Chapter One

Somewhere among stars, several light years away from Earth:

"AHHHHH!" Matt shouted at the top of his lungs, clawing desperately at the slippery ledge above him. The Doctor's hands dug into his right ankle, clinging and gripping and ripping at his sock and shoe. Kicking wildly, Matt tried to pull himself up higher. Instead, his left shoe came loose and smacked the Doctor before falling to the chasm beneath them.

"OW!" the Gallifreyan protested, "That was my face!"

Matt hardly heard him. The wind whipped like a great flood of water and begged him to just… let go. His heart hammered, and his hands cut into the metal ridges along the edge of the ledge he clung to. Swearing profusely, Matt attempted to readjust his grip. His right hand slipped, plunging them a few inches deeper.

They were going to die here.

Or rather, Matt would.

The Doctor would go on after this alone and leave him behind. That didn't mean either of them was any less terrified. The Doctor's shout cracked like a little boy's as he swung wildly. Matt didn't bother to stop screaming. "This is your fault!" he shouted. He choked and gagged on that blasted wind. He couldn't take it!

"My fault? How is this my fault?"

"You're the reason I'm in this mess in the first place! If you hadn't bloody kidnapped me, I would never be here!" His chest seized and stuttered.

He wasn't being fair, but Matt was beyond logical thought at this point. He grappled with the ledge again and managed to pull himself a bit higher. Kidnapped.

The Doctor huffed. "I didn't kidnap you!"

"Not how I remember it!" Matt's grip uncurled, and he quickly switched hands. He couldn't move anymore. His muscles were cramping, and he was too exhausted to keep trying.

The Doctor was silent for several ticks. He stilled and that made it easier to hold him. They swung in the breeze like pinatas. "This might possibly be a good time for one of those brilliant plans of yours, Matt," the Doctor croaked.

Yes. A brilliant plan would be very welcome right about now. And to think, it all started on a blustery evening in England on a road driving through the middle of nowhere…

A blustery evening road in England, a really, really long time ago:

Matt Smith sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. Everything was dull and too loud, and he should have stopped at the tiny motel he'd passed five miles back. But no. He hadn't and now he was stuck driving. What he'd do for a warm shower and a fresh change of clothes right now…

Just a bit farther, he told himself. The road was long and straight, with nothing but rolling, brown hills and the bleeding sky ahead. The night put out the fiery horizon, leaving everything in bruised blackness. Above, ominous clouds blocked even the slightest glimmer of a star, but it wouldn't rain. He hated when the sky looked that way. The clouds suffocated the rest of the universe, and the whole world waited with pent breath for something, anything to happen. It made him queasy.

Lightly on the steering wheel, Matt's tapped out the beat of a song he had heard earlier that day, and he hummed in boredom. He would usually have the radio on, but he'd screwed up some setting somehow and now it wouldn't let him turn it on. He'd yet to swing by a dealership to figure out why his car hated him. So he sat in silence and wished he could remember all the words to the song he had stuck in his head.

Matt glanced at the passenger seat next to him. He had a backpack and a suitcase filled with the stuff he'd brought to Cardiff, where they did most of the filming. He was bringing it home. How nice it would be to finally have a vacation… Of course, it wouldn't last long, but all the same, he was glad to be home. He didn't often visit his parents, but Christmas was just around the corner anyhow, and Laura would be dropping by too. Come to think of it, it had been months since he'd seen his sister either. They'd talked on the phone once. (She'd been babbling about something he couldn't recall anymore, but it hadn't mattered. He'd liked hearing her voice.)

Thoughts like this tumbled through his mind, scattered leaves on a blustery evening, and the night grew deeper. Yawning largely, the weight of the day settled firmly on Matt's shoulders, urging his eyelids downwards.

No.

Matt jerked himself awake. "Can't do that, Matt," he muttered to himself. Stay awake, stay awake...

The silent mantra didn't work. His head slowly dipped toward the steering wheel and the car drifted to the left. The top of his head bumped against the middle of the steering wheel.

The horn blared him back into consciousness. "AH!" he shouted. "No! Stop it!" He blinked rapidly, cleared his throat, and focused on the road. The white lines were blurring together into a large blobby mass.

Matt blinked a few times. "Good." He felt awake enough now.

He drove for several minutes, silently humming an unnamed tune, but soon the night crept through the windows and slithered under the door, silently embracing him.

His eyes fluttered shut and this time he veered to the right. He hit the edge of the road and righted himself, jerking awake again.

"Come on…" he growled. "Just a little farther!"

But the night didn't want to wait a little longer. After one more eye shutting incident, Matt sighed.

"Fine." He spoke out loud to no one in particular, "Five minutes. I'll stop the car and take a nap. Sheesh."

A sudden flash of lightning cracked the sky, seeming to answer his ranting. Several seconds later, a shock of thunder rattled the actor's teeth and made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He craned his neck to see out of the windshield, wrinkling his nose.

The lightning had almost looked like... "Don't be an idiot," he muttered. There it was- too much Doctor Who. It was officially frying his brain.

He glanced at the radio clock, 10:59 PM. Was it really only almost eleven?

The clock changed its hour, and Matt slowly began to slide toward the side of the road. He figured he'd sleep for an hour or two and then finish the rest of the journey.

Suddenly, a cry cut through the silent night. Frowning, Matt was about to continue with his mission when a dark figure suddenly appeared in front of the car.

"Wait!" Matt swerved to miss the man, but it was too late. He felt the thud in the souls of his feet. Fear spiked throughout his body.

"Nononononononono!" he shouted, unclipping his seatbelt and nearly flying out of the car. He just hit someone! With his car!

If he'd been thinking straight, Matt might have wondered what someone was doing out in the middle of nowhere.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!" He raced toward the fallen figure. He heard a groan and quickly knelt down beside the man. His hands hovered around him hesitantly. Maybe he shouldn't touch him. Call an ambulance. Yes. Can an ambulance. "Are you hurt? Give me a second, I'm calling an ambulance. D-don't move, alright?" Matt knew he was babbling, he had a tendency to do that, but at the moment he didn't care. He couldn't get his phone out of his pocket and when he finally did, it skittered out of his hand and the battery popped out of the back. Cursing, he ran after it and tried to piece it together again. It was too dark. He couldn't see which way to put in the blood thing!

A frighteningly loud crack of thunder split his ears, and then it began to rain buckets. Matt jerked away and raised a hand to squint at the sky. What an oddly fast storm.

Meanwhile, the man shivered, and then sat up. "I'm… I'm alright. Don't call an ambulance," he shouted over the rain.

Matt stared at him with wide eyes, horrified, the broken pieces of his phone in both hands. Of all times to be clumsy. "Are you sure?"

Rain ran through the man's hair in rivets. He looked around in confusion, taking in the scene. The headlights spilling from Matt's car were the only source of light, so Matt doubted he saw much. It was too dark to even make out the man's face. "Yes. Yes. Really, it isn't necessary. Did- um, sorry, did you just hit me?"

"I-"

"Well, I've got to say, that has never actually happened before, and a lot of things have happened to me- well, the other me's. This one hasn't done much yet." He slowly stood and patted himself down, cringing when he touched his left arm. A dark spot appeared on the clothing in the spot. The man scratched at the stain. "Bugger…"

There was something familiar about the man's tone the made Matt's ears perk up.

Matt shook the strange feeling away and tucked the pieces of his phone unceremoniously into the front pocket of his hoodie. His stomach dropped. "Is that blood?"

The man nodded. Straightening what appeared to be a suit jacket of some sort, he shrugged. "Just a scratch. It doesn't hurt. Honestly. Besides this little scratch and probably a few bruises... give me a mo," He paused and then the man nodded. "Hmm, yes. I am just splendid. It'll heal in a few hours-"

"A few hours?" Matt sputtered. He came closer "Here, let me see," He reached forward, but the man stepped back with a nervous sort of laugh.

"Really, I am fine- really. You startled the bejeebers out of me, but I'm not mortally wounded." The man attempted two thumbs up. "I suppose teleporting in front of your car was a bit my fault, well, mostly my fault, actually, probably entirely, since you had no way of knowing I would land there. Honestly, neither did I. I didn't even mean to teleport; didn't press a button or anything. The TARDIS must have done it..."

Matt blinked. What?

Oh.

Oh. He groaned inwardly. Don't get him wrong. He loved fans. Who doesn't love fans?

He was less excited about people that put themselves in mortal danger for stupid reasons, scared him half to death, followed him in the middle of the night, and etc. "How on Earth did you find me?" He cocked his head. "Almost no one knows I'm going home." His eyes widened as he pointed at the man, whose head was also tilted in bafflement. "Oh, I bet it was Daniel, that loose lipped idiot. Or was it Maurice? Did she tell you I left the set?"

The man was silent, seemingly confused.

Matt sighed. "Look, this is really creative. I mean… weird. It's weird, sorry. But creative. Please tell me you have some sort of protection or something. Under your clothes? I could have seriously hurt you! Do you understand that?"

"Sorry," the man scratched his neck, not sounding at all sorry, just confused. "You lost me a while back. Do I know you?"

"Know me? You'd better if you're crazy enough to dress up like my character and jump in front of a-a car! You could have gotten yourself killed!"

The man frowned, holding a hand over his injured bicep. He wiped his wet hair out of his eyes. The rain was only getting worse. Matt was soaked through and the cold was starting a shiver in his chest. The man couldn't be any better. "Wait, you think I am some sort of fan? Fan of what exactly? This is probably extremely confusing for you, and I understand- well actually, I don't. I haven't the faintest clue how I got here, or who you are, but I honestly, really honestly do not mean you harm."

Matt rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms around himself. He gestured with his hand vaguely. "Oh, drop it already. I get it. You had your fun. I'm usually all for this sort of thing, but it's the middle of the night, pouring down rain, and I'm in the middle of nowhere, so if you are not mortally wounded, as you say, goodbye and goodnight. Please find a less dangerous hobby. Knitting or row boating or something."

He shivered and scurried toward his car, not looking back. Feeling slightly guilty for leaving someone out here in this weather, he debated whether to give the man a ride or not. He did hit him. Then again, Matt really was exhausted, and now he'd have to drive much farther before he could rest. Although at this point, it was unlikely he'd need it.

He shrugged. The man probably had a bunch of his buddies hiding out behind a hill somewhere. If he was really hurt, they could probably help him. Opening the car door, Matt sat down with a huff and pumped the gas pedal. What a weird encounter... The sooner he got out of here, the better.

He drove for several minutes listening to the rain splattering across the windshield. His window wipers flipped back and forth and back and forth.

"Where exactly are we going, if I may ask?"

Matt let out a startled screech, slamming the breaks. Did these people have no reservations? "How- how did you even get in here!"

"I- well, it just sort of happened."

Matt closed his eyes for a moment. Why did he have to deal with stuff like this? He threw himself into action. Bursting open his door, the actor stomped around the car and flung open the passenger side door. "Get out," Matt, growled. He didn't even want to look at this stranger. There was fun and then there was… crazy. This guy was crazy. "Now."

The stranger grumbled something and then stepped out of the car. Matt turned quickly, squinting in the rain.

Once again situated in the driver's seat, Matt started the car and took off. He glanced at the passenger seat and saw his backpack was covered in the rain that flew in almost horizontally when he let his 'passenger' out. "Oh, come on!" he protested, stopping the car and flicking on a ceiling light. The backpack held the script he was supposed to be memorizing. He couldn't risk it getting wet. Picking the backpack up, he quickly and ineffectively attempted to dry it off. "Why is everything so bloody difficult..."

The pages were slightly damp.

He could deal with that.

He tossed the backpack into its original position. The seat made a squelching noise when the backpack landed on top of it.

Matt just sighed.

"Do you need help with that?" said a voice from the back seat.

This time Matt actually jumped. He slammed his head against the ceiling, exploding in numerous exotic curses. "How are you doing that?" he shouted at the man, turning to look at him for the first time. "The doors are-"

Matt froze.

The stranger's jaw went slack. "Well, isn't that odd," he murmured, extending a pale and slightly wet hand. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. Now, what are you doing with my face?"

AN: Ah, hello there! Nice to see you reading something of mine :)) If you like, leave a review maybe?