The rolling stretcher burst through the double doors surrounded by four others. One holding up the medical fluids bag, another yelling out vitals, one pushing as the Doctor ran next to the stretcher holding the girl's hand as they moved into the emergency bay where he was gently moved back by the paramedics. He stopped running and took a deep breath before backing up as requested to the Nurse's station.
A nurse on duty turned to him and gave him a soft smile. "Is there any information you can give us about her?" the nurse asked softly.
The Doctor stopped, swiping his hand over his face and then thought for a moment.
"Umm, she was struck by a car. I think," he said hoping that helped. "There was a wheelchair on its side up the street," he said. "Not sure if it is hers," he said ticking off facts like a checklist on his fingers. "She said Ellie, when I asked her name, but she was pointing up the street so I don't know if that is her, or if it is what she was pointing at," he said. "She was shaking terribly when I stumbled upon her, arms and legs tucked up in an almost fetal position," he said ticking off another finger. "And she has a scar on her left upper arm, like an old surgery wound," he said honestly to the nurse who was scribbling notes as he spoke.
"I see, you don't know who she is then?" the nurse asked softly.
"No, afraid not," the Doctor replied. "I could find out? Perhaps do some research!" he said enthusiastically. He clapped his hands together as if to punctuate the idea.
"Anything that will help," she said softly. "We'll contact the police, but that will take them time. Any help you can give without getting in their way will be useful," she said honestly. "Now if you will excuse me," the nurse slipped past him and headed into the trauma area.
He looked through the crack in the curtain to the young face people were hurrying around and then turned to the exit before leaving the hospital. Clara was waiting for him outside.
"How is she?" she immediately asked. The Doctor looked to her before answering softly.
"She wasn't good when we found her, and they won't allow me in to see her without my psychic paper," he said honestly. "I got a good scan of her though, just plug her into the TARDIS then and see what pops up, shall we?" he said a bit more brightly as he took Clara's hand and walked into the dark of the night.
Outside of the TARDIS, Clara picked up the discarded wheelchair and stood it upright. Pulling on a long piece of cloth, she watched it come toward her until it came up to a clip revealing it as a leash.
"Doctor!" she called to him. He came out of the TARDIS and looked to Clara. "If this is hers, she's missing something dear." She said rising up the leash into his view.
"You might want to look at this," he said softly. She put the leash down and hurried into the TARDIS. Concern lacing over her features as she came around the control panel to look at the screen he had just brought up.
"Mercy Eliara Milan," she read the name aloud. "Quadroplegic, cause unknown since birth," she said looking over the information on the screen. "Born 1928? Wait, we're in my time," she said looking at him. "Died, 1996. How did she get here?"
"There is more," he said swiping across the screen. Two more images came up, both very healthy images of the same woman. One of her standing in the background of a cataclysm of broken buildings, fire and smoke. Her arms were raised as if praising a god, tendrils of white smoke like wisps between her and the building as people were visible escaping it.
"Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey," he said. "The journalist who took the photo said she was singing. The moment the song stopped, the building collapsed. Many said the journalist got it wrong, that she was crushed by the building and that stopped her song." The next photo had her standing in a grand library, holding the hand of a small girl walking to the front desk. Her finger rose as if asking the front desk clerk a question.
"London Royal Library," he said. "There is no information on this image."
"Wait, there's more," he said swiping his finger again. Another image appeared of the woman in the 1920's, the yellowish photo shows her on a stage singing in a jazz style club. Another swipe and she was seen in the dust of the Twin Towers on 9/11.
One more showed a painting of her in Royal dress wearing a small tiara, seated on a red velvet styled high back chair with a book in one hand and a globe of some kind in her other gloved hands.
"Doctor, is she another time traveler?" she said in awe of the photos.
"The scans I took say she is human," he said honestly. "All accounts, even the ones with her in the painting account her as being here on Earth, nowhere else that I know of," he said softly.
"Doesn't mean she isn't an Earth time traveler?" Clara asked.
"Earth doesn't have any, other than the Time Agency in the future," he said. "She doesn't appear on any of their registers."
"Wait, remember when I got that letter from Vastra?" she said softly. "I went to sleep, and met up with Vastra, Jenny, Strax and River before those nasty henchmen barged in," she said softly. "I was time travelling in my sleep wasn't I?"
"But your body didn't travel, if someone took a photo of you it would just be you asleep in your room," he said throwing his hands in the air. "Unless… unless….Unless!" He left the sentence unfinished as he began whirring around the console flipping switches, pushing buttons and pulling levers.
"What is it?" Clara said with a smile on her lips.
"Not sure yet, need to see this for myself," he said with that spark of adventure behind his eyes.
They moved to the door as the thud sounded that they had landed. Opening the door they were inside the Royal Library. They moved through the aisles of books until coming up on the front desk.
Looking behind her, Clara could see the camera that would capture the woman with the little girl walking up to the desk. She realized that he had brought them to the photo of the woman in the Library that had no information about the photo. He must have done the equivalent of a galactic Google on her photo. She got a cheeky smile. He had learned from the way she had detected the location of the people who were uploading people into the cloud.
The woman at the front desk was clicking away at the keys of what appeared to be an early computer, opening the back of books and typing again checking them back into the library. The Doctor pulled Clara to another area and pressed his fingers to his lips for her to be quiet. And sure as the day was long, the woman came out of the stacks holding the little girl's hand just as she was in the photo they'd seen earlier.
The woman smiled softly and walked up to the desk raising her finger not to the woman at the desk, but to the Doctor. A knowing smirk on her lips as the little girl coming with her came into full view of the Doctor.
"Can you tell me if there are any copies of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells in stock?" The woman had a voice that could charm an angel. The clerk immediately looked up. "I do apologize; we were not able to find any in the stacks."
The Doctor froze completely. His body becoming stiff as the little girl looked at him then to the woman behind the counter with wide eyes. Clara didn't say anything at first, just watching.
The librarian smiled and closed the book she had just finished checking in.
"Indeed we do," said handing it over the desk to the woman who handed it over to the young black girl.
"It's a bit of a grown up book, but if you can keep up with it, it is a wondrous read," she said to the girl who took it eagerly into her hands.
"And it will tell me about the Raggedy Man?" she asked with enthusiasm brimming in her wide eyes.
"It will tell you how he feels, how much he holds on his shoulders," she said honestly. "And how he often doesn't realize what is right in front of him until it is too late."
"But if he has a time machine, how can anything be too late?" the girl asked as if it were the easiest of questions, but with a hint of snideness in her voice as if the woman before her had said something with complete stupidity.
The blond woman with the soft bell voice knelt down in front of the little girl, whispering in her ear softly. The girl's eyes grew wide with wonder and a smile came over her young face. She pulled back and looked into her face. "You understand?" she said softly.
The little girl nodded before the woman let go of her hand and the little girl, complete with cornrows and a happy face ran back into the stacks. The woman walked toward the Doctor and his endearing companion. There was no mistaking now that this was indeed the same woman that the Doctor and Clara had brought to the hospital.
The librarian went back to typing before the woman walked past them as if they were not there, not even looking at them as she turned the corner toward the TARDIS.
The Doctor carefully turned to follow her taking Clara by the hand as they turned the row of books. The woman walked toward the end of them before turning to face them. In a flash of light that made Clara stand up straight and grab the Doctor's coat, the woman disappeared. Clara took in a staggering breath as the Doctor and Clara stood in awe of what they had witnessed before turning and looking at each other. Their eyes meeting as they silently questioned what had just happened.