Chapter 1: Molly
Molly groaned as she danced around the bus stop, trying to bury herself in her fluffy winter jacket. “damn buses and their damn unreliability…” She growled, spinning in place quite a few times as she snuggled into her jacket some more.
Winter in Winnipeg was never fun. It was cold, windy and wet. Colder, windier and wetter than any other place Molly Lora had ever been to. And there was barely even any snow on the ground, so little that she could still wear her “Wolvy boots” as she called them, while they really more resembled the boots you’d see on a cowboy. This was the time of the year where she always found herself wishing she had a car, but she was fourteen, not sixteen.
So here she was, waiting for a city bus before the sun was even up. And it was before eight o’clock in the damn morning. “Screw the freaking world.” She grumbled moodily. Normally she’d sing Jingle Bells or something else to pass the time, but she was too cold and too grumpy to even think about it.
Then, at last, the bus came around bend. The glowing orange 76 never seemed brighter. She smiled and adjusted her grip on her binder, checking to make sure she hadn’t dropped her bus ticket.
The bus driver noticed the familiar face of the teenage girl as he neared the stop. And then, right before his eyes, her entire body suddenly glowed white and then she was gone. He swerved in surprise, causing the cars behind him to blare their horns. And even as he drove past the St. Michael’s stop, his eyes didn’t leave where the girl had just been standing.
~~~~~~~~~~
Molly hit a metallic floor with a thud. She opened her gray eyes, looking at how the dull metal was reflecting the eerie red glow of the few lights in the room. Her eyes widened and she started breathing heavily, pulling her hood down and looking around wildly. “Where the hell am I?” She demanded, slowly getting to her feet.
The room was a perfect square, and some sort of dull metal that she’d seen very often in tv shows. There was a glowing red light in each corner, making the room glow a creepy red. She was alone in the room, which only succeeded in freaking her out even more.
Molly gulped and stuffed her bus ticket into her over-the-shoulder bag as she walked towards the one door in the room. She placed one hand on the steel surface, before jumping back with a shrill squeal as it slid open. She stood there for a minute, trembling in fear. She gulped again, steeling her nerves before she walked through the doorway, shoulders shaking as she breathed heavily.
She’d stepped into a hallway. There were many doors similar to her own, and she looked from side to side, debating where to go. She stepped out and took her gloves off, stuffing them in her jacket pockets before taking her jacket off as well. “Really hot in here…” She murmured.
“FIND THE DOCTOR, EXTERMINATE HIM.”
Molly screamed when she heard the voice coming from behind her, and her slow walk turned into full tilt running. Her jacket was still slung over her arm and she kept a stubborn grip on her binder. She looked over her shoulder to see if anything was behind her and-
Crash!
The teen shrieked as she collided with something, the force of it knocking her back onto the ground. She groaned and slowly opened her eyes, not wanting to know what she’d run into.
Lying on the ground in front of her was a man. He was wearing a brown tweed jacket, a white dress shirt, black dress pants and black dress shoes. What stuck out most was a bright red bowtie, which suited his outfit in a strange way. He had brown hair in a similar style and shade to her own, except it was a bit longer with more… Volume? Was that the word?
The man groaned and pushed himself into more of a sitting position, opening his eyes as well. He looked at the girl in front of him, eyes widening in surprise. She was wearing a plain black t-shirt, a deep purple scarf, dark blue boot cut jeans and what seemed to be cowboy boots. Her hair was the same shade of brown as his and in a similar style, but shorter. Weird, it suited her better than long hair. He’d never really seen a girl pull a look like that off before. “Hello.” He greeted, somewhat breathlessly.
Molly stared at him. “Who are you? Where am I?” She demanded, pushing herself up a bit more.
The man flashed her a smile. “I’m the Doctor. As for the second one, we’re on a Dalek ship that was floating above Canada. Completely invisible, not like the Sycorax. Big, old, flash-y spaceship over London. Sorry, off topic, what’s your name?” He asked, still staring at her.
Molly raised an eyebrow at him. Considering she lived in Canada and not in London, she hadn’t heard of that. She’d have to ask somebody online if she ever got out of this. “I’m Molly. What’s a Dalek?” She asked, before leaning back as he leaned in.
The Doctor leaned in, practically getting in her face as he did. His eyes were narrowed, like he was inspecting her. Which he was. “A Dalek is a living, bubbling, boiling lump of hate inside a metal shell. Most of them are green, but I’ve met a purple one. But the big question is why are you here? You look like you aren’t even sixteen, what could the Daleks want with you?” He replied, before asking himself questions just barely loud enough for her to hear.
His questions were met with her slapping him across the face.
While Molly glared at him with the intensity of a thousand burning suns, he just gave her a slightly surprised look. “Right, yes. Sorry, it’s just that you’re a teenage girl. On a Dalek ship. Why are you here?” He asked.
Molly dropped her arm. “I was standing at the bus stop, the bus showed up and then I was suddenly in a room. And you’re talking about these Dalek things like they aren’t human. Are they aliens or something?” She demanded, narrowing her eyes.
The Doctor was looking intently behind her. “Don’t look behind you. Just follow my lead.” He told her slowly, eyes flickering to her for a moment. He started to slowly stand up, still staring at something over her shoulder.
Molly found all of her previous nervousness coming back as she stood up with him. “W-What’s behind me?” She asked quietly, shoulders starting to shake again.
“DOCTOR LOCATED. EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!”
Molly looked back and screamed at the sight of what she assumed were the Daleks. There were two of them, and they looked almost like deformed domes. They had eyestalks or something similar and the ends were glowing bright blue. They had what looked like whisks and plungers attached to them, and the whisks were pointed at them. Something took her hand, and she turned back to see the Doctor smiling at her.
“Run.”
And they started running.
Molly, of course, was much slower than him. She was already pretty slow, but he was much taller and much faster than her. But since there were freaking aliens chasing them and screaming ‘EXTERMINATE’ extremely loudly, she found herself running faster than she had ever run before.
The halls kept twisting and turning, making her stumble and soon her running was awkward and clumsy. Out of nowhere the Doctor pulled on her hand, practically dragging her into a room. The door slid shut, and cast everything in total darkness.
Molly threw herself against the door, gasping for breath. “This is not happening. It’s not. Aliens are not abducting me. Nope.” She muttered between breaths.
The Doctor was busy scanning things with the Sonic Screwdriver, making most of the room glow green. He was muttering what made perfect sense to him, but was gibberish to Molly.
Molly gave him a suspicious look. “You’re an alien, aren’t you?” She demanded.
This took the Doctor by surprise, and he turned to look at her, completely stopping what he was doing. He stood up fully, put the Screwdriver away and walked over. “How did you know that?” He asked, looking down at her with a look that was a mixture of suspicion and curiosity.
Molly had to look up to look him in the eye. He was really tall. “Well you know what those Dalek things are pretty damn well, you don’t seem that scared about being on an alien spaceship at all, they’re chasing you and screaming 'EXTERMINATE' whenever they see you and you’re pointing that glowstick at everything. You’re either crazy, or another alien. And since you just asked how I knew, I’m gonna guess that you’re an alien.” She explained, only slightly cockily.
The Doctor continued to give her the suspicious and curious look. “Well, yes, I’m an alien. But still, I’ve had people twice your age that couldn’t figure that out. You must be very, very clever to have figure that out.” He replied.
Molly chuckled a bit. “Oh, I’m not that smart. I’m an A average student, sure, but in all honesty I just watch too much tv.” She corrected.
The Doctor slumped and turned away, resuming his scanning. “It’s always because of tv…” He grumbled moodily to himself.
Molly watched him work. While she remained completely calm on the outside, she was freaking out on the inside. I am in a room with a freaking alien. A real, live, alien! She thought. “You kinda remind me of Spock from Star Trek. He looks human, except for his ears. They’re pointy, like an elf. Do you have any parts that don’t look human?” She asked.
The Doctor gave her an annoyed look. “Is now really the time to be asking this?” He demanded, before spinning around and walking around the room, pointing the Sonic Screwdriver at anything that looked interesting or important.
Molly harrumphed and looked away.
“A-ha!” The Doctor stopped at what appeared to be a blank wall, but when he pointed the Sonic at it a door seemed to almost materialize on the wall. He pulled back, looking at Molly out of the corner of his eye to see if she looked impressed. To his confusion, she wasn’t even looking at him. He sighed a bit and walked over. “I’ve got two hearts.” He told her.
Molly looked up as he came over to her. “What?” She asked.
The Doctor chuckled a bit. “You asked if I had any parts that don’t look human. Well, I might not have parts that don’t look human, but I have two hearts.” He replied, flashing her a smile.
Molly gaped at him. “No. Freaking. Way. That’s so cool! So do you like, live a lot longer than a human would? How old are you?” She asked; eyes shining as her excitement started to shine through.
The Doctor chuckled again. “Bit over eleven hundred.” He replied.
Molly gave him a disbelieving look. “No way. You look so… Young!” She exclaimed.
The Doctor was about to reply, before the wall suddenly exploded.
Boom!
“EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR!”
Molly screamed and the Doctor grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the Daleks. He used the Sonic on the door again and it opened just in time for the two of them to run through.
Then the Daleks started firing.
Molly shrieked as the lasers shot past them, narrowly missing her and the Doctor. She looked around to see that they were passing many doors, but she saw an open one up ahead. Probably where these guys came from. She thought. She waited until they were close enough before she spun and practically tackled the Doctor, pitching them both forwards.
The Doctor let out a cry of surprise before he hit the ground inside the room. He instantly pointed the Sonic at the door, closing and locking it. He put his head back and started gasping; not paying attention to the fact that Molly was still on top of him.
Molly slowly got off, bracing her hands against the floor to keep herself steady. “God… Damnit…” She panted, chest and shoulders heaving as she fought for breath. She looked up at the Doctor, smiling a bit. “That… Felt so freaking… Awesome…” She told him breathlessly.
The Doctor gave her a disbelieving look as he started to stand up. “You could’ve just died, and you’re saying it was awesome?” He questioned. Was there something wrong with this girl? You think the same things sometimes. He told himself as he offered his hand to her.
Molly laughed a bit as she took his hand. “The lasers weren’t awesome, but doing the whole tackle-thing was. It’s like something you’d see in a movie, except I didn’t die heroically.” She replied as he pulled her up.
Whrrrrrr
Molly jumped at the noise and looked around wildly. “W-What was that?” She asked quietly, her voice reducing to a whisper.
The Doctor looked around, placing the girl behind him to defend her. He looked over his shoulder and down at her, noticing that all her earlier bravado was gone. “There’s one in here…” He whispered back.
Molly spun around so that they were back to back, and the two of them started looking around. Her entire body was shaking, and her eyes darted around wildly. She heard another whirring noise, and saw the movement out of the corner of her eye. A light blue circle in the air was slowly moving towards the Doctor, and she caught the glint of metal as the whisk-like-thing moved.
The Doctor was suddenly aware of the fact that Molly had run off. He spun around just in time to see her charge, drop her shoulder and ram herself against a Dalek that had hidden in the shadows. While Molly dropped to the ground with a scream of pain, the Dalek spun a bit and the laser that had been directed at him hit the ceiling instead.
The moment her shoulder connected with the Dalek, the teen knew that charging it probably hadn’t been the best idea. There was a loud popping noise, then pain flooded through her arm and she cried out as she went down, saving herself by slamming her right hand into the ground.
The Doctor ran over and grabbed the girl, pulling her to her feet and practically dragging her away from the Dalek. He pushed her behind some steel crates with unknown contents and spun around again, whipping out the Sonic Screwdriver and aiming it at what looked like a shelf. A few sparks flew from the alien metal, and then it collapsed on top of the Dalek.
Molly groaned as she held her injured shoulder, her breathing coming in short gasps. She heard the loud crash, and then the Doctor was beside her again.
The alien gave her a worried look, scanning her with the Sonic. He flicked his wrist, a few of the silver-y parts flicking out around the green light as he did. He narrowed his eyes at the results.
Molly opened her eyes again and looked at him, still holding her arm. “What are you doing?” She asked breathlessly.
The Doctor looked at her before closing the Sonic and putting it away. “Reading the results. You’ve dislocated your shoulder.” He replied.
Molly gulped. “So… I’m on an alien spaceship, with those Daleks hunting us down… And now I’ve got a dislocated shoulder?” A nod, “This day just gets better and better… Ow…” She grumbled, wincing as she jostled her shoulder.
The Doctor frowned. “Let me have a look.” He offered. To his surprise, rather than arguing she cooperated and put her back to him, releasing her death grip on her arm. Now that he looked, he could see that she was clenching her fist so hard that her knuckles were white. He placed his hand on her arm as gently as possible, but she still flinched at his touch. “Sorry, but this is going to hurt.” He apologized in advance.
Molly nodded. “I know, just hurry-”
Pop
Molly cried out when her shoulder snapped back into place and pulled away, holding her arm. Her long cry eventually receded to a groan and she rocked herself back and forth a bit, feeling her arm go numb.
The Timelord waited until she went quiet before he did anything. He got up before kneeling back down in front of her, frowning at the pained look on her face. “Hand me your scarf.” He told her. She complied, handing it to him with her good hand and he took it, wrapping it around her arm and neck as a makeshift sling. “My ship is close by, I was just heading there now. Just follow me.” He stood up, once again offering her his hand.
Molly took it and let him pull her up. “Why are those things chasing you anyways?” She asked.
The Doctor opened the door with the Sonic before looking back at her. “This ship is hovering above Canada right now, they were trying to avoid me by not coming to London. I don’t know what they were up to exactly, but when it comes to Daleks it’s never anything good. I managed to halt the engines so that the ship won’t move, and they’ve slowly been evacuating. You must’ve been teleported up here while I was… Tinkering.” He replied.
Molly cocked her head a bit. “You have a spaceship? Does that mean all aliens have spaceships?” She questioned, following him as he walked out of the room.
The Doctor shrugged. “Maybe. I honestly don’t know, there are so many kinds of aliens and it’s hard to keep track of them all.” He replied.
“So there are lots of aliens, then.”
“Millions. And some of them won’t be discovered for millions of years.”
Molly raised an eyebrow. “How do you know when we’ll discover them?” She asked.
The Doctor turned to look at her as they approached a door. “Did I mention that my ship is also a time machine?” He questioned, opening the door.
Molly watched with wide eyes as the door slid open and revealed… A phone box. An old, 1900’s police box. Her excited look flattened and she looked at him. “That’s not a spaceship, that’s a box.” She deadpanned.
The alien chuckled. “But it’s my box. Now watch,” He took her hand and walked over to the box, before snapping his fingers. The doors swung open, revealing the massive space within. He let go of her hand as she walked past him and into the box, stepping into the endless room within, “Well?” He asked, following behind her and snapping his fingers to close the doors behind him.
Molly stared at it. “Wha… What is this place?” She asked quietly, eyes wide and practically sparkling as she looked around. It was… It was huge! And it all fit into a tiny, blue box?
The Doctor smiled as he came up beside her. “It’s called the TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space. And it’s my ship.” He told her. He smiled a bit cockily and added, “What do you think? I’ve heard it all.”
Molly stopped her spinning and just stared at everything she could see in front of her, eyes full of awe. “It’s… Impossible…” She breathed, before turning to look at him, “It’s impossible, it’s just a tiny box!” She exclaimed.
The Doctor chuckled. “You just teleported onto an alien spaceship, you’ve met two different kinds of aliens and you’re surprised by this? Well, it is pretty… Impressive.” He remarked, walking up to the console and stroking it lovingly. “Hello sexy.” He whispered in greeting.
Molly raised an eyebrow at him as she came up. “Did… Did you just call it sexy?” She asked hesitantly.
The Doctor shook his head. “No, you must’ve been hearing things.” He replied, making an ‘oops’ face when she wasn’t looking.
Molly rolled her eyes, before looking at her injured shoulder. “So what am I supposed to tell my parents? ‘Yeah, sorry, I dislocated my shoulder when I met a time travelling alien on another alien’s spaceship’ isn’t gonna cut it.” She asked.
The Doctor looked at her with a cocky smile. “Like I said, this is a time machine. We go around until you’re all better, then get you back to where you were.” He explained.
Molly smiled brightly. “So I get to travel with you for the next few days? Isn’t that like, running away? In time and space? Awesome!” She exclaimed, jumping up and down a bit.
The Doctor flipped a few switches, before stopping and turning to look at her. He put his hand in one of the pockets on his jacket and walked up to her, rummaging for something in his pocket. “What did you say your name was again?” He asked.
Molly raised an eyebrow at him. “Molly. Molly Lora.” She replied.
The Doctor chuckled. “Well, Molly Lora… Will you run away with me?” He asked, pulling out a glowing golden key and holding it out to her.
Molly blinked. “Run away with you? You mean, like, go with you? On adventures? In other times? On other freaking planets?” She exclaimed, starting to bounce a bit.
The Doctor nodded. “Yes. All across the stars, all across time. What do you say?” He asked, taking her hand and placing the key in it.
Molly bounced a bit as a bright grin split her face. "YES!"
~~~~~~~~~~
Behind Glenlawn Collegiate, nobody saw the old police box materialize. One of the doors opened and Molly stepped out, no longer wearing her scarf as a sling. She was wearing her jacket again, and the minute the cold hit her she shivered and tried to press herself into the fluffy warmth. She turned and looked back at the Doctor, who was still standing inside the TARDIS. “So you’re gonna be here when I’m done school, right?” She asked.
The Doctor nodded. “Yes, just make sure nobody sees you come this way. I only agreed to take you, I don’t want thousands of humans on my ship.” He reminded her.
Molly rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I promise I won’t tell.” She agreed.
The Doctor smiled. “Well then, I’ll be off. See you later!” He waved goodbye before closing the door.
The Timelord walked over to the console and looked down at the switches before taking a deep breath. “Always have to go for the young ones, don’t you? Can’t let anything happen to her, she’s still in high school. She doesn’t need me to ruin her life. Got to keep her safe.” He murmured to himself, flicking a few switches.
Molly stood and watched as the wind started to pick up around her, and the TARDIS slowly faded away. Even when it was gone, she still stood and stared at the space where it had just been.
All she knew now was that nothing would ever be the same again.
