Letitia woke before morning and got up to use the outhouse. When she returned, the Doctor had rolled onto his back and was now hogging the pillow. For a moment she simply watched him sleep. He looked about thirty-five, maybe forty, but despite his age and all he had been through, whatever it was, he still seemed so innocent. There was a joy inside him that could never be destroyed, not by even the deepest sorrow. He just needed to find it again.

At last she crawled back in beside him and laid her head on his chest. She could hear his heart beat. Then she put her arm around him as well, hand resting in front of her face. Something wasn’t right. She flattened her palm to be sure – yes, she could feel his heart on the right side, too, except the rhythm was offset. She picked her head up and moved it over. There was no doubt about it; there was a second heartbeat.

She sat up, stifling a cry, and bumped her head against the wall. The sudden motion stirred him, and he sat up just as quickly. They were both breathing heavily, staring at each other.

“What?” he demanded. “What’s wrong?”

“You have two hearts!” she gasped. “How can you have two hearts?”

He opened his mouth, more in surprise than to answer the question, then closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them again, she was still staring.

“All right,” he said, “I’ll tell you everything. But you have to come with me first.” He offered his hand, but she hesitated. And then he smiled, a big, excited grin, and she could not resist.

* * * * *

They were running through the night, laughing, breath crystallizing in the air. She had had enough presence of mind to grab a shawl, and even running full-out, she was glad of it. But it wasn’t the cold air that made it hard for her to keep up.

“Slow down!” she gasped. “And try to be quiet; we’ll wake everyone!”

“No we won’t!” he called back. He still held her hand, but it felt as if she were miles behind. “Anyway, I had to listen to your neighbors make love not war, so they can listen to us laugh!”

“You what?” she barked. He stopped abruptly, and she ran into him, giggling like a schoolgirl as he caught her in his arms and kept her from falling. “I didn’t hear anything,” she added.

“I have very good ears,” he shrugged. “Got your breath yet? Let’s go!”

She let out a whoop as he hauled her off again. Just past the tree line, he stopped again.

“Okay,” he said between breaths, “We’re almost where we’re going. But I’m going to tell you something first, to prepare you.”

“Okay,” she agreed, glad to note that the run had affected him, too.

He took hold of her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “Here’s what it is. I’m almost nine hundred years old. I’m from another planet, another time.”

“Time?” she asked. “You mean, the future?”

“Yes, the future.”

“Like, a hundred years?” She could tell from the look on his face that she was way off. “A thousand?” Still wrong. “How far?”

“I wasn’t born until after your solar system died. That’s how far.”

Her face went slack. Over five billion years? The distance opened between them, such an immense distance that she couldn’t even fathom it. But she didn’t have time to try; he had more to say.

“And I can see all that time, from then, to now, to the beginning of the universe. I can see all of the universe at any time. I can feel the turning of the Earth, the stars glowing, dying, being born. I can feel the wind on the other side of the world. And I can feel you shivering now.”

He was right; she was shivering. And it wasn’t just the cold. “You’re an enlightened soul,” she breathed.

“I’m what?” he asked.

“An enlightened soul. Like Buddha, like the Dalai Lama. But I’ve been taught they’re detached from the world. They have compassion but no feelings of their own, and that’s not you at all.” She reached to touch his cheek, and her shawl slipped off her arm, triggering another shiver.

“You’re still cold,” he pointed out. He pulled the shawl back over her shoulders. “Come on, you have to see my ship.”

She followed him through the trees, not very far, until he stopped in front of a blue box.

“That’s not your ship?” she not-quite-asked. “It looks more like a phone booth.”

“Ah, but wait till you see the inside!” He flashed her a grin, then dug a key out of his pocket and stuck it in the lock. “Letitia, welcome to the Tardis!”

He pushed the door open and motioned her through it.

* * * * *

“Letitia, wake up!”

“James?” she murmured. “I had the strangest dream…” Then she opened her eyes, and it was not her husband, but the Doctor kneeling over her, lightly slapping her face. “God, it was real?” she spat, sitting bolt upright.

“Whoa, not so fast,” he warned, cupping her head in his hand. “Sorry, I forget this can be a bit of a shock.”

She waited for the room to stop spinning, and then waited longer for it to make sense. There was no way this fit inside that blue phone booth.

“I’ve read Jules Verne and H.G. Wells,” she said. “I watched man land on the moon. I’ve always loved the idea that someday we would visit the stars, and that some of those stars would have intelligent life on them. But I never imagined anything like this,” she gestured at what she could see of the Tardis, “and I always thought that if I met an alien, he would look like, well, an alien, not just a man with two hearts.”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” he shrugged.

She laughed. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know,” the Doctor smiled. “Now come on; I’ll give you the tour.”

It wasn’t really any more shocking to see a palace inside a phone booth than it had been to see one large room full of high-tech instruments, so she didn’t faint again, but through most of the tour, she was feeling giddy. In actual fact, her mind was more on the Doctor himself than on the details of his ship. He was really, truly, an alien from another planet, but he felt human emotions, expressed them in human ways… Oh, and also, she was attracted to him. She couldn’t begin to imagine how that could possibly play out.

“There’s one thing you still haven’t told me,” she spoke up, licking her lips, when they returned to the control room. “You don’t have to, if you don’t want to, but I’d like to know. Who are you grieving for?”

His face darkened at the reminder, but he nodded, sat down, and told her.

Scene Selection

1. Survivor	4. Revelation
2. The Unicorn	5. Time Spiders
3. Lentil Stew	6. Eternity