A/N: And we're back! :D Sorry for the long wait, so much stuff going on right now in life. Anyway, thanks to all who have favorited/followed/reviewed and keep 'em coming!

On with the chapter!

Chapter 8

Side Effects

I arrive at Pharmacy Town, accidently breathing in the dirty air. I suddenly begin to cough uncontrollably, hot tears streaming down my cheeks from dust getting in my eyes. I immediately put a hand up to my mouth and steady my coughing, barely breathing in any air through my fingers. You better think of something, quick! My inner voice yells at me. All of a sudden, though, my pounding headache comes back, and I roll my eyes and curse myself. I shouldn't have trusted that vendor lady. Just at the thought, I rip the patch off my neck and fling it down below me, it drifting slowly through the dusty, dirty, and toxicated air.

All of a sudden a motorway car in front of me opens, making me jump as usual. Somebody's motioning me towards them, but I can't see who it is since the dust in my eyes is currently blocking my vision.

A few seconds pass by as I then feel a hand grab my own, nearly pulling my arm out of its socket at the person's speed to get us safely inside the motorway.

As we get inside, someone immediately hands me a breathing mask. As I try to take deep, steady breaths and my vision returns, I find myself staring at the person that handed me the mask. "Oh, that's right," I mutter under my breath, too low for anybody to hear. "Cat people are in this one. Always wanted to meet a cat person…"

As the motorway door closes, the Doctor turns to me, looking a mix between concerned and frustrated. "Eleanor, you need to be more careful. Standing out there any longer would have killed you. When did you get here?"

I just stare at him, my mind going completely blank. A tingling feeling suddenly starts to vibrate through me. What…? I decide to ignore it for now. "Just a few minutes ago," I reply to him finally. "And look, Doctor, I was just trying to find you. I didn't want to be stuck down in the under-city along with those vendor creeps and their mysterious patches. And it's more exciting up here, where there's danger and adventure around every corner." I give the Doctor a pointed look until he responds.

He looks at me, exasperated slightly. "Okay, you prove your point. But just be careful around these situations, it could be more dangerous than you think."

I nod, totally understanding. I would be careful. But the Doctor can't underestimate my daring side. One time a few years back in my universe, my friends and I took a trip to beautiful Puerto Rico. They basically dragged me to the beach, saying that they needed to show me something and that I would enjoy it. Once we got there, we actually ended up diving off a 75 foot cliff. I was the first one to do it, adrenaline rushing through me so fast that I thought I could do anything. The jump was fun, but also very frightening. I screamed when I went down, the air running through my hair making a chill go down my spine. I told myself to never do such a reckless thing ever again, but now….

"We're moving," Valerie suddenly says to Brannigan.

"Okay, I'm there. I'm on it," he replies, putting his paws on the wheel. Suddenly we start moving, going up in the line about twenty yards from what I remember from the episode. Looks like I remember all of the nonsignificant parts of the episode, I muse, irritated.

"Twenty yards. We're having a good day." Brannigan turns to us, "And who might you be, sir, miss? A couple like yourselves look very well-dressed for hitchhikers."

I gape at Brannigan for a few seconds until finally finding my voice, snorting. "Me and the Doctor? A couple? I've never heard such a ridiculous thing in my life!" Even though the eleventh Doctor did kiss me before when we were kicking those doll's asses, we couldn't possibly be a couple. Maybe he was just worried about me. He feels the same way towards other companions, worried all the time. The Doctor and I would never be in a relationship, that much was certain.

As I managed to calm down a little, I realized the awkward look that everybody was giving me, especially the Doctor. I take off the oxygen mask after noticing that it was fogged up from my laughing, and give him a look, "Right, Doctor…?"

The Doctor shakes his head, snapping out of the trance that he was in. "Right." He turns to Brannigan, "Thanks. Sorry, I'm the Doctor."

I step forward, smiling, "And I'm Eleanor, but you call me Ellie or El."

"Medical Man!" Brannigan exclaims and then turns to me, giving a questioning look. "And his assistant, then…?"

I shrug, "Sure, whatever."

"My name's Thomas Kincade Brannigan," he makes a quick gesture to Valerie, "and this is the bane of my life, the lovely Valerie."

Valerie smiles, flattered by the compliment. "Nice to meet you two."

"And that's the rest of the family behind you." Brannigan points to the back of the motorway.

My eyes widen. I love kittens!

The Doctor moves the curtain to the side as I follow. "Aw, that's nice. Hello," he says to a grey tabby kitten that he picked up. "How old are they?"

"Just two months," Valerie replies.

I gently pick up a white kitten with a fluffy tail. "They're so adorable!"

"Yup," Brannigan agrees. "Poor little souls. They've never known the ground beneath their paws. Children of the motorway."

The Doctor looks surprised, "What, they were born in here?"

"We couldn't stop," Valerie says. "We heard there were jobs going, out in the laundries of Fire Island. Thought we'd take a chance."

"What, you've been driving for two months?"

I tap the Doctor's shoulder with a sarcastic smile on my face, "Doctor, I think two months would be a little of an understatement. They've been driving for twelve years."

He turns to me and then back to Brannigan, stunned. "I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, started out as newlyweds. Feels like yesterday." Brannigan suddenly looks at me, "Wait, have we met before? I don't remember telling you that."

I shake my head.

Everybody's still staring at me, waiting for a response. Even the Doctor is, probably curious of what my answer will be.

I let out a nervous giggle, which probably sounded more like a squeak to them. How embarrassing. "Uh, I kinda know things… it's a gift, I guess. I call it my All Knowing Power." I tap the side of my head while simultaneously setting the kitten back down in its basket along with the other kittens.

"My future? Our future?" Valerie inquires sharply, pointing to the kittens and to Brannigan.

I sigh, nodding to the Doctor, "No. Only the Doctor's and… other… people…"

Valerie's about to reply, but the Doctor suddenly cuts her off by putting a hand up to her face, doing the same thing to me. I glare at him. "Wait, just… just stop there. Twelve years? How far did you come? Where did you start?"

"Battery Park," Brannigan responds. "It's five miles back."

"You travelled five miles in twelve years?" The Doctor looks beyond incredulous by this point.

Brannigan casts a glance to Valerie and then to me, confused. "I think he's a bit slow."

I scoff, "Yup, that's the Doctor." The Doctor scowls at me while I smirk.

"Where are you from?" Valerie asks.

The Doctor puts the kitten back in its basket, "Never mind that. I got to get out. My friend's in one of these cars. She was taken hostage. I should get back to the TARDIS." He opens the exit of the motor way and checks his surroundings, the dirty smoke making it hard to do so. He then closes it.

"You're too late for that," Brannigan says. "We've passed the lay-way. You and your girlfriend are passengers now, Sonny Jim."

I snort at the name that Brannigan just called the Doctor. But then, "...Wait, girlfriend?" I glare at Brannigan while they all ignore me as per usual.

"When's the next lay-way?" The Doctor asks urgently.

"Oh, six months?" Brannigan guesses.

The Doctor stares straight ahead in disbelief as I feign shock, sputtering, "B－But that's… oh, shit."

"Language," the Doctor chides me like a parent, fiddling and trying to break into the communications system with his sonic screwdriver.

I open my mouth to give him a sassy retort, but I bite me lip instead. Now is not the time, I mentally scold myself.

Suddenly the communications system flashes on and the Doctor quickly grabs the com. "I need to talk to the police."

It replies automatically, "Thank you for your call. You have been placed on hold."

"But you're the police!" The Doctor exclaims skeptically.

"Thank you for your call. You have been placed on hold."

I drone out of the conversation as the tingling sensation that I felt earlier makes an ugly reappearance. Great, I muse sarcastically. I then make the wrong decision of glancing at the Doctor, and the tingling gets stronger. I decide to perform a little experiment. I shift subtly, leaning away from the Doctor. The tingling feeling weakens a bit. Then I move a fraction closer to the Doctor, and the feeling gets stronger. What is happening to me?

Then a thought suddenly occurs to me. The patch. The patch! Is that what's happening to me? Did that patch have something else in it that the vendor lady didn't care to explain?

I force myself to stare at the ground, not letting myself to take even one glance at the Doctor. I feel the heat rising to my cheeks, and I try very hard to push it back down. Hopefully the Doctor doesn't even remember that I'm here at all. Maybe I could just hide behind the curtain with the kittens…

"Ellie, are you alright? What's wrong?"

I snap my head up at the sudden questions, my eyes landing on the Doctor who's looking at me with sheer concern, com in hand. I just stare at him for a few seconds until it finally clicks with me what he just asked. I shake my head slowly and uncertainly, "No… I mean yeah… I－I don't know…?" His eyebrows knit together in confusion to my various responses. I quickly break eye contact with him out of awkwardness.

Then, in my peripheral vision, I see the Doctor starting to take out his sonic screwdriver from his suit coat. My eyes widen, "Wait, no! You don't have to do that! I'm perfectly fine!" I start to waver a bit in my spot, but to my luck, I don't think the Doctor notices.

He frowns, "El, you're obviously sick. You're as pale as a sheet, and you're wavering dangerously."

I mentally scream at myself to stop wavering, but even that doesn't seem to work. I know that something is totally wrong with me, obviously that damn patch's curse, but I don't want to admit it. Especially not to him.

"Just go carry on your conversation with the Cassini sisters. For God's sake, Doctor. You have to stop worrying about me, I'm nothing to you! Nothing at all!" I snatch the sonic out of his hands while he just stares at me, stunned. Good. He should be.

After what feels like forever, he puts out his hand, with his eyes meeting mine. They're sad and distant. "You mean so much more to me than you think you do. Someday you'll understand." He keeps his hand out, waiting for the sonic.

I keep my eyes locked with his, that strange sensation taking hold of me once again. Heat rushes to my cheeks, and I unconsciously allow a smirk to creep onto my face. Before I know it I'm standing right next to him, our faces just inches apart. No! I scream at myself. What in the hell do you think you're doing, Eleanor?! But soon all thoughts of protest perish. It's like I'm under a spell and I don't know it, can't know it.

I gaze into his ancient eyes.

He stares back at me with a mix of emotions showing in those eyes. Shock and uncertainty, but also sadness and longingness.

I lick my slightly cracked lips, the smoke in the air making them dry.

CLANK!

The com that was in his hand suddenly drops to the ground.

"Hey, love birds," I faintly hear Brannigan call. "No playing in the motorway. Especially with the kittens in the back looking on with curiosity."

Only after barely hearing what Brannigan was implying, I finally snap out of it. My eyes widen as big as saucers, and without thinking I kick the Doctor in the shin with as much force as I could muster in my current state. He yelps at the sudden impact and looks at me, taken aback.

"Goddammit, Doctor! What in the name of Omega were you thinking?! Is this what you do to other girl companions when off-screen?" I have absolutely no memory of what happened during whatever exactly was happening. All I know is having a row with the Doctor, and then nothing. Blank. All memory gone of everything after that. Ugh. This is so frustrating.

And awkward…

I stay in the back by the kittens, as far away from the Doctor as possible as he stays silent. Speechless. That has got to be a bad sign.

"Cat got your tongue, Doctor?" I try to joke. I fail miserably as he stays silent. I'm about to open my mouth to have another attempt at a bad joke, but he finally speaks instead.

"Ellie, did you somehow get a patch by any chance?"

Crap. I gulp. I'm pretty sure he noticed. "Um… no…" The Doctor gives me a look. "Maybe…" He narrows his eyes at me, making my palms sweaty. "Fine. Yes, I did. I mean, I know I shouldn't have trusted that twisted vendor lady, but I seriously needed it. I got kinda sick from the vortex-manipulator-time-travel thingy, so I just wanted it to go away as soon as possible. I'm sorry, Doctor. I really am. It's just…"

"...You're particularly early in your time stream and your body isn't yet accustomed to the effects of the vortex manipulator. Plus, you don't have much experience with handling these kinds of situations," the Doctor finishes for me. I allow a sheepish smile to show on my face, handing him the sonic.

"No, I get it," he says, taking it. "I remember when I was your age, mind you a little older, or much older I should say, but the point is that I was reckless just like you, not thinking before acting."

I sigh, knowing the truth in that. I also scowl at him for calling me reckless. Again. But yup, reckless. That's me, matter-of-factly.

"But Doctor," I speak up quietly. "The patch… something else was in it that I didn't know at first. It… um… wasn't what I thought it was…" I give the Doctor a look. Even though I don't know what happened earlier between him and me (I don't intend to find out, but if I ever do, then it will be too soon), I still know about the strange feeling that ripples through me ever so often. The… oh, what's the word for it? Desire, that's what it is. But no, just… nope. Not now, and probably not ever. Why would he want to be with someone like me anyway? And not to mention the age difference.

The Doctor then decides to scan me with his sonic. I resist the urge to roll my eyes.

He looks at the readings with a frown. "Hmm… the type of chemical that soaked into your skin is one that even I'm not familiar with. Unknown."

Dread dawns on me. "What do you mean, you're 'not familiar' with it? Are you not able to fix it?"

He stares at his sonic incredulously while the couple in the front have thought best to keep their mouths shut for the time being. I bite my lip nervously, "Doctor, please tell me that you can fix it, fix me."

He glances up at me, and I can already tell by the look on his face what the answer will be. "I'm so sorry. But I can't."

I blink at those words. Can't.

He can't fix me.

Am I going to be all 'lovey-dovey' forever?!

I turn on the Doctor, my eyes blazing with anger and hysterics. "You have to do something! I can't keep on having 'love' episodes and then not remember a thing of what I did! What if I accidently put you up to something and you can't get out of it? And another thing is, Doctor, will I stay like this until I die?"

He looks at me blankly at all of the things that I've thrown at him until answering, "I can't do anything, that's a fact. I'm sorry, but there… there might be a possibility that you will stay like this for some time. It's already soaked into your skin, and it doesn't look like that it'll disappear any time soon."

I abruptly turn away from him and continue my mantra, trying to calm my racing heart. I'm at home, I'm safe, this is not happening…

A voice suddenly rings out from the com on the floor. "Hello? Doctor? In the last half hour, fifty three new cars joined from the Pharmacy Town junction."

"Ah, hello there, Alice!" the Doctor exclaims. "Sorry to skip out on you for a bit, had some… issues to take care of. So, anyway, for the cars, do you have anything more specific?"

"Issues," I mumble irritably, gently picking up a kitten and scratching behind its ears. "Yeah, that's exactly what it was."

I hold the kitten close to my chest and slide to the ground, ignoring the conversation that is currently being made a few feet away. I slowly close my eyes from fatigueness and start to lightly hum 'Drops of Jupiter' by Train. As the kitten purrs against my chest, making a soft rumbling sound, I gradually drift off into the blissfulness of sleep.

－x－x－x－x－x－x－x－

I yawn awake and blink a few times, getting used to the fairly lit room. I smile down at the kitten laying peacefully against my chest and rub behind its ears. The kitten makes a small meow of satisfaction. I grin.

I glance around the small room, and for the first time before waking up, utter dismay replaces my grin. I'm still on the motorway. I'm still in the episode 'Gridlock.' I still have the side effects of the stupid patch. Patch be damned.

I slowly stand up despite the kitten's protests, and lay it back down by its brothers and sisters. I glance around the room one last time before proving my suspicions correct.

Where is the Doctor?

I turn on Valerie and Brannigan, walking up to them and resting one of my hands on each of their shoulders. I give a tight smile, "Hey, perhaps you guys saw where the Doctor went?"

"He left," Valerie responds.

"Yeah, but where?"

"He used that tool of his and opened the trapdoor below," Brannigan says, pointing to a spot in the middle of the floor.

I walk over to it and get down on my knees, examining it.

"What, you're not going to be insane like him and jump too, are you?" Valerie exclaims incredulously.

I ignore her and dig into my bigger-on-the-inside bag, coming across my sonic. I take it out and look it over, not knowing which setting could get the trapdoor open. You don't need to know, I tell myself. Just point and think. With that thought in mind I look away and close my eyes tightly, pointing the sonic at the trapdoor and hoping that it doesn't explode instead of open.

I suddenly hear a click to my satisfaction.

I quickly stuff the sonic in my bag while gingerly opening the trapdoor, covering my mouth from the dust and smoke. I squint to see a motorway drive up right below me. I dig in my bag to find a TARDIS blue bandanna waiting for me, wrapping it around my mouth and nose and tying it behind my head.

"Are you mad?!" Valerie cries. "You'll die!"

Brannigan taps her arm, "Valerie, let the young lover do what she wants. She just wants to be with her Doctor again, after all."

I scoff. He really thinks I'm the Doctor's girlfriend, doesn't he?

Without thinking about what the Doctor would say when I find him, I jump, time seeming to slow down if even for just a second.

And I only have one thought on my mind.

When I find the Doctor, I'm going to give him one hell of a hard time for leaving me behind.

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