back to the Doctor and looked up at him. He looked back at me, his eyes flitting rapidly across my face.

"You're so young," he whispered after a moment.

"What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. Don't listen to me. I'm a daft old man," he joked.

"No you're not," I responded honestly. "You're really not."

We stared at each other in awkward silence, Rose's conversation with her mother just background noise. I smiled hopefully at the Time Lord and the corners of his mouth quirked upwards in a silent reply.

"Why did you say I was young?" I finally asked.

"Because you are."

Suddenly Rose turned back to us, her brows drawn together in contemplation. "That was five billion years ago," she muttered in shock. Her eyes shot up to meet mine, then turned to the Doctor's. "She's dead now. Five billion years later and my mum's dead."

"Bundle of laughs you are," the Doctor replied dryly.

Without any warning, the whole space station rocked. I grabbed the Doctor's arm to keep from falling over and he pulled me close almost as if it was instinct. He looked around the room, then to Rose and I. "That's not supposed to happen," he said in confusion

The Doctor grabbed my hand, then took off running out of the room. Rose rushed after us with a playful "Hey!" Embarrassingly enough, I found it slightly difficult to keep up with the Doctor's quick pace and ridiculously long legs, and noticed Rose was having the same problem, if not to a lesser extent. So when we reached the observation gallery where the whole mess had begun for me, I was quite out of breath.

The Doctor released my hand and started looking around the room. "That wasn't a gravity pocket," he said seriously. "I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that." The tree-humanoid hybrid Jabe passed by us and the Doctor stepped forward to grab her attention. "What do you think, Jabe? Listened to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?"

Jabe shrugged. "It's the sound of metal. It doesn't make any sense to me," she told him.

"Where's the engine room?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite. I could show you and your wives."

Rose, the Doctor and I shared a quick look of embarrassment. Smiling slightly, the Doctor gestured to both of us. "Oh, they're not my wives," he replied with a shrug. "I mean, Rose isn't and Diana isn't- Er, no. They're not- no."

"Partners?" Jabe clarified.

"No."

"Concubines?"

"Hey!" I protested in offense.

"Nope."

"Prostitutes?"

"Double hey!" I interjected.

"Whatever we are," Rose added, "it must be invisible. Do you mind?" Jabe nodded her head in what I assumed was an apology. Rose raised an eyebrow and sighed. She pointed at the Doctor and said, "Tell you what, you two go and pollenate. I'm going to catch up with family. Quick word with Michael Jackson."

"Don't start a fight," the Doctor said seriously. "And Diana, stick with Rose. You'll be safe."

" 'Safe'?" I echoed worriedly.

He just smiled. "Be back in a tick. Don't go getting into trouble."

"And I want you back by midnight," Rose called after the two retreating figures of the Doctor and Jabe. When they didn't respond, Rose grabbed my arm. "So what is it with you an' 'im? Are you dating or something?"

I smiled and shook my head. "No. I just have a really, insanely large crush on him." Oops. "Um, that is-"

"You care about 'im a lot, don't you?"

"Well… I don't know about that," I mumbled shyly, feeling my cheeks flush.

The shop girl just laughed and tugged at my arm. "Come on, you. Let's say hullo to Cassandra."

When we neared Cassandra, she was busy talking about her life back when she was a little boy on Earth to anyone who would listen. I was both awed and disgusted by her appearance, which was exactly the same as in the show I was so fond of back home. Cassandra was a flap of skin attached to a metal frame with her brain in a jar and it was the strangest thing I had ever seen.

Rose was intrigued with the situation Cassandra was speaking about and asked, "What happened to everyone else? The human race. Where did it go?"

"They say mankind has touched every star in the sky," Cassandra told her.

"So... You're not the last human?"

"I am the last pure human. The others... mingled." Rose raised an eyebrow and glanced at me as if to say 'Is she for real?' "Oh, they call themselves New Humans and Proto-Humans and Digi-Humans, even Human-ish, but you know what I call them? Mongrels."

"Right. And you... stayed behind?"

"I kept myself pure."

Rose scoffed and looked up and down Cassandra's body, or what was left of it. "How many operations have you had?" she questioned hesitantly.

Cassandra replied with a haughty, "Seven hundred and eight. Next week, it's seven hundred and nine. I'm having my blood bleached." I looked at Rose and wrinkled my nose. I smiled and almost laughed; Cassandra sure was a piece of work. "Is that why you wanted a word? You both could be flatter. Especially the dark haired one. You have rather large cheeks and you could probably take off a good amount from your waist."

My smile immediately fell and I felt my heart thud painfully in my chest. I was being insulted by a bitchy piece of skin. Nonetheless, her words hurt me and I turned and ran with tears clouding my vision. Being a sensitive introvert was something that had always been a low point for me.

Aliens and beige hallways flew past me in a blur. I retraced my earlier steps to the observation room the Doctor and I had found Rose in earlier. But on the way, I ran into an alien wearing a black, hooded robe with a silver brooch attached to a thin black belt. I froze mid step when I recognized it and who it worked for, but was hit across the face before I could do anything about it.

I woke up to the sound of screaming. It was Rose screaming for the Doctor to save her and open the door. Looking around, I saw that we were in the viewing room I had been trying to reach earlier. Deadly sunlight was streaming through the broken glass on the opposite side of the room. A computerized voice kept repeating its notification of the sun filter descending, which meant an instant and horribly painful death for Rose and I. It was terrifying.

I sat up and saw Rose huddled on the floor by the door, shrieking whenever a ray of light would hit the wall close to her body. I rolled onto my stomach, narrowly avoiding a blast of sunlight, and screamed. Rose echoed my scream from her spot on the steps above me.

"Rose!" I shouted.

I looked over the top of the steps, my head spinning slightly, and saw Rose still huddled against the door.

"Rose!" I shouted again. "Rose, down here!"

She looked between her fingers and her mess of bleached blonde hair and froze. I waved for her to come towards me, then screamed and ducked when anther blast of sunlight shot right past my head. Rose fell forward onto her stomach with a shriek and started to inch her way to the edge of the stair. She reached out for my hand and I quickly jumped up to take it, dragging her down to my stair.

She brought her knees to her chest and covered her neck and face with her arms in an attempt to protect herself. I curled myself into as tight a ball as I could manage and squeezed my eyes shut. The glass was cracking more and more by the second and more sunlight continued to filter into the room. If the Doctor didn't hurry up and save the day like he normally did, then we'd be dead. And even though I was in a dream, I really didn't want to die.

"Please, Doctor," I begged. "Oh God, Doctor, please save us."

Within seconds, the glass began repairing itself and the computer continued to repeat its notification: sun filter rising. We were safe, we were alive, and it was all thanks to the Doctor. I sat up and laughed, hugging Rose within an inch of her life. The momentum of our hug was so strong that we ended up falling over with Rose partially on top of me.

"I can't believe it!" she cried, not caring that we were rolling around on the floor. "We're alive!"

I smiled and buried my face in her shoulder. "Thank you, Doctor," I whispered.

We pulled apart and tried to collect ourselves. When we stood up we could see the extent of the damage done by the lowering of the sun filter. Rose and I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at each other. We weren't dead and that was all that really mattered to either one of us.

"Let's go find him," Rose said with a smile.

Rose and I were halfway back to the observation deck when the Doctor rounded a corner just ahead of us at full running speed. He called my name in relief, slowing his pace as he approached. I smiled fondly at him and he shook his head with a similar smile.

When we were only a foot apart, I threw my arms around his neck and rested my head on his shoulder. "Thank you," I breathed. "Thank you. You saved us. I thought I was going to die. We both did."

The Doctor gently rubbed my back. "Ye of little faith," he replied softly. "I couldn't let anything happen to either of you."

I lifted my head and looked up at him. His eyes were sad and they struck my heart with a great deal of pain. "Jabe?" I asked.

He nodded.

I sighed and instinctively reached for his hand. "I'm sorry."

The Doctor smiled sadly, squeezing my hand. His forehead was wrinkled and his eyes were dark and swirling. He leaned forward and pressed a feather light kiss to my forehead.

"We have to go to the observation deck."

"Why?" Rose asked.

"Hafta take care of something," the Doctor muttered. He pulled back and extended his hands to both me and Rose. "Now, then. Let's go."

We didn't run this time. We walked together, each of our hands clasped tightly in one another's as we stepped onto the lift at the end of the hall. None of us said anything, so the only sound in the lift was our breathing. But it was oddly comforting to hear Rose and the Doctor breathing and to have the Doctor's hand gently squeezing mine.

Once we reached the observation deck, the Doctor was all business. While he was apologizing to Jabe's escorts for her death, I recalled the remaining events of the episode. I remembered the Doctor letting Cassandra die as he watched on with his Oncoming Storm glare. And then I remembered how, even if I admired and respected him, I was disappointed and saddened by his coldness every time I watched the episode.

Was it my place to stop the Doctor from letting Cassandra die a horrible death? She obviously wasn't a "good guy", but I had always felt that letting her explode was a bit harsh. But surely it was alright to let her die since she came back in a later episode and sorted through some of her issues?

Rose suddenly grabbed my arm, pointing at the solemn looking Doctor. She looked back at me with raised eyebrows and the hint of a smile. "You should go to him."

"Me? Why?"

She only smiled. "Go on."

"Rose, he's fine."

"Mm hm."

When the Doctor returned to us, I offered him a sympathetic expression. "You okay?" I asked softly.

"Yeah," he replied gruffly. "I'm fine. I'm full of ideas. I'm bristling with them." He turned around so that he was facing the other aliens on the observation deck. "Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two," he continued, approaching the ostrich egg Cassandra had brought with her and breaking it open, "this feed must be hidden nearby. Idea number three, if you're as clever as me then a teleportation device can be reversed."

The Doctor pressed a button on the device in his hands, forcing Cassandra to appear on the observation deck. I jumped in surprise, having not realized at first the she was already gone. "Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces- Oh."

"The last human," the Doctor muttered in disgust.

"So, you passed my little test," Cassandra sneered. "Bravo. This makes you eligible to join the, uh, Human Club."

The Doctor curled his lip. "People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them."

"It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries." Cassandra smirked and chuckled darkly. "Take me to court then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter!"

"And creak?"

Cassandra paused, confused. "And what?"

"Creak. You're creaking," he said with a sort of smile.

"What?" Cassandra shrieked as she dried and creaked. "I'm drying out! Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturize me, moisturize me!"

"Doctor?" I whispered as I looked up at him.

"Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys? It's too hot!"

"You raised the temperature," the Doctor said coldly.

The tone of his voice made me shiver. He had become the Oncoming Storm and Cassandra was getting what she had bargained for. But hearing her cries for help in person were different from hearing them on a TV.

"Doctor-"

"Have pity! Moisturize me! Oh, oh, Doctor. I'm sorry. I'll do anything!"

"Help her!" Rose demanded.

"Doctor, she's begging for mercy," I added.

"Everything has its time and everything dies." The Doctor glanced at me, his eyes cold and hard with a hint of sorrow. "I should know."

"I'm too young!" Cassandra shrieked as she shriveled and dried before finally exploding.

Rose gasped and flinched, hiding slightly behind the Doctor. I recoiled and hid behind his back like Rose did as chunks of eyes and skin flew over his head. When I recovered from a brief wave of nausea, I turned to the Doctor and stared up at him.

"Diana-"

"You could've saved her," I said softly.

"She tried to kill of us and her little cronies almost murdered you and Rose."

"But she was begging, Doctor. And you just watched her explode." I sighed. "I know she's evil, but she was begging for help."

"Diana, she nearly had us all killed."

"It's different to hear someone scream for mercy as their dying wish than it is to hear an actor do it on a TV screen," I told him.

"Diana, I thought I'd lost you and I couldn't let her try to kill you a second time!" he suddenly snapped, his hands grasping my upper arms and holding me still. "I thought I lost you those five years ago, I thought you were dead! I blamed myself for your death and I never thought I'd even see you again! I cannot bear to lose you again!"

Despite his hold on my upper arms, I twisted my wrists to gently grip his forearms. "Doctor," I began softly, "I'm sorry... I-I'm sorry. I just can't bear to hear someone cry for help while they're dying."

The Doctor sighed and let his chin fall down to his chest. "I know," he whispered. "I remember."

I curled my fingers around his biceps and felt the leather creak and give way in my hands. "Why do you feel so real?" I wondered aloud.

"What?"

I shook my head. "You feel so real. How? You're just a dream."

The Doctor's head snapped up. His right hand came up to cup my chin, making my head tilt back just enough so that our eyes met. "I'm real," he assured me. There was a sadness in his eyes that seemed to speak to me. "I promise you, Diana. I'm real."

"You're not real."

"But I am. Believe me." He dropped his hand to take my left hand from his arm. He uncurled my fingers and pressed my spread hand against the right side of his chest, then moved it to the other side. "Do you feel that? Two hearts, beating perfectly, both very real."

I could feel a very real heartsbeat against my fingertips, even through his jumper and leather jacket.

"You have to trust me," the Doctor pleaded. "I know it's new and strange and confusing, but I would never lie to you. This is all real; the TARDIS, me, the way I feel about you." He smiled and moved his hands to cup my cheeks. "Trust me, Diana. Just trust me and believe me."

I gazed into his eyes and wanted more than anything to believe him. What girl didn't want to be taken away from her humdrum life by a madman with a box and shown the stars? I had loved the Doctor from the moment he grabbed Rose's hand and whispered "Run", just like she had. I wanted him to be real more than anything.

"I want to believe you," I admitted. "But I-."

I cut myself off when I felt a strange burning sensation in the pit of my stomach. I suddenly couldn't breathe and started to panic. The Doctor seemed to understand something was wrong because he smoothed my hair with the palms of his hands and smiled sadly at me.

"I'm sorry," he told me. "Don't panic, Diana. Stay calm."

"I-I can't… I can't breathe!"

He nodded. "I know. It'll pass. Don't worry, Diana. It's going to be okay."

My vision grew dark and I felt my eyes roll back in my skull. My legs gave out, the world spun around me, and the burning sensation faded away.