Chapter Text
The day I met The Doctor, was the day he saved me, from myself. I didn't even realise who he was to begin with, none of us did. But out of everyone there, he was the only one to talk to me, he didn't even have to, but he did, and by talking alone, he saved me.
It was on set I first met him, I had been called in to be an extra on a new Doctor Who episode, with Matt Smith, playing the Eleventh Doctor, between companions. To my surprise, I'd been asked to be the main female lead, that is, I was the leader of the group of scientists who had created a new life form, that was hell bent on destroying our lab and us inside. It was Exhilarating! The first few scenes without a hitch, the chasing, the devouring, meeting the Doctor, the first words, the panic. For the first time in weeks, I felt alive. Like I had a purpose. Every scene was done so perfect we didn't even have to redo it, odd, but I accepted it. That should have been my first clue, thinking back on it. Well, that and we were told beyond a few basic lines to just ad lib everything, act that we were actually in that situation.
Then, things went wrong.
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The set was perfect, a group of five racing towards a set of doors, the first two got shut easy enough. We struggled between holding them shut, and closing the final door of the junction. The creatures were at both doors, growling and throwing themselves at the doors, trying to get in, while the Doctor and I worked on closing the jammed door.
"So, how did you say these creatures were created?" Matt as the Doctor asked, sonicking everything he could.
"I didn't, and as head of the project the only thing I will say is the project is classified." Trying every code we had on the keypad, huffing back frustration as it denied everything.
"Well unclassify it before you get us all killed! And move over, you'll never get the keypad to work, they locked us out." Shoving me aside he aimed his sonic screwdriver at the keypad as multiple combinations scrolled through the screen."
".. I don't have clearance to unclassify it. Only to run the project, and thats not possible, they are mindless beasts, what we did shouldn't have caused them to do that!"
"With all due respect, Ms Greynce, the only mindless beast I see here is YOU! Now tell me what you did!" A deep scowl settled over his face, as I inwardly flinched at the words, before drawing myself up, bringing forth one of the few lines I had to memorise.
"We were asked to create soldiers in a sense, attack dogs, so we did, we found a way to enhance the chemicals that induce blind rage, and strength and amplified it, along with hunting senses, we spliced together genes from various animals including humans, giving them the best attack traits possible. That is all, and it was a success as you can see! Now, move over!"
Right as I told him to move over the creatures breached the two doors eating the two holding them shut, in front of us, well, clawing them, the stunt people did a great job with the blood packs, I grabbed the door and heaved with all my might, heaving it closed and deadlocking it, huffing as I leaned against it, shooting a proud smile at Matt, who as the Doctor only frowned at me, opening his mouth, only to be cut off.
"Take a break people! We'll continue in an hour!"
Frowning more, Matt looked at the creatures now lumbering away before dashing off to who knows where, I grabbed my lunch and a book and read while I ate, before stretching and going for a wander. It didn't take log to find Matt, leaning over papers and fiddling with the Sonic prop. I called out to him as I approached.
"Hey Matt!"
Without even looking up he waved me off, his face still furrowed in a frown, I was starting to worry it'd be permanent. "No autographs or photos sorry! I'm busy!"
Slumping deeply into my usual slouch, I felt all energy and my mask slip. "Then, could you, maybe, give me some encouraging words to help me see a light in this long dark tunnel?"
He looked up at that, and actually looked at me, his gaze softening as he finally saw me, and his face softened into a surprised look, "Are you, depressed?"
I looked at him sheepishly, even more hunched, and held up my fingers close together, the universal 'a little bit' sign, before nodding hard, surprising us both when i started to tear up. He ushered me over to him, offering a seat beside him, before wrapping one arm around me in a tight, extremely comforting hug, as he started to explain what he was doing.
"You see, this doesn't make any sense! A Tv show about me? And not even that, one that has little in ways of a script, and those creatures seemed too real to be fake, especially for, what is this, 21st century?" he paused, looking at me, so I nodded, "The sonic is giving odd readings too, about everything, so, how bout the two of us go snooping around? See if we can't get to the bottom of this?"
I looked at him calmly, calmer than I should have been, which, in hindsight on both our parts, mostly his, should have been increasingly worrying. "So, you aren't Matt Smith the Actor, you are the actual Doctor, the run away Time Lord from Gallifrey who stole a Tardis, and is investigating this? Why by the way? What got your attention about this?"
In reply he simply handed over his psychic paper, 'Sweetie, something fishy is happened at a tv studio, I'm busy, check it out, go help them, x.'
Handing it back over I raised an eyebrow, "sweetie? who sent you that?"
He flushed, before glancing back at the message again, shocked it was changed, before schooling his face to show no reaction, rereading the new message, 'I'm so tired of fighting, of living, why can't people see that? see me?'
"Uh River Song did, she's, uh, its complicated, lets go explore!"
He leapt up, grabbing my hand and yanking me out of the seat, the constant touch comforting, I couldn't remember a time someone had touched, or even interacted with me. Together we walked over to one of the many locked 'staff only' doors, where he sonicked it, and we slipped in, unnoticed.
"So," He asked as we explored the crew only corridors, "what makes you depressed? No wait, that was rude, I'm meant to be comforting, why ask me for help, I mean, me specifically, even before you knew I was me I mean. Hmmm, you don't have to answer if that was intruding, but, I mean, you did ask for help." The more flustered he got, the more lively his hands got, including the one with a solid grip on me, and I couldn't help the small grin that spread across my face, before folding away. My grip on his hand increasing without me realising.
"I asked you, back when I thought you were just an actor, because, I love the show, the adventures, and seeing him, you, being with you, before I knew it was you, made it feel like I was on one of those adventures, and that I could escape everything, and just, run." I paused, gathering my thoughts, playing absently with our hands, without even noticing, as I looked down passages we passed, "Every time I watched, when I saw you, things would, feel clearer, I felt like I could trust you, like you could, save me from myself." I had whispered the last part, and tore my hand away, digging my nails in to stop the thoughts I could just feel brimming to the walls I'd built in my head, constructed to keep them, and everything else, out.
The Doctor watched me, I could feel it, I didn't know though he had caught some of the thoughts before I moved my hand away, glimpses more than anything else, but before he could address it, one of the crew, the head of 'props' department walked around the corner, the two creatures muzzled and on leads, we all froze, before, "What are you doing down here?"
We looked at each other, "Run?" I asked.
"Run."
Grabbing my hand, we turned and bolted, we heard the chains drop as we turned a corner, and found ourselves on the set we'd just been filming on. I got to shutting the two doors, while the Doctor sonicked the door more, once i ran through i just heaved it shut, grabbed the sonic, pointed and wished the door to lock.
Click.
"Right, thats bought us time." I pause as the creatures crash against the first two doors, "To the lab set? Which is starting to feel like it will be the actual lab for which they were concocted," I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the lab set, "Because, I'm starting to think that they created those creatures, and were so proud of it they had to show them off, especially the creation, so they called us all here, on the premise of making a new Doctor Who episode, not realising the real Doctor, you, would show up, cause who would expect that? So the script is mostly accurate, because they wrote so few lines, which, incidentally, was only the scientist roles anyway. So, that means the line I said earlier, about how they were created was real, and we should, in theory, find their notes in the lab, because they'd want to show off just how smart they were, which means it'd be right on top in easy range for our resident genius to read and hopefully fix."
"Resident genius?"
I gave him a pointed look before opening the lab door and pushing him towards the desk as I close the door and lock it.
"OOOOOH! ME!" Grabbing the papers he pulled out his glasses and started reading as I scoured the lab, keeping an ear out, placing the Sonic near him again, before browsing over the various screens, finding a camera screen, and seeing something I didn't like. Checking out the door again for the creatures, I hit the button for a door and entered, gasping as I do.
"Doctor?"
Silence.
"Doctor?!"
A rustle of papers, the chair falling over before he peeked around the corner.
"What? I've almost found a solution, a way to reverse this and- oh."
Before us were numerous tubes full of more creatures, in various stages of growth, some almost fully sized. The closer we got, the more active they seemed, even in their sleep stasis.
"Doctor? What do we do?"
"Huh?"
"What do we do? They were bred to only attack, I somehow doubt they can be convinced to be peaceful, or even talk, we have two still hunting us now," I pause as the air vents just above us rattle and I look up in time to see sharp claws piercing the metal like it was butter. "Correction, they found us, so, WHAT DO WE DO?"
He fumbled with chemicals, nearly knocking over several tubes, until I walked over and held everything still, silent as he works on a cure. Minutes that feel like hours pass, as he mutters hes almost finished, when a crashing occurs, telling him Im on it, I grab a fire extinguisher, and arm it, moving to the source of the crash, freezing as the two that were chasing us broke the containers holding the fully grown creatures, I must have made a noise because all six of them turned towards me and advanced. Holding my ground, I must have looked braver than I felt, my only focus was on protecting the Doctor as he worked, if I got injured, so be it.
I sprayed the closest in the face with the foam, getting a direct hit on its eyes, with no time to celebrate as the others were approaching. Spraying wildly across the lot of them, I kicked a spin chair towards them, getting a strike as they all fell, before the back one got up, leapt over the group and got a slash on my arm, making me his in pain and drop the extinguisher. The sharp claw going deep into my skin, before the adrenaline took over and I felt nothing, except a dull throb, and I caused a distraction until the Doctor ran in with a spray bottle and sprayed the group of six, making them all drop dead. Dispatching the remainder of the solution into the cylinders, he turned to me with a bright grin.
"So. How was that?"
With a faint grin, I gave him the thumbs up, saying, "Well done hero."
He blushed before he spotted the blood, just in time too. I'd forgotten to wrap something around it, and I was badly bleeding, just as he reached me, I stumbled into his open arms, and he swung me into a piggy back, wrapping his bow tie around the wound tightly. He carried me to the TARDIS, but before we could reach it, he ran into the people behind everything.
"You scientists must have one hell of a God complex! Thinking you can design, and control enhanced creatures that are super soldiers, not to mention filming the whole thing once it's successful! You endangered everyone here! If you don't wish the Shadow Proclamation involved, I suggest you run. Far away, live a quiet life, and no more trouble, and do so fast."
Leaving them stunned, he took me into his beautiful ship, down t the infirmary, habit forcing him to use his screwdriver, before the realisation he left it in the Lab, with flustered gestures he took off, returning moments later, after the TARDIS scanned me. Dressing my wounds, before sitting beside me.
"Look, I can't promise it won't be dangerous, because it will be, but, would you like to join me travelling for a bit?"
"Travel with you? See the stars, new planets, past and future? Oh hell yes!"