Stay until the end to read an important author's note. Other than that, enjoy the new chapter!

-JustStandingHere

#

I stare at the thing in Cordelia's hands. "They were going to do what now?"

She looks up, gulping. "Um, well. Destroy the human race. I think I already said that."

I shake my head. "Yeah, you did, but—" I point to the egg. "That pebble could potentially wipe out an entire town in one go?"

"Give it some credit," Cordelia argues. She shrugs. "Probably two at the least. It'd need time to rest."

I try to keep my composure. "So all this time you've had a potential weapon in your hands and you never even thought to—oh, I don't know—tell us?" I take a step towards her. "Because being a mermaid and stuff—that's okay, that's perfectly fine. I've met mutants with no mouths and underground mole people. But the minute you're hiding something that could hurt others, I draw the line. It doesn't help anybody, least of all yourself. I mean, that thing could go off any minute!"

"No, no!" Cordelia protests. "You've got it all wrong! The leader wanted to use it as a weapon, but I only want to raise it! Perhaps use it for good, I don't know—nobody's seen a Tidal Serpent in centuries. This is the last one left." She cups the egg in her hands. "It only gestates in water, so I try to keep it on land as much as possible. But even when I retrieved it, the last stage had already begun. I have no idea how long it will be until it hatches. Days, months, years…it's hard to tell. And when it does hatch, it will be small. But they grow fast, and I was hoping to find someplace to keep it where the others cannot find it. The leader, the Reef, any of them. They'd all use it against you lot."

I blink. "So…you're not going to use this against us?"

"Of course not, you moron!" she tells me, hitting me on the shoulder. I wince. It's not so fun being on the other side of the hand, it seems.

"Then why didn't you tell any of us?" I ask. "We were going to possibly capsize in the middle of the ocean and you didn't think to tell us about the serpent in your pocket?"

"I was going to tell you," she confesses. "Right when you first saw me, but then I got…distracted."

I stare at her. "Distracted," I repeat.

She blushes. "Well, first your friends were going off to hunt my kind, and that was the catalyst for me hijacking the boat…which wasn't very smart in hindsight. And then we almost crashed and your friend was analyzing me, and then we went searching for food and we talked about kissing—it's all very distracting."

I gulp at the kissing part, but return to the subject. "We have to tell the Doctor."

Cordelia scoffs. "Your friend? He barely even trusts me, and he won't at all if we tell him. You almost screamed at me you like me."

"I don't like you!" I defend, but it comes out wrong. "I mean, no. I like you! But I—but—ugh, never mind."

She smirks. "Tongue tied?"

I glance at her, glaring but not saying anything to prove her otherwise. "Still, we've got to tell him. I know he seems a little bit like—well, okay, he's an ass but when it comes to things like this he can help you out. He knows about things like this."

Cordelia's resolve fades and she shifts around a bit. "I—oh, fine. Let's go find him."

I grin and grab her by her ungloved arm, dragging her through the forest and back to where we came. Finally, something exciting! I mean, it's horrible, but at least it's a good excuse to take my mind off of things.

"Don't hold onto me so tight!" Cordelia complains. "Slow down, legs are weird!"

"They're not weird!" I argue.

"To you, but to me they're like two kelp stalks glued to my torso."

I huff. "You're two kelp stalks glued to my god damn torso."

Cordelia stuttered behind me, obviously putting thought before running. "That doesn't make any—"

"Shut up."

Eventually we make it to the beach, following our trail and carrying a fuck ton of snowman-shaped spuds in our wake. The boat is half ashore and half in the tide, which is pulling out lazily. Jay and Li-Ann are sitting attentively by the fire as the Doctor was flamboyantly saying something—a story, probably, along the lines of one of his adventures.

"They seem to be happy for being stranded," Cordelia observes.

"Yeah…come on, let's go ruin it by telling them about your deadly egg rock."

I drag her along to the fire, almost reaching it if not for the Doctor seeing us first, hopping out of his seat and blocking our way.

"Ah, Quigs!" he greets with a smile. He nods. "Cordelia. Having any fun?"

I turn red. "Ha-ha, very funny," I manage to get out. I glance towards the beached object not too far from me. "How's the boat?"

"Hm? Oh!" he says, looking at the boat as if it suddenly appeared. "Well, I have some good news and some bad news for you."

"Good, we have the same," Cordelia tells him. His face scrunches up in confusion. "But you first."

His face stays like that for a moment longer before melting away completely. "Well, the good news is that Li-Ann has agreed to let me examine some of her specimens back at her university, and Jay has a whole box of miniaturized engineering materials stuffed in his pocket to use at any time. Also, I found a coupon in my back pocket for Tesco that gives me half off for six bangs of marshmallows, which I intend to use—"

"Just get to the bad news," I sigh.

"No need to be Debbie Downer, but alright." He glances at the boat again. "The bad news is that you completely rewired the boats navigational and motor devises, and there are no paddles in the 56th century." He winces. "Apparently they went out of style."

"So how long are we stuck here?" Cordelia inquires.

"Oh, the rewiring job should be easy, seeing as they have me to help," he comments. I mutter something about him being a pompous ass and he glares for a second before getting back on target. "So…" He lets out a puff of hair from his lungs. "One more day? Maybe two, if possible."

I notice that Cordelia's breathing speeds up at that bit, but her face stays calm and collected.

"Now what is your good news and bad news?" the Doctor asks us, putting his hands behind his back and leaning forward slightly.

"Um…" I blink and get back to the topic on hand. "Oh, yeah. Good news, we found these things." I hold up the blue tubers. "They showed up as snake, and they taste pretty good."

The Doctor squints and whips out his sonic, analyzing them before looking at the results. He grins. "Ah, Trito Paghi Gourds! Haven't one of those in ages, delicious."

I frown. "Hold up. How come yours can tell you what the plant is called but mine can't?"

"It can, Jenna, you just couldn't read it yet," he informs me, bopping me on the forehead with his device. "Don't worry, with some practice you'll be as good as me. Well, not really. But some of the way there."

"You're a conceited prick," I say.

"I could say the same for you, but I choose not to use such language."

"That just makes a conceited and prissy prick."

Cordelia growls. "Enough with the bickering, let's get this over with." She eyes me and then nods to the Doctor. "Tell him."

"Tell me what?" His gaze darts between the two of us. "You lot didn't do anything, did you?"

"She did offer to kiss me," Cordelia supplies offhandedly. I turn red, and the Doctor turns to me with that big dumb-looking smile of his.

"Ah, good on you, Jenna! But don't move forward too fast, you're only so young."

I turn even redder and gulp. "Okay, three things. First of all, I'm almost seventeen. Second of all, my interactions with people—of any gender, I might add—are none of your business. Honestly, just started singing the 'K-I-S-S-I-N-G' song and you'll start looking like my little brother. And third of all…" I point to Cordelia. "She is in possession of a family heirloom, the egg of a Torrent Serpent—"

"Tidal Serpent," Cordelia corrects.

I take a deep breath. "Tidal Serpent. And if that gets into the wrong hands, say her city's officials or the smuggling group she's quitting, then shit will go down."

"Oh. That…is bad news."

"Yeah," Cordelia agrees. "But! If we keep it away from water, it won't gestate. It only grows in water, so if I steer clear of the ocean I'm fine—which I need to do, anyway. Need to stay far away from it."

I squint. "That's an odd thing for a mermaid to say."

"Yes, well I'm not like most of my kind, as you can see," she says irritatedly. She pulls out the small stone-like egg. "This is it. If—If I'm able to find someplace to raise it without the knowledge of my kin, then it could be useful to humanity. It can calm the waves during storms and direct the currents so that there is always plenty of fish to eat. But in the wrong hands…I dare not say what it can do."

"Ah," the Doctor agrees. "Well. Gadzooks."

I blink. "Gadzooks?"

"I'm trying it out," he says, shushing me. "What would happen if we put the egg in water? How fast would it grow?"

"Tidal Serpents starts off no bigger than that of a Pygmy Gorrie Fish," Cordelia explains. "And even then, there are sensors stationed everywhere to pick up its genetic code—basically, either way we're utterly screwed."

The Doctor just stares for a second before smiling again. "Well, we won't let a single drop touch it, will we?" He snatches a Paghi Gourd and takes a bite of it. "Mm. Delicious. Let's have dinner."

#

After the initial silence from being too hungry to speak, we start talking. Li-Ann's the first to pipe up, saying that her botanist friend, Mordecai, would have a fit if he saw these things. Apparently they're quite rare on Trito, and she hopes to bring back a few for him to examine. Jay says that Adam would pass out, and that would mean someone named Orrani would have to bring him back to consciousness. Li-Ann laughs and says that Jay's just jealous that she might have to give him mouth-to-mouth, and Jay looks down.

I frown. "Is Orrani your girlfriend?" I ask.

Jay seems to sink down even further. "I—well, not yet. According to her planet's customs I have to court her for three years. I'm just hoping she keeps enough interest in me during then."

"Oh, stop worrying your sorry self!" Li-Ann tells him, hitting his arm. "If there's anything I remember from my Galactic Cultures studies, it's that Harathian courting is a mere matter of manners. She's had her eyes set on you ever since she met you! Especially the third one. I've seen that eye give you a once over more times than I've fallen into the university's fish tank."

The Doctor bites into his third Paghi Gourd this evening, chewing loudly. "She's right, you know. Almost got myself married to Harathian because of a malfunction in the TARDIS. Always kept ending up in the same house, moving two months ahead until I figured out what was wrong about seventeen trips later." He swallows. "Mind you, he was very handsome but that regeneration wasn't one for commitment."

"Oh, if we're talking about accidentally walking into courting and mating customs I have you lot beat," Li-Ann challenges.

"Oh, don't, Li," Jay whines, sinking into the ground. "Please no."

She leans back. "Let me set the scene. First year at Trito Center University. Li-Ann Takahashi, young and thriving student on her way to a marine biology doctorate. I had become friends with this lovely Welto from a couple planets over, and we did things like count the bacteria in the algae tanks for laughs and all that. But we had never gone out to eat. Every time I asked him, he turned me down. So I asked him, 'Why won't you go down to the diner on the corner with me?' And he wouldn't give me an answer, so I decided to take him out anyway."

"Stop," Jay whispers.

Li-Ann grins and rubs his shoulder. "Don't mind him. But I took him to the diner's and he started during this bright color of purple. So I asked, 'Why are you blushing so hard? It's just food. You're not allergic, are you? Does your digestive system not work with this kind of meal?' And I started thinking I was being so inconsiderate, because honestly the first rule in all interspecies etiquette is to ask them if they can digest your species' food."

"Well, of course," the Doctor agrees. Cordelia nods, and I decide to go along with the group as well.

Li-Ann just shakes her head. "And he just sat there and he said, 'Where I'm from, taking someone out for a meal is equivalent to that of a marriage proposal.' And I was absolutely red at that point. I mean, I didn't think of him in that way, he's like a brother to me! So I called the whole thing off before he was able to call his parents, and we shared a few laughs about it. And, basically, that's how I became buddies with Jay over here."

I burst out laughing. "Wait, so—you're the Welto?"

"Half on my mother's side," Jay says. "It's mostly just a difference in blood color and the webbing between my toes. Lucky I didn't acquire the ears." He grimaces and holds out his hands next to his head.

"Have any of you girls had any embarrassing love stories?" Li-Ann asks. "I know you're at the age to start flirting and dating."

"Just barely," the Doctor grumbles.

"Um…I haven't really had the time," Cordelia admits. That leaves a warm feeling in my stomach.

The attention is turned over to me.

I could talk about the boy who made out with me and then left me to get torn apart by mutants. And then there's the dude who had the same name as Scout's dad that I did—well I did things with and never saw me again seeing as I misplaced elsewhere. Wow, my love life sure is fulfilling.

"Uh…I guess I did stuff with a guy in Rome and then promptly disappeared?" I say, as if I'm guessing. "Yeah, that's it."

The Doctor chokes on his food. "When did this happen?"

I stare at him. "You told me you knew things happened in Rome. That was the thing that happened."

"And what exactly was this 'stuff'?"

I frown. "Do you really want to know?" I'm met with silence. "Thought so. It's not any of your business anyway."

The group ultimately fades into an uncomfortable silence, all of us watching the crackling fire in front of us. The day is slowly fading into a night that's colored a shade of red.

Li-Ann fidgets in the quiet before it looks like a light bulb has appeared over her head. "Oh, I know! We're all from different cultures, correct? I mean, I come from the Fifth and Plentiful Human Empire, Jay comes from Weltouis, Cordelia is from under the water so that has to be interesting, and the Doctor had been explaining about the Time Lords." Her face scrunches up. "Funny. Don't know where you're from, Jenna."

"Oh, I'm from Earth," I tell her. "The first one."

Jay's head snaps up. "What? But that's impossible, the solar flares drove people out multiple millennia ago!"

"Jay, Jay!" Li-Ann says. "The Doctor is a Time Lord. He has a time ship. Jenna accompanies him. She's obviously a time traveler as well."

I smile smugly. "Guilty as charged."

Li-Ann takes a deep breath. "Well, anyways, we've all got stories, right? Folklore we've heard, plays, books, all the like. Why don't we tell them? You know, as an ice breaker game since all of you lot's body language is bordering on antisocial."

I shrug. "Fine by me."

Cordelia copies my actions. "I don't mind."

Jay smiles. "Yeah, I can get into that."

"Oh, I love story time!" the Doctor exclaims, finishing off his meal and throwing it behind him. "Let's get started! Who's first?"

"Oh, me, me!" Li-Ann volunteers, raising her hand up high.

"You look like you're an undergrad again," Jay says, laughing.

She kicks him. "Shut it, you. I have other embarrassing stories if you want me to tell them." She sighs, shaking her head. Her almond eyes glint with excitement. "Oh, which one, which one? There's so many to choose from. I might get a little mixed up, seeing as I took some mythology classes during my second year at the university." She pouts for a couple second before the light bulb appears over her head again. "Oh, oh, I got one!" She clears her throat, dropping her vice down a couple octaves and getting into a mock serious position. "I present to you the tale of Xenophar the Great, conqueror of the Seven Planetary Empires in the Western Hemisphere of the Cargulian Cluster."

She spins a tale of a lonely soldier, Xenophar, who tries to return home after a long war to his loving family, but is continually shipwrecked on multiple planets on the way home. She tells us about him battling through a species that thought of human flesh as a delicacy and had, ultimately, wanted to ask permission before they could eat him but there was a mistranslation that left things awkward and blood splattered. In the end, it took him around four years to actually get home to his family.

I feel like I've heard the plot line before somewhere, but I can't remember.

"Alright, Jay, it's your turn," the Doctor says.

"Well, the thing is Weltos doesn't actually have that many fables," he explains. "We're more of an 'Oh, you say you've got a monster under your bed? Well either you're moronic or you get to kill it yourself' kind of people. But there was one story, about this young boy who wished to work in his mother's shop. But she wouldn't let him, because he was too young and the work was hard. But the boy said that he could prove himself, so the mother set him on a quest: he was to gather three gemstones, each of which had a small firebird inside of them. And they were scattered throughout the region, in hopes that no one would find them. Most believed that they didn't exist at all."

He weaves a story about the boy walking the region, finding the gemstones in their fabled locations and guarded by a monster. The boy scares the beasts away by roaring at them the first and second time, but when he reaches the third protected firebird gemstone it is guarded by an enchanter with a crooked eye and a crooked smile instead. The boy tries to scare the enchanter away, but the enchanter just keeps smiling at his efforts.

The boy almost gives up, until he hatches a plan. He walks up to the enchanter, and says that he must be hungry from all the standing he does. After a brief conversation, they come to an agreement: while the enchanter goes to the market to gather some food, the boy must guard the gemstone. But he must not lay a finger on it. So, when the enchanter leaves, the boy manages to put the stone in his mouth instead. He runs home, with all three stones in tow, and gives them to his mother. However, he makes the fatal mistake of holding the third stone in his hands and consequentially transforms into a Noomar, which is apparently the Welto version of a cow.

"So in the end," Jay concludes. "He did get to work for his mother."

Cordelia blinks. "That's kind of…depressing."

I smile. "Are you kidding? That was hilarious. I love it when smart asses are given payback."

"It's a dumb story," Jay mediates.

"'We're all stories, in the end'," I quote.

He frowns. "Who said that?"

"He did," I say, jabbing my thumb in the Doctor's direction. "He spouts meaningful stuff like that all the time. He's like a proverb goldmine."

"Always have a good line set up in the back of your head, is what I say," the Doctor tells me. "That way, if you can't think up anything you can always look smart in the end. Learned that from Oscar Wilde."

We continue around the circle. Cordelia tells us a bedtime story her father used to tell her about a human that wanted to join the mermaid people. The Doctor recounts an adventure of his, the one with Donna and Agatha Christie and the alien wasp. Everyone laughs to the point of tears or reserves themselves into an intense, deadly silence, reacting right on the mark.

And suddenly it's my turn.

You know when someone—like a teacher or a place your applying for a job to—when they ask you to describe yourself in five sentences or less? It's like all of a sudden you've got temporary amnesia and can't remember who you are. And that's what I feel like right now.

"Um…well, to be honest Earth doesn't have many good stories," I formulate.

"Preposterous!" the Doctor exclaims. "Earth's chock full of good stories. You should know, you keep telling me them!"

"But they're boring fairytales!" I argue. "I can't think of any exciting folklore or myths! My head's just gone…" I make a poof motion.

"You should really reconsider, seeing as I'm in at least half of those myths." He sniffs. "Heracles is a right ar…meanie, if you ask me."

I smile. "Look at you! Almost cursing."

He tries to straighten his jacket lapels, but fails to do so as he's currently sitting on it. He scowls. "You—you...you are a...big bowl of sand."

I laugh. "Nice comeback, slick."

He shakes his head. "That aside, there are plenty of stories to be told, I was there for them!" He pokes my forehead. "You're just not thinking hard enough."

And that's when I get the idea.

"Alright, alright, Mr. Smartass," I concede. "I got one. It's um…well, it's pretty old, or at least it is to me. Been passed down for generations, and someone always changes it every time. So it's really quite a long story that I am way too tired to tell. Or, at least, most of it. Back on—back where I'm from this part I'm going to tell is the most famous." I shake my head. "But I'm getting off track here."

I lean in, adopting a grin and letting the words form in my head before my tongue starts tripping over them. "This is the story about The Man Made of Stars. There used to people like him on the planet, but one day they all flew up into the sky and took their place as constellations. He was left behind." I pause, gathering up my next few words. "And he blamed himself for a while, because he must've something wrong if the others flew up and he stayed down. So he sulked for a few hundred years of his life, because he was made of stars and stars don't die, not like humans do. He sulked and he ran, far away from the constellations and the sky. He hid from his shame by arranging the stars on his body into that of a human and walked, touching lives whenever he spoke and acting like a bit of a douchebag because people who grieve have the right to.

"And one day he was walking and…and someone saw through it. The disguise he had, I mean. And she walked up to him and called him on it, and he liked her so he took her to run with him. And that's how The Man Made of Stars met the Lady of Light."

I pause, looking around. Li-Ann is smiling peacefully at the story and Jay is staring intently. Cordelia is grinning at me, and I look away before she thinks I'm staring at her because that would be embarrassing. And the Doctor…the Doctor looking at me with wide eyes and mouth zipped shut, and that's all I need to see to know that he's catching on.

"They travelled, for god knows how long," I continue. "They picked up a man drenched in time and they had more adventures. Eventually the man drowned in all the time around him and died. They grieved and The Man Made of Stars changed the constellations on his face to something new, because that face knew too much grief to last any longer. They continued running and doing crazy shit and all the things couples do, because...because somewhere down the road the Lady of Light and the Man of Stars fell in love with each other, though both were too stubborn to admit it." The Doctor frowns at that.

I swallow the increasing dryness from talking so much and continue talking. "And then one day the Lady of Light was taken by a ravenous hole in the ground, and the Man of Stars fell into depression again. He sulked as he did before, but talked a lot more than he did the last time around. He met a bride that was running from her husband, and protected her. They went their separate ways and agreed to meet up again later. So the Do—the man kept walking until he managed to trip off a cliff, landing right in the room of an Apothecary.

"The Apothecary stitched up and healed his wounds, and he rested in her home for longer than I can count. Like, a metric fuck-ton of time. And during all of that he kept on grieving the loss of the Lady of Light." I raise voice until I'm speaking in a falsetto. "'Oh, how I miss my Lady. She said such was wonderful things and shone brighter than all the suns.' 'My Lady used to cook as well. Used more salt, she did.' Frankly, all he did was complain."

"I think not!" the Doctor argues.

"Pipe down, loverboy," I order. "I'm not finished with the story yet." I take a deep breath. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, the man was being a dick to the Apothecary…although slightly unintentionally. But that didn't matter. As much as she cared for The Man Made of Stars, she kicked him out in the end. So the man travelled back to go search for the bride. Turns out she was looking for him, too. It was a match made in heaven. They walked inside volcanoes without fear and plunged themselves into the dark. They even met a—a psychic, yeah. A psychic made of music who knew everything about who and what the Man of Stars was without him saying a single word.

"But…but eventually that had to come to an end. After all, the stars last forever but people don't. Not always. One day they were walking along in the sky—the first time the man had done such a thing—and…she fell. Broke her head. And she forgot…and he—he couldn't fix her up again. So he switched around the constellations on his body and he went back up to the sky, looking down on everybody. That is, until he tripped."

"You would think after all that walking and running he wouldn't be so clumsy," Cordelia interjects, and that sends me into a fit of laughter that lasts a good twenty seconds.

"Maybe the constellations of his legs were slightly off," the Doctor defends. He looks over to me. "Keep going."

That makes me look at him twice. "You—you're enjoying this?"

"Of course!" he proclaims. He leans in and drops his voice down to a whisper. "Love a good story. And I think yours might win as the best of the lot."
"Excuse me, this is not a competition," Jay reminds him. He frowns. "It…it isn't, right?"

"Course it isn't," Cordelia reassures him. Her eyes lock onto mine and I feel my heart leap into my chest. "Now go on. Finish it up."

I gulp and clear my throat. "S-So the man—The Man Made of Stars—he fell. And fell and fell and fell. He fell a lot, and by a lot I mean a fucking lot. Until he didn't. And he was in the backyard of the Water Girl. She got him feeling better, to the point he decided to go take a quick trip to get some food. And…um, and during that time it rained, so being made of water the girl grew. She grew into the Water Woman, and put herself in a glass body so that she wouldn't grow anymore. And when he returned, the man saw the Water Woman standing there, along with her husband, a great Warrior. And—oh, the things they did. The stuff they saw. They watched star whales glide across the sky and ran into beasts that were invisible when you weren't looking. All in all, they had a great time.

"Their adventures went for a long time. So long that—that the glass body the Water Woman had was breaking, and she started growing again. And then the scary things happened. She grew too much, too fast, and the man couldn't help her. The Warrior grew along with her. They cracked and they burst and so the man sent them back to where they belonged, because he couldn't have things breaking around him when he was already broken.

"And…and after he left them he saw the psychic again. She told him that he was going to die. And he got scared and ran farther away than he had before. Because, when you live so long, you kind of forget that you can really die. And the stars are no exception. He ran and he ran. He got stuck with a tagalong or two, and then…the constellations of his legs flickered out. And he stopped running, for the first time."

I don't dare say another word, because I believe I've gotten my point across by the wide eyes and tightly wound mouths of everyone staring at me.

But of course, the idiot always proves me wrong.

"And what happened after that, Jenna?" the Doctor asks. He's got a heavy look in his eyes, weighed with hope and despair at the same time and it's almost maddening.

I look over to him. I don't dare tell him the truth, because even though it would probably lift that despair from his face and solve most of his problems it isn't the right time. And I know that he still hopes that he can get out of this—which he will, he's usually right about those things—and I want to tell him everything will end up okay but then there's the timeline to worry about.

Change the timeline. Destroy the Doctor.

You didn't think I forgot about all of that, did you? Because I didn't. And I certainly haven't forgotten it now.

So that's why I reluctantly drag my eyes up to meet his and take a deep breath. That's why I say what I say. Because in order to save him, I've got to hurt him. And boy, is this going to hit him in the kisser.

"Jenna?" the Doctor repeats. "What happened to the man?"

"He died," I state simply. "The Man Made of Stars stopped running for the first time, and for the last time. His constellations flickered out and he died. The End."

"Didn't know original Earth had such depressing stories," Li-Ann whispers. "No wonder you lot gave up the first time the solar flares came around."

The Doctor continues to look at me, shoulders sagged and his face unreadable. He blinks a couple times. "I, er…I need to use the facilities. Looks like I ate too many of those gourds, eh?" He gives a humorless laugh. "I'll just, erm…I'll just go."

He stands up and walks down the beach, turning over into the woods and disappearing into the trees. He's got a noticeable hunch in his back and his hands are balled into fists.

It makes my stomach twist into knots and I feel like vomiting up the truth but I can't. Not to him, at least.

"Why's he so upset?" Jay asks. "It was just a story."

"Some people get emotional over the little things," Cordelia says. "Happens to the best of us."
I lick my lips and wring my hands until I can't take it anymore. "Um…hey you guys want to know a secret?"

Li-Ann frowns. "You look nervous. What is it?"

"Well," I say. "I kind of—I kind of lied about the ending there. That was just for the Doctor. For…reasons. He doesn't like endings too much anyways."

"What reasons are those?" Li-Ann asks.

"Really stupid ones," I answer. "But, the thing is—" I glance back to see if he's still sulking. When I see nothing, I turn around. "The Man Made of Stars lived. He stopped running and he lived, because he was a moron and a genius at the same time and you never knew which one he'd be next. He lived and I'd be shitting you if I said he wasn't amazing."

"Then how does it end?" Jay asks.

"It ends when people grow tired of him. And I haven't seen that happen yet." I shake my head. "But you can't tell the Doctor, got it? Or I'll end you."

"Big words coming from an adolescent," Jay points out.

"I'm almost seventeen, that's one year away from being a legal adult," I argue. "Stupid-face."

"I'm an engineer, I think that counts as the exact opposite of stupid."

There's a rustle and the Doctor reappears, a smile plastered on his face that's obviously fake and a planted skip in his step. He plops down next to me.

"Ah, much better," he says. He looks around. "Did I miss anything?"

"Oh, no," Li-Ann says. "Nothing at all."

#

We all fall asleep at some point in the night, some later than others. I'm one of the last, planting my head on the soft mound of cool sand and dozing for a couple hours. I sleep in darkness, nothing coming across in my head other than brief flashes of the night sky and light and rasping voices. Nothing new, really.

I'm jolted awake suddenly, with no reason whatsoever other than that the tide is farther out than before and the waves are crashing over each other much more frequently. Dawn is just cracking on the horizon. I sit up, looking around to see if anybody else is awake. Jay is snoring with a hand over his face, and Li-Ann is lying on her stomach with her arms pillowing her head.

The Doctor is nowhere to be found. And neither is Cordelia.

For a moment, a panic rises in my throat that something might have happened. He can't die yet, he can't die at all. No, no. He won't. He hasn't.

I scramble to stand up and look around me, checking my surroundings and finding his jacket in the sand. I search through his pockets but can't find a screwdriver, just a bunch of scrap metal and…pens? Why the hell does he have so many pens? I take out my own device and start turning it.

"Come on, there's got to be a setting," I mutter to myself, twisting it and searching for one even though I actually don't know how to tell I'm on the right setting. Yeah, it's pretty dumb in retrospect.

But then I hear the faint sound of tinkering, and I look up. And there he is.

He's fixing the boat. Because…oh. Because he doesn't sleep. I had forgotten about that. You know, that day and night actually happen and he doesn't go to bed at night like the rest of us. In the TARDIS, it's like a long, never ending day.

His shadow is bent into the shadow of the boat, and he's obviously trying to fix wires together with just the tiniest hint of daylight. What an idiot.

The panic lessens for a moment, but starts back up again when I realize that I also have to worry about Cordelia.

I don't see her shadow anywhere.

I run over to the Doctor, who's still inside the boat. "Hey!" I say, but quiet enough that I don't wake up Li-Ann or Jay. It doesn't work. "Hey!"

"What?" the Doctor asks. He begins to pull himself out of the boat, but bangs his head. "Oh, bloody—" He stands up, looking slightly more annoyed than usual. "What?"

"Have you seen Cordelia anywhere?" I ask. "I can't find her, she's not back at the fire."

"I saw her go down that way earlier," he says, pointing to his right. "Said she was going on a walk. Why?" He leans in, smiling. "Are you concerned?"

I frown. "No! I—" I halt myself. "Okay, yeah. I'm concerned." He raises his eyebrows, posing a silent question. "What? What do you want me to say, that I can't live a single second without her or something? Because, in case you haven't remembered, I've only known for a day or so. No, no." I shake my head. "No. I like her but I'm not some sort of lovesick Juliet, fuck that." I stop, running over my words in my head. "Wait, I didn't mean—"

"Ha!" the Doctor laughs. "You like her. You said it."

"I—I…" I sigh. "Fine, you're right. I like her. But that doesn't make any sense! I like dudes, I kiss dudes!"

"If there's one thing I know about you humans, it's that nothing is set in stone," he advises. "Your ways, your culture, your ideas. It's always fluid, always changing. Nothing is ever concrete. And there are no exceptions."

I let the air out of my nose and look around. "Then what do I do?" I ask him.

He nods over to his right. "You heard me say where she was. What do you think?"

I blush, but nod. "Um. Okay. Then I'll just—go?"

He nods again, and I nod back. I start walking in the direction going towards Cordelia when I hear the Doctor shout, "Don't do anything stupid!"

I turn around. "I won't!"

That is a complete lie. I'm willing to do anything stupid when it comes to this.

I find her sitting in the sand, near the retreating tide and watching the ocean fight to claw its way onto shore. I jog over and sit next to her, shaking her from whatever deep thought she was currently in.

"Why'd you leave the fire?" I ask.

Cordelia looks at me, boring into my face with her bright blue eyes. "That story you told last night," she says. "That was about the Doctor, wasn't it?"

I hesitate. "Yeah," I tell her. "Yeah, it was."

She frowns. "How do you know so much about him?"

"Back where I'm from, he…he's pretty famous," I explain, because it's the truth and lying to her just doesn't seem like the right thing to do. I'm not protecting her from anything by telling any lies about this. "You didn't answer my question."

She tears her gaze away from me and looks back out to the water. "I was thinking about just jumping into the water and ending it. Having them find me, saving you lot from all the trouble." She tosses the egg from one hand to the other. "But then I wasn't."

My breath hitches. "What made you change your mind?"

She smirks. "Well, first I reminded myself that it would be kind of a stupid looking way to die, over an egg," she points out, and laughs a bit. "And secondly…I didn't want to leave you…all." She stumbles over the last word a bit, like she's trying to make up for something.

"Oh," I say. "Um. Thanks, then, for…not sacrificing yourself? Yeah." I smile. "It would suck if you weren't alive."

"You've only known me for long," she reminds me. "You don't know everything about me. For all I know, if you spend another day with me you'll want to throw me overboard."

"No, I wouldn't," I argue. Her head snaps up at that. "I mean, of course I don't know you too well. That's obvious. But I know you enough to want to know more about you. And if you died, that wouldn't happen. And that would really suck ass, to be honest."

She blinks. "That's…that's the nicest thing I've ever had said to me."

My chest feels like a moth is flying around inside of it. "W—well, don't tell anybody that," I say. "Next thing you know the Doctor will ask me to go to a planet where the galactic Tickle Fight Championships are held or take me to a city that's the Pink Dress capital of the universe." I pause. "Actually, the second one doesn't sound so bad. But you get the point."

"So, what?" Cordelia asks. She grins and pokes me with her gloved hand. "Have I cracked that hard shell of yours?"

I mean to laugh it off and tell her to stop it, but instead I feel my face heat up and the corners of my mouth draw up.

"Yes," I say. "Yes, you have." I laugh. "Congratulations, it took the Doctor much longer." And that's only because I had a breakdown. "And it's probably only because I like you. A lot."

"Oh," she says. "…oh."

I wave my hand. "It's fine if you're not going in the same direction, because frankly all of this is new to me. But um…yeah. I just figured, 'Hey, we might be stuck on this island for a while so why not get it off my chest?'" My voice breaks.

This was a bad idea. A bad, bad idea. Worst idea. I can't do this, she's going to completely avoid me now. I can't do this I can't I can't I—

"Well, that's a relief," she says, sighing. "For a moment there I thought…well."

I gulp. "Thought what?"

She grins. "Oh, um, nothing. Nothing at all. Just I, uh…" She stops tossing the egg back and forth and places it in front of her feet. "It's stupid, but I thought I was putting you off."

Oh, honey, you were doing the exact opposite.

That's what I want to say, but that sounds really cheesy. In fact, everything sounds too cheesy. There is not a single response that isn't cliché or cheesy or just downright embarrassing. I can't say anything without making an idiot of myself.

So I kiss her instead.

It's quick and lasts maybe less than ten seconds, but it's nice and warm and comforting. And then it ends.

I'm the first one to pull away. "I'm sorry," I say. "I'm sorry, I should've asked you if you…sorry, I didn't think."

"Then ask me now," Cordelia says without missing a beat.

I blink. "Um. Do you want me to kiss you?"

"No."

Oh.

"I want to kiss you."

Well that's cheesy as hell. Good thing I didn't say it.

She leans in and she's soft and her lips are great. Like 10/10 great would recommend. Cordelia lips are on my list of things that make the universe slightly better, for sure.

She's leaning in so much and I'm almost about to fall over so I wrap my arms around her neck to anchor myself to her. She makes a little noise at that and it's wonderful, I don't think I've heard anything more amazing. Just, wow.

I won't bore you with details, especially if it's you because you probably don't want to hear this anyways. But long story short this keeps going on for another twenty minutes with the occasional breaks for air and all those things. And if I needed to tell someone about a moment I've been happy, it would be this.

We're so focused on kissing each other senseless we don't even notice the egg get lapped up by the tide, much less hear it crack open.

#

I'm so sorry for all the late updates, and it's mostly because my whole DW inspiration has gone down the toilet. Once the 50th and all the Christmas special come out I'm sure it'll kick back into gear, but right now…I'm just not feeling it.

I'm not going on an official hiatus, but I'm just saying that at this point updates will probably be few and far between when it comes to my DW fics.

That's not to say I won't continue writing fanfiction. I've got some ideas that have been swimming around in my head for a while but have been put off since I've been stressing over this fic so much. So look out for those, if you want.

I was going to actually publish this a lot earlier, but I hit writers block halfway through and then went completely overboard with the storytelling part. For that, I apologize.

What I don't apologize for is me pairing up Jenna and Cordelia, because I had this set up for MONTHS and there is no way I'm saying sorry for that.

Reviews are very much appreciated!

What are your thoughts? Did I set up the relationship right? Was my 'Man Made of Stars' story any good? Was the kiss good?

See you guys later!

-JustStandingHere