A/N: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the characters originally found in the series. I do not own any dialogue or plotlines originally found in the series. Anything not found in the show is mine.

The school bell rang loudly along the hallways alerting each student in the building of their freedom from their seven hour long prison.

Dozens of teenagers flooded the corridor and at the very end of it stood Ariel Parsons, shuffling her large books in her small arms before trudging out with the others.

She brushed her short brown hair behind her ear and tried to stay hidden in the crowd as she marched out to the front gates of the school to begin her journey home.

Desperate to tune out the loud chaos of the rowdy teenagers, she plugged in her earphones and turned the volume up as loud as possible.

Ariel had never fit in with any of the ther kids in her class. Her mother liked to claim it was because she was an old soul, but Ariel honestly just never saw the point in getting loud and being as unruly as they were. There were much simpler ways to be happy, and they never seemed to realize that.

Sure, her strange interests made her stand apart from from the crowd and left everyone wary of her, unwilling to become her friend, but she had never preferred the way they have fun to her own.

Sometimes the simple things in life were the best.

She changed the song on her phone, her attention momentarily diverted.

That was just enough time he needed to land directly in front of her path.

The loud wheezing filled the street. It was enough to make anyone look up with, at the very least, a small confused frown. That would be if the only person on the street had been able to hear the wheezing.

Ariel clicked on another Frank Sinatra song to flood her eardrums and looked up just in time to walk right into a large blue police box.

She jumped back and groaned, clutching her head in pain. She rubbed her forehead roughly and tugged her earbuds out of her ears, looking up at the blue box with a small frown.

"What the hell?" She breathed.

The door on the left side of the box creaked as it swung open and a very concerned looking man jumped out.

His messy brown hair seemed to have a mind of its own as it pointed in each direction, defying gravity and appearing in dire need of a comb simultaneously. He wore a long brown coat that reached down to his feet like something a detective in an old novel would wear. Underneath the coat he had on a bright blue suit and a striped tie. Ariel looked down and fought back laughter at the sight of his shoes. While everything on the mysterious man appeared to wear the demeanor of sophisticated and ancient, his ratty Converses made him look like a lost uni student in desperate need of a map reference.

She met his eyes and was almost taken aback by how old they made him look. His eyes appeared worn down, tired, but curious nonetheless. The man looked like he had seen far too much ugly and bad in the world, but still was curious and anxious to see what else he could learn in the slim hope that he would see some good. His eyes made him look almost elderly but his body didn't wear the age. His body made him look like he might be in his early to mid thirties.

With a start, Ariel realized that the man had been staring at her the whole time she was studying him, almost appearing bemused by her fascination.

"Why, hello there!" The man exclaimed delightfully. He had a lighthearted London accent that made Ariel smile softly. It had been a while since her ears had the pleasure of meeting another London accent.

"Hi," Ariel mumbled, barely speaking above a whisper.

"I hate to bother you, but do you mind telling me where I am?" The man requested, closing the creaking door of the box behind him and stepping out toward her.

Ariel frowned, confused by what the man was asking.

"You don't know where you are?" She prompted. This man's personality was seeming to be just as strange as his attire and the magically appearing blue box he stepped out of.

"Afraid not," the man shrugged. "But you seem like you're from around here so would you care to enlighten me?"

"I'm not," Ariel muttered, keeping her eyes fixated on the ground as she was far too nervous to meet the confident man's warm gaze.

"Sorry?" He implored with a gently raised eyebrow.

"I'm not from around here. I'm from Winchester," Ariel sighed.

"Ah," the man nodded in understanding, looking at his surroundings with a frown. "And we're in?"

"Edinburgh."

The man's eyes widened in understanding, glancing around at his surroundings as though the vacant street would confirm her words. With a soft sigh, turned his attention back down to the woman shifting uncomfortably in front of him.

"What's a Winchester girl like yourself doing in a place like Edinburgh?" He wondered.

"Mum got a job," Ariel shrugged. "It's rubbish, but she forced us to move here last month."

"And I take it you're not very fond of Edinburgh?" The man guessed, watching her steadily with amused eyes.

Ariel sighed. "I don't exactly like it, no."

"Well, have you told your mother this?"

"Only a hundred times," Ariel smiled softly. "She won't listen. She says it's a good opportunity to make it big." Her eyes widened and she looked up at the man. For some reason she felt the need to tell him everything about herself. She didn't know what it was, but she felt some sort of magnetic field drawing her to the mysterious man. She didn't even know his name and yet she was ready and willing to sit down and tell him her life story.

She took a step back and met him with uneasy eyes.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor," the man greeted kindly, holding out a hand for her to shake. "And you are?"

Ariel ignored his attempt at formality and took another step back, shaking her head. "Doctor who?" She frowned.

The man just chuckled and used his outstretched hand to itch the back of his head anxiously. "That's it. Just the Doctor," he shrugged.

"Your name is the Doctor?"

"Yep," he smiled softly. "That's me."

"I don't believe you."

"Well, why not?" He wondered innocently, his tired face falling into that of a childlike curiosity.

"Nobody's called the Doctor. That's just a strange name for a mother to give her child."

"Why is that?"

"Because that's forcing a career on her baby. That's like naming your child Prime Minister when more than anything they want to be a writer."

"I like to think of it as a way of life. Doctor's aren't cruel. They don't shy away from what needs to be done and they're sworn never to injure another living being."

Ariel frowned and thought over his words for a moment. "I suppose that's a bit better," she shrugged. "So, you're really called the Doctor?"

"That's me," he beamed.

"Okay, then," Ariel hesitated, still wary of the man but willing to accept his strange demeanor. She held out her hand. "I'm Ariel Parsons."

"Ah, Ariel. Like the mermaid," the Doctor grinned.

"Yeah, you have no idea how many times I heard that growing up," Ariel moaned.

"All too often I'd imagine," the Doctor chuckled and she nodded firmly.

Ariel was fascinated by the man, though odd, he seemed kind and warm-hearted. She realized that she'd like to know a lot more about the man and felt herself being drawn towards him like he was the main character in a novel ready to embark on a daring adventure and she was the plucky young sidekick he needed by his side to keep him alive.

"How did you get here?" Ariel wondered. She remembered seeing him walk out of the blue box that had magically appeared in the middle of the pavement, but she knew full well that before she had looked away there had been no blue box in her path.

"Would you like to see?" The Doctor asked with a knowing smirk.

"Is this just some clever attempt to get me into the back of some old van and kidnap me?" Ariel blurted aloud and the Doctor laughed before shaking his hand.

"Trust me, you'll enjoy this," the Doctor promised before holding out his hand.

Ariel hesitated before nodding and grabbing his hand.

He guided her towards the blue box that, once they had walked around to the front, Ariel saw it was a police call box. Like the ones she had seen pictures of in her history books. She frowned at the box and the man standing before it, desperately trying to get it to unlock with one hand.

Once he finally achieved his goal, he let out a soft sigh and pushed the door open gently. It creaked loudly despite only being open a small crack.

The Doctor turned to Ariel with a sloppy grin. "Ladies first," he said politely, gesturing for her to walk in front of him.

Ariel narrowed her eyes at him. "It's just a police box."

"Would you like to see that for yourself?" The Doctor asked, still smirking at her as though he knew the answer to every question he posed but couldn't help finding the fun in asking anyway.

Ariel was still confused and felt a million questions swirl around on the tip of her tongue, but they all died the second she saw a bright light beaming in from the door. She frowned and pushed the door open wider.

The interior of the box was much larger than the exterior.

Bright lights flickered across the interior and she tiptoed across the metal walkway leading towards the huge console chugging along, fueling the machine around her.

She felt like her breath had been stolen from her chest.

Ariel spun around the machine, wonderstruck by the beautiful lights and she turned back to the Doctor, who was beaming at her from the entrance.

"What is this?" She asked breathlessly.

"I call her the Tardis. Stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space."

"So, that's how you got here out of nowhere," Ariel concluded with a nod. "This. She can travel and take you places."

"Yep," the Doctor grinned and nodded to the machine. He bounced into the Tardis, loudly jumping on the metal walkway. "She can take you anywhere in all of time and space, and she's all mine."

"Anywhere in time and space?" Ariel repeated with large eyes.

"Anywhere," the Doctor confirmed with a smile.

"How is this possible?" Ariel wondered. "Is it magic? Like Harry Potter?"

The Doctor chuckled. "No, not magic. Alien," he corrected.

"You own an alien ship? How did you get one?"

"I am one."

Ariel's eyes widened and her heart stopped. "You're an alien? Wha-How? Where from?"

"I'm from a planet called Gallifrey. I'm a Time Lord."

"You look human," Ariel remarked, admiring his handsome physique for a moment.

"You look Time Lord," the Doctor retorted. "We came first."

Ariel nodded in understanding and glanced back at the still open door, trying to give her mind time to process all the information he was bombarding her with.

"So, if you're from another planet, why did you come here? We can't possibly be more interesting than an alien planet."

"Believe me, if you were from Gallifrey, you would be saying the same thing about anyone going there. It was gorgeous but it was mind-numbingly dull."

Ariel chuckled and nodded, understanding the feeling completely.

However, as her smile fell, there was still a question itching in the back of her mind that had yet to be answered.

"But, why here? Why now? If you've got all of time and space why would you choose this moment?"

"That is something I have yet to discover," the Doctor replied honestly.

"What do you mean?" Ariel frowned.

"The Tardis brought me here. Some sort of immediate danger that I need to help with, but I can't exactly work out what. As far as I can tell there's not much around here other than a couple houses."

"There's the secondary school."

"What?" The Doctor turned with furrowed eyebrows.

"School just let out. It's right around the corner. I can show you if you want."

"That would be brilliant," the Doctor beamed. He grabbed a small metallic object with a blue light on the end off the console, simultaneously lighting up another question in Ariel's mind.

"What is that?" She asked, gesturing to the object as she walked out of the Tardis with the Doctor and he closed the door behind them.

"What? Ah, this is my sonic screwdriver. It scans the area. It'll tell us what's in the area, opens anything we may need to get into and so on."

"So, it's like a magic wand?" Ariel smirked.

"Sort of, but not really."

"Close enough," Ariel shrugged. "So what do you think is gonna be at the school? Do you think there could be danger?"

"Could be. I hope not, but I never know these days."

"So, what? You just fly around all of time and space stopping danger and saving people?"

"That's the job," he nodded.

"Do you ever have anybody helping you? Like a John Watson to your Sherlock Holmes?"

The Doctor chuckled before sighing softly. "I used to. Martha, her name was. Martha Jones. And she, well she fancied me."

Ariel giggled. "Mad Martha that one. Falling in love with an alien."

The Doctor smiled softly at the young woman as they turned the corner. "So, you never finished saying. What really brought you here?"

"My Mum used to write for this paper in Winchester. It was a small town sort of thing, but she was pretty good at it. She loved interacting with people and helping them share their stories with the world. She was so good at it that a big paper round here rang her up and offered her a job. Much more pay. Enough to get us out of our tiny little flat and up here in the bigger cities. I didn't want to move, but she didn't really give me a choice."

"What about your father?" The Doctor frowned. "Did he get any say in this?"

"My father's dead," Ariel said blunty and the Doctor froze.

"I'm so sorry, I-."

"No, it's alright. He died when I was a kid. Car accident. It doesn't affect me too much now, but it ruined my mum. She threw herself into her work and stopped listening to other people's opinions on what was best. She thought she was some sort of all knowing goddess. She didn't even care about what her daughter thought," Ariel mumbled, kicking a small stone by her foot.

Before the Doctor could respond, they reached the large open gates of her school.

"Ah, here we are," Ariel announced.

The school was deserted despite it having only been less than an hour since school let out.

Everyone was desperate to leave.

Even Ariel herself was slightly disappointed at her rapid return to the school.

They headed inside and silently marched through the corridors, looking through the emptiness to find some sign of something out of place.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic and began to scan the area. They walked around, silent as mice while listening to the noisy whir of the screwdriver for some indication that something was wrong.

Just when he began to lower it, giving up hope that something might be there, a loud beeping echoed on his screwdriver.

The Doctor and Ariel both looked up at it mirroring the same expression of frozen shock.

"That's not good is it?" Ariel prompted, her voice barely above a whisper as she spoke, almost wary of what might hear her.

The Doctor took a deep breath and shook his head before firmly gripping his sonic and charging forward preparing himself for whatever battle he must fight.

Ariel almost wanted to grip his large brown coat and cower behind it in fear like a small child, but she knew as she looked up at the Doctor that backing away wasn't an option. She had to be brave because the other option wasn't allowed.

They tiptoed down the corridor and heard a loud robotic voice yelling from the very end of the corridor.

"That's the head teacher's office," Ariel breathed.

The Doctor's eyes widened and he grabbed Ariel's hand, pulling her away from the window on the door of the office. He moved her so she was right behind him, safe from harm's way as he peered into the office.

Inside he saw a balding man with blonde hair in a very formal suit looking horrified and frozen in terror at was laid before him.

The Doctor moved slightly to see what the head teacher was staring at and his heart stopped at the sight.

There in the middle of the office sat a Dalek pointing it's weapon straight into the face of the old man.

The Doctor inhaled sharply and moved away from the door to Ariel's confusion.

"What?" She breathed. "What is it?"

"Stay quiet, we need to listen," the Doctor instructed, pressing a finger to his lips.

Ariel nodded and the Doctor pressed his ear against the wall.

"You will do as we command," the Dalek said in it's angry robotic voice.

"I can't. I can't let you have the kids. I can't do it," the dying man cried.

"Then you will die a fool," the Dalek said simply.

"No," Ariel breathed.

The Doctor grabbed Ariel's hand. "Don't," he warned. The old Time Lord had far too much experience with humans and their reckless behavior to know Ariel was ready to scream or run in there not only revealing themselves to the Dalek but getting herself killed in the process.

"No, no, please don't kill me. I have a wife. I have kids. Please."

"Then you will give up the children or yours will die in their place," the Dalek replied coldly.

"No, no, please don't kill them. You can have the kids. All of 'em. Every last one. Just don't hurt my daughters."

"Something doesn't add up," the Doctor mumbled.

Ariel raised an eyebrow.

"If the Daleks wanted the kids in the school they would just take them. They wouldn't ask the permission of the head teacher. They would just take them. And even if they're in need of children, why these specific children?"

"I don't know," Ariel frowned.

"You must give us access to their locations."

"Yes, yes, just take it all," the man begged, spinning his laptop so the Dalek could place it's plunger on the screen and download all the information.

Once it had finished the download, it backed away from the desk and the head teacher wiped his sweat stained brow as he slowly pulled his laptop away, cautiously watching each and every movement the Dalek made.

"Sending files to Dalek ship. Sending."

"Right, your little buddies got the information. So, you can just-you can just leave us alone, yeah?" The head teacher said.

The Doctor winced. He knew all too well what the Dalek planned to do and it wasn't keeping the head teacher safe.

A battle tore out against himself. Part of him knew he should save the head teacher, but the older much wiser and reasonable part knew he should wait it out to see how many Daleks were actually there.

If one Dalek saw him and there were millions in the ship just waiting to attack, his life would be over before he could even get two words in.

"Thank you for your compliance," the Dalek said before shooting the man directly in the chest.

The head teacher let out one last dying scream before falling off his chair and onto the ground with a thud.

The Dalek disappeared from the room without another word. Most likely, teleporting back to the ship.

The Doctor closed his eyes solemnly in regret and turned back to Ariel to see her with both hands over her mouth and eyes wide appearing as though she may throw up, scream, or burst into tears.

"It killed him," Ariel gasped.

"I know," the Doctor nodded and pulled Ariel to his chest, rubbing her back as she tried to comprehend what she just heard. "There was nothing we could do. If we had walked in there, it would've just killed all three of us."

Ariel nodded, sniffing softly as she grabbed a fistful of his suit. "What was it? What killed him?"

"It's called a Dalek," the Doctor said. He pulled Ariel away and placed his hands on her shoulders, gazing intently into her stormy grey eyes, needing to make sure she was listening closely despite witnessing the death of her head teacher.

"They're a warrior race. The the most brutal warrior race. They're genetically engineered to feel nothing but hatred and despise everything that isn't them."

"Then why do they want the kids at this school?" Ariel wondered with a small frown.

"That's what I'm going to find out," the Doctor mumbled. "Thanks for your help but you should get back home to your mother. I believe she'll probably be wondering where you are by now."

He gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder before straightening and heading down the corridor, away from her. Ariel frowned and stared at the floor, her mind racing as she not only tried to process everything she had just seen and learned in those few hours alone, but what would happen next. With a sigh she knew that this was one of those moments in novels where the main character either decides to embark on what is sure to be one of the greatest adventures of their life, or just go home and never experience anything truly extraordinary again. She took a deep breath and turned to the Doctor's receding form. She wanted to travel with this man. Whatever it took and whatever she had to risk she knew that she wanted to see all that the universe had to offer her.

"Now, hold on a minute!" Ariel snapped. "You can't just leave after I've witnessed all that!"

"I'm not going to leave. Not yet anyway. I'm going to go up to that ship and stop them from doing whatever they plan on with all your classmates."

"Then, you're going to leave," Ariel nodded.

"Well," the Doctor sighed.

"No," Ariel shook her head.

"Pardon?" The Doctor prompted.

"I don't want to just go home back to that ordinary life after meeting you. No, I want to see what's out there."

"Really?" The Doctor smirked.

"Yeah, I'm tired of just living this quiet little life. Now that I know there's more out there. I wanna see it," Ariel smiled. "Besides, you said it yourself. You used to travel with someone and she left. I believe you're in need of a new John Watson."

"Is that so?"

"Yep," Ariel nodded, beaming at him.

The Doctor grinned. "Well then, Miss Ariel Parsons, let's go save your school," he said, holding out his hand for her.

She took his hand and smiled up at him before the pair took off running down the corridor back to the Tardis.