Beyond The Void || doctor who

Chapter Four: Amazingly Fantastically Impossible

"C'mon Doctor. Stay with me," she pleaded, giving up on trying not to cry.

"Here," Melissa said, handing Jess a bucket of ice-cold water. "What're you gonna do -" she began, but stopped mid-sentence as Jess poured the whole thing on the Doctor's face, drowning his features with ice.

"WOO!" he shouted, standing up immediately. "Oh, not again, my right one's stopped," he said, grabbing his right side in agony. "How do you humans manage with just - ah! - just one heart?"

Jess rolled her eyes. "Don't just stand there, tell me how to fix it," she said, rolling up the sleeves to her sweater.

"Okay, hit me on the chest." Jess did as he said, but flinched when he screamed. "Back, back! Hit me on the back!"

After another minute of Jess hitting him, the Doctor stood up straight and shook out his limbs, giving her his goofiest smile.

"See? Never waste time on hugs." Jess scoffed.

"You idiot!" she said, punching him in the shoulder. "You half scared me to death!"

"I think I was the one dying, Jessica," he said. Jess gave up the 'I'm mad at you' façade and laughed.

"Jessica," Melissa said slowly. "What the hell is going on?" she demanded, crossing her arms.

"Mum!" Jess forgot she was standing there. "Uh ... there's no point in saying 'it's not what it looks like', because I have absolutely no idea how it might look like at all ..." she said warily. 

"Did you say 'your right one stopped'? As in a heart? On your right side?!" Melissa backed up, looking appalled. "And you said 'humans' as if you weren't one!"

Jess paused, then sighed. "Mum, you know that show I watch?" she asked, scratching the back of her neck.

"Maybe. The one with that hot guy from Harry Potter, right? What does that have to do with anything?" Melissa questioned.

"I think this face is pretty hot, if I do say so myself," muttered the Doctor, offended. Jess gave him a warning glare. "Sorry," he whispered.

"Well, this is him. Not David Tennant, this is the next regeneration of him ... from a different - uh - dimension," Jess said awkwardly. Her mother stared at her, wide-eyed.

"That's crazy! No, John Smith, you're crazy! I bet that's not even your name! Oh, get out! Just get out!" she shouted, pointing her finger to nowhere in particular.

"I'm not exactly anywhere to get out of," the Doctor retorted automatically, to which Jess lightly elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow, Jessica! I just got that one working."

"Sorry," Jess muttered, patting his shoulder.

"Jessica Rhiannon Bennett," her mother hissed furiously. "If you don't tell me what's going on right this instant -"

"Okay, you don't want to believe me? Fine. I guess I'll just have to show you that this man is the man I say he is," Jess said, running to the woods, through the clump of trees, and into the field, where the TARDIS was parked. Melissa and the Doctor followed.

Jess looked behind her in confusion, as she couldn't have dragged the Doctor that far without getting tired. She brushed it off and kept walking.

"Keys," Jess said, holding out her hands. The silver felt heavy in her hands, as if their weight was scientifically impossible compared to the size.

"What's this?" Melissa demanded, looking skeptically at the blue box. "It's a phone box. What's so great about that?" Jess looked at the Doctor, and they shared a moment of giddiness.

"It's actually a police box, mother." Jess momentarily fumbled with the key, but placed it in the lock and turned, entering her favorite form of transportation.

"Okay, ready?" she asked, sticking her head through the door. Melissa walked inside, eyes wide. She scurried back out, to see that, indeed, the box was smaller on the outside.

"But - how - what - it's -" Jess's mother couldn't find the right words.

"Amazing? Fantastic? Impossible?" Jess said, with a satisfied look on her face.

"Wow," was all she could say.

"I know," the Doctor whispered.

Jess started to rub her eyes, then again, then yawned. Still star struck, her mother grabbed her and said, "I think it's time for bed."

"No." She scratched her eye again.

"I think I have to go, too," the Doctor said, pointing at his TARDIS.

"No," Jess muttered. "You shouldn't have to sleep in there. Come stay in the guest room for the night." The Doctor shook his head.

She sighed. "I've got a fez and some Jammie Dodgers," she said temptingly.

He looked indecisive for a second. "Oh, alright!" he said with a grin.

"You're such a goof," Jess murmured.

"I know." His smile grew wider.

She rolled her eyes and they headed back to the house, glancing at the stars on their way. And for a second, a mere sliver of a moment, it seemed as if the whole universe was getting ready for something big. Something life-changing. Something deadly.