Rose went to unpack in her room while the Doctor showed Willow the TARDIS and where she'd be staying. It was bigger than she expected. It seemed bigger than the Earth entirely. There was a swimming pool with ten water-slides, a restaurant and even a playground in case any kids were aboard she guessed. It was magnificent.

"Down this hall are many rooms even I haven't explored! It's fantastic!" He grew ecstatic by the minute.

"How far does this ship go?" Willow asked.

"It's infinite." He stated.

"How long are we going to be walking then?"

"Not long." He looked at her. "Just showing you the basics."

She wondered for a moment. "Do you have a library?"

He grinned and took her hand, strolling through the corridors. His hand was so soft, it felt like nothing. They stopped outside a wooden door. He raised his hand over her eyes, making sure Willow couldn't see.

She heard the door creak open as he led her inside and sat her down on a wooden stool. Willow opened my eyes, light poured through as she saw thousands of books stacked on every shelf and a bright burning fireplace with reaching embers climbing out. It was beautiful.

The Doctor wandered in and started throwing each and every book onto both the table and chairs. "Wonderful. Isn't it?" He said. "A world of books right here to explore."

She couldn't help but grin, amazed by the complexity of the room. "It's incredible."

"First editions of Charles Dickens' novels and signed copies of Agatha Christie's." He read, tossing them off the shelves.

"It's amazing!" Unexpectedly, she ran up to him and gave him the biggest hug. "Thank you."

"I'm not really a hugger but alright!" He grabbed her in a tight embrace, happy.

All of a sudden, he released his grip as she noticed him looking at his sonic screwdriver, alerted about something. His face turned into a frown.

"Oh no, no, NO!" He ran out the door. For a second, Willow thought he rushed off until returning a little bit later. "Sorry! A black hole just opened and is about to suck in three planets." He shook his screwdriver at her. "Gotta dash!"

He ran out the room once more, leaving her with only books to keep her company. Willow sat down on one of the chairs and grabbed a book from the pile. 'The Famous Five' it said; an easy and classic book.

***

She found her room eventually. Nice and cosy. It reminded Willow of her old room when she still lived with her parents. When she was Year 9, she decided to be creative and splatter paint all over, similar to the wall decoration in the TARDIS; the walls were white with streaks of purple dotted all around.

Willow guessed the TARDIS found the design from her memories; Rose mentioned that it can get inside your head. Suddenly, a soft hum came from all around, bewildering her.

Did it just respond?

She quickly left the room, going down the hallway into the main console room where the Doctor was buzzing around, flicking buttons. Willow coughed, drawing attention to herself. He turned around to look at her, smiling again. "Hello!"

Willow wandered up to the console. "You know, you never said who exactly you are."

"I said that I'm a Doctor and an alien-"

"That's all?" She questioned. "I mean what species? Where are you from? What's your mystery, Doctor?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "You ask a lot of questions."

"Head of the School Journalism Club. 1993. An 11 year old controlling 15-16s." Willow leaned on the outside bars. "I can control someone in their 40s."

"900." He grinned.

"900 what?" She asked.

"900 years old." He said while flicking a few switches.

The sceptical girl laughed for a second, thinking that he was joking. Then she noticed his serious stares. "I'm sorry? You're 900 years old?"

"901." He replied.

"Wow."

"Next question." The Doctor swooped around the console to the other side.

"What species are you?" asked Willow.

"I'm a Timelord from the planet Gallifrey."

"Where's that?"

"Oh... very far away... so far..." He hesitated.

"Then why don't we go?"

He chuckled, hiding his resentment and sadness. "Why would I want to go home?"

"Why not?"

He glared at her. "Do you?"

"No!"

"Well, I don't either!" He beamed once more before spinning around, pulling levers at every turn.

"You don't want to go back." Willow thought, attempting to discover why he was hesitant. "Not because there's nothing left for you there." She waltzed over to him with a solemn face "It's gone. Isn't it?"

He didn't look at her, showing her that she was right. "How'd you guess?" He quietly queried.

Willow sighed, apologetic. "I'm sorry."

He continued to ignore her, flicking buttons and pulling levers without a care in the world up until the noise of the TARDIS started again. They were landing somewhere. The Doctor sprinted towards the doors and opened the entrance to reveal a purple light. Willow covered her eyes as the bright light blinded her.

"Oh look at that!" He cried, astonished before turning back to her. "You want to see?"

Anxiously, Willow stepped closer to the doorway to see more than light but smoke in different colours. There were streaks of purple and pink in different shades. Light was beaming through every corner. It was unreal and yet it was right there before her very eyes.

"It's beautiful," She muttered under her breath. "And you see this every day?"

"All the time!" He replied. "It's all out there, Willow, waiting to be explored!"

"So, where are we?" questioned Willow, gazing out at the beauty of it.

"The Andromeda Correlation. It's a mistake in the universe. An anomaly. Shouldn't exist. Two suns collided and created a cloud-like system. But the only difference is-" He stepped out onto the gaseous space without sinking through. He laughed and reached out his hand. "Come on!"

She breathed in deep and lunged out to reach him. Willow landed on the silk ground. It felt strange, she was standing on something and yet there was nothing but thick smoke surrounding her feet.

"This is impossible." She affirmed.

"I know! It's amazing!" He stopped. "Wait a minute!"

He ran back into the TARDIS and pressed a button. All of a sudden, everything felt airy like something had changed in the atmosphere, but Willow didn't realise it.

She saw him run back over to the doorway. "Enjoying it?"

"What?" She asked whilst gazing down, recognising that her feet were no longer touching the ground. Willow was thrown off balance in her surprise. "I'm flying!"

He chuckled, correcting her. "Turned off the gravity."

Willow felt her hair curl around her neck as she floated endlessly in this strange new world. All her life, she thought that the Earth was huge, turns out it was a speck of dust when compared to the wide expanse of the universe.

"How are we breathing?" She questioned.

"Airtight shielding. Extended it so we could walk out here." He answered. "What do you think?"

"It's amazing," Willow spoke with a tone of excitement in her voice. "I truly am speechless."

"Good." He remarked before thinking to himself. "Why did you say 'it can't be' earlier?"

She froze, mid-air. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I do." He grabbed her arm, gently pulling her back into the TARDIS. "Spill!" The Doctor shut the doors behind them and sat down on the steps. "Come and sit with me." He calmly ordered.

Willow quickly sauntered over and sat next to him, sighing before presenting her speech. "The night Henrik's exploded, the TARDIS was on the pavement. I was intrigued and touched it. All of a sudden, I got these images of burning civilisations. I was running and fell. I saw these things kill people. Then, I saw it again on a date with my boyfriend and I stroked it again, causing me to faint. I saw a person but I can't remember his name. It was like a memory." She breathed out. "I have nightmares just like those often. Every time I go to sleep it appears, the burning city. Everything was on fire."

As she retold her experiences, the Doctor observed tears falling from her eyes which also startled her. Willow brushed her cheek, feeling the water in bewildered. Then, the Doctor held comforted her in his arms, comprehending that she was upset. "It's ok."

"Thank you."

He shrugged "What for?"

"You know, asking me to come with you. I'm really grateful." He held her tighter, making Willow feel a bit more at home. As long as she got this chance to see the universe, she wasn't planning to give it up anytime soon.

***

So things happened! The Doctor knows about Willow and her nightmares and Willow knows more about the Doctor.

The next interlude may be a bit of a funny one. Hold on tight because The Doctor and Willow will be a 'will they/won't they' couple.

You know fanfictions about Doctor Who usually follow that route. Yeah, we're going that way :)

It's very hard to find pictures of Freya on the internet. Literally copied her whole Instagram page just to find good photos.

- Alice ❤