When The Time Comes

A.N.: Something to ease my muse's whining. Pamela just doesn't understand that I could fail Latin. Yes, I call my muse Pamela. Not sure if I will continue.

He walks into the building slowly, the grip on his bag tightening.

"You'll be sharing a room, Luke.", a middle aged woman, Ms. Nielsen, says, her jaw clenching, "It's on the second floor. No running on the stairs."

Luke sighs, following the grumpy woman up the stairs and ignoring the looks he gets from the kids he passes. He's the new guy, he gets it. Could they leave him alone?

They stop in front of the only door on the floor with no decorations; no names, no "keep out" or "stay away" signs - just a normal door. He laughs; the irony of living in a normal place in a normal room when his life - and he, too - is all but normal slowly setting down on him.

"Dinner is in half an hour - be late, be hungry.", Ms. Nielsen states and leaves, as if desperate to get out of the place as soon as possible.

Luke opens the door slowly - he's sharing the room and he doesn't want to disturb his roommate.

Roommate. It feels weird just thinking about living with someone other than Sarah Jane, let alone thirty others. It feels weird not being able to go up in the attick and ask Mr. Smith a question. Probably about the Doctor. He always asks about the Doctor. But Sarah Jane, Sarah Jane isn't here anymore. His mum isn't here.

His eyes water and he blinks the tears away, shaking his head. He can cry later.

Luke walks into the room, his look falling on the cold, white walls and the plain wooden furniture. It's simple and Luke concludes it's an orphenage thing.

"You can take that bed."

He stops his thinking and turns to the girl lying on the bed. Her eyes are closed and she is probably asleep. Maybe she was sleeptalking? Or maybe he was going crazy and imagining things?

"I'm not sleeping.", she says and opens her eyes, not moving any other part of her body, "I was just resting my eyes.", she closes them, but opens again quickly. She then sits up on the bed and leans on the wall. He notices her hands are shaking. She was perfectly still before. He moves and sets his things on the spare bed opposite of her.

"I spend my whole life waiting for these moments.", she says and he turns back around to face her, his face showing confusion. What moments? When she gets a new roommate? She moves a little, "When I don't have to see anything."

It's kind of weird for her - spilling her soul to a guy she just met - but she somehow feels like she knows him. Like she saw him somewhere and it kind of startles her for a moment. It doesn't surprise her, though, because she's seen a lot of people in her short life.

"What do you see?", he asks but then thinks how inappropriate the question is. He should just mind his own business.

She responds before he can apologise, "I always see something."

The answer has some kind of mystery to it, but it also sounds like she's waiting for him to say "I know." or something along those lines, but a moment later he thinks that it might have been a question she wants him to answer because she can't. He takes a good look at her for the first time since he walked into the room. Her brown hair reaches a little down her shoulders, looking like she hadn't comb it this morning. Her figure is really slim, like she doesn't eat at all and her clothes are too big for her as if she's wearing hand-me-downs from a boy twice her size. The thing that fascinates him most, though, is her face. She looks tired, but there aren't any circles under her eyes; her brown eyes always filled with confusion.

There's a mystery surrounding the whole girl, he realises and goes back to unpacking his stuff - he might as well make himself comfortable.

"You can unpack later.", she says and her voice sounds broken. She isn't as cheerful as before, "You'll be late for dinner."

"I ate before I got here.", he lies, but stops unpacking. He really doesn't care if his clothes aren't hung in the small closet.

"I'm Lee, by the way."

He lyes on the bed and turns his head to face her. She's leaning against the white wall and her hands are still shaking. Maybe she's cold?

"I'm Luke. Luke Smith."

She smiles, but her eyes still look confused.

"Nice to meet you, Luke."

You're running through fire. Through piles of dead bodies. It's chaos and you can't understand where you are. Rain falls on your face and your vision is blurry. You scream, ask for help, but your voice gets lost in the middle of gunfires and exploding bombs and swears in German.

You look to the left and there's a man standing there. He's wearing a uniform and you guess he's a soldier. His hair is cut short and he's holding a gun in his hand. He stands still, as if the rain isn't pouring on him, and it's like he's looking right at you. You scream again and again and again but he dismisses your voice just like he dismisses the rain.

He raises his gun and you think this is it. That you're going to die and you close your eyes. You wish you could understand this. That you could know what is happening. You open your eyes again just as he pulls the trigger and you look down at your chest.

Nothing. No blood. No hole. No death. Nothing.

Then you realise.

Not again.

You turn around quickly and you see an older woman falling to the ground, her face filled with agony and pain. She died screaming.

Lee opens her eyes and gasps, pulling the sheets tighter with her hands. She curses under her breath and looks to Luke's bed. He's sleeping.

Good. That's good.

She feels something warm on her cheek and brings her hand up to move away the tears. She blinks and there's a flash. A woman laughing. Lee blinks again and again and again and first there's a horse and then there's another soldier and then there's a big trash bin.

No. It can't be a trash bin. Trash bins don't talk.

She lets out a voiceless groan and the tears start running down her cheeks again. What is wrong with her? Why can't she understand it?

Don't blink, don't blink, don't blink.

She does.

Another person dies in front of her eyes.

She gives up on sleeping.

"Doctor?"

"Yes?"

Amy Pond exits the TARDIS. She turns her head around, looking at her whereabouts and then focuses her gaze on the Doctor, "I thought we were going to 18th century Italy."

The Doctor stops in his tracks and mimics Amy's movements from moments ago. He runs back into the blue box, almost knocking down Rory, and then back out again, as if maybe he'll walk out and actually be in Italy. He doesn't see the crooked tower in Pisa and big men making pizza and blabbling translated Italian in thick accents so they must not be in 18th century Italy.

"Something's wrong.", he simply states and smells the air. He plucks the grass and tastes it. He jumps on the asfalt and then in somebody's garden and then he comes back, "Except nothing is."

Amy looks at him and takes Rory's hand, "Do I have to ask or will you just tell me anyway?"

"We're in England."

Rory shakes his head, "So we haven't even left or?"

The Doctor lifts a finger in a knowing gesture - Rory's got a point. He rushes them inside again and closes the door. He runs to the control board and starts pushing different buttons. Setting the directions to 18th century Italy, he sighs. The TARDIS lets out a noise and the Doctor rushes out again.

Nothing.

"Doctor?", Amy asks again after he says nothing. Rory just looks around him - they haven't moved an inch.

"The time - it's 2012 - we came from the 80s.", he blabbles, pacing around, "But the place.. It's England. We haven't left England. Why?"

Amy's features fill with confusion and she shakes her head, "Something's wrong, Doctor?"

The Doctor nods.

"Everything's wrong."

She's shaking again.

"Are you alright?", he asks but she doesn't move an inch. She just stares in front of her, stares right at him but doesn't see him.

"Lee?", he grabs her by her shoulders and shakes her, "Lee, can you hear me? Lee?"

She blinks, "The time.. It's crashing together.", her shaking gets worse, "Time.. Space.. Everything.. Why? How?", tears escape her eyes and he just stares at her. Trying to see her. To understand her.

He's failing. He's been failing for weeks.

"Why do I see all of this? My head.. It's killing me.", she leans on the wall, her eyes still holding deep confusion, "Luke.. I think I need the Doctor."

He stops breathing and looks at her. How does she-? She can't know about the Doctor. She can't. Could she-? How?

Maybe, maybe she said a doctor. She couldn't have said the Doctor. He's just imagining things again.

"Do you know him, Luke? The Doctor?", she asks but he doesn't answer. He doesn't know how, to be frank, "I see him a lot. He keeps reappearing. And I saw you with him, too. You have to know him, Luke. Can you call him?"

Time crashing. Space colliding. The Doctor. How? What?

"I need him, Luke. The Doctor. My head..", she lets out a sigh. Of course he doesn't believe her. No one ever believes her. But, but he knows the Doctor. She saw him. He was there.

"You have a son?!" "Long story."

"I saw a lot of people with him, you know.", she says. She has to prove to him she's not making this up, "Not just you.", he's still holding her shoulders, but his grip is loosening. Maybe he believes her? Yes, he has to believe her. Her head.. It's killing her, "I don't know their names. I can't call them. I tried."

She remembers the strange pull she'd feel. She remembers writing notes and leaving them all over London. 11:37. A woman. A black woman. She'd come home and see it - a note, a time, written on a post it - and then she'd look at her watch and it'd be 11:37 and she'd just stare at it. Then she'd show it to another man, her husband, and he'd stare at it, too, and they'd be thinking about the Doctor because she saw them with the Doctor.

"Time and space crashing together. Planets. Centuries. Everything.", her voice is broken and she can see it all in front of her, "I see everything all the time now. You're just a blur, Luke. I can't see you.", she inhales a shaky breath.

"Lee, what is it?", he asks, "I believe you, alright? Now tell me, what do you see?"

She looks at him, and this time she sees him.

"Extirminate."