A Girl Out of Time

The Doctor was still staring at her in wonder, when her words finally penetrated his awe-struck brain, and he kick started himself back into action.

“Ah, yes, we do have lots to talk about…hmmm…I honestly don’t know where to begin,” he muttered.

Hermione rolled her eyes at him, “well, a good place to start would be with the strange changes that happened to me over the last few hours.” ‘duh’

He looked pained for a moment, “yes, yes, you’re right. You are aware that I have been visiting you all your life. Well, your family line carried the latent genes from a Time Lord…I was monitoring you to see if you were the one in whom they would activate…” he trailed off uncertain of how she would receive the first bit of news.

Hermione gapped at him for a full minute before hysterical giggles overtook her, “Seriously, Doctor, that’s impossible…me – a Time Lord?” Her giggles died off at the haunted gaze that crossed his face. “Blimey, you really are serious, aren’t you?”

The Doctor regarded her gravely, “I’m afraid it’s true. The stories I told you growing up, the trips we took…they were all to help prepare you for your transformation. I must admit I was unsure of exactly when it would take place – I meant to tell you about it earlier tonight but the process had already begun.”

“All right, I can understand your reasoning there. But what happens now? Do I get my own TARDIS and start jumping over the universe?” Hermione gave him a lopsided grin.

He looked horrified for a moment, before he realized she was teasing him, “Heavens forbid, Hermione – there is no way I’m letting you loose on the universe all by yourself! No, you’ll have to stick with me…”

Hermione blushed, “…I was wondering…” she was suddenly very shy in front of the very attractive man sitting across from her.

The Doctor chuckled softly, “…yes, we should probably talk about some of the more…physical…adjustments you’ll need to get used to.” He gave her a sly wink, and Hermione’s blush deepened.

“I noticed the double heartbeats…” she cleared her throat nervously, “…what other changes are there?”

“Let me see, we Gallifreyans are, on the whole, extremely tough and resilient – much superior to humans even at their peak. We can survive a fall that would kill a human, we can also survive both temperature extremes – have what I like to call a ‘souped-up metabolism’. What else is exciting about our physiology? Oh, yes, we can endure electric shock quite well and exist in low-pressure vacuum for six minutes. Radiation doesn’t bother us. Hmm, we don’t need much sleep – we can manage on an hour if we have to. I must warn you about your left shoulder – there is a vulnerable nerve cluster there that can be used to disable you…” he fell into a deep contemplation then.

After a few minutes, Hermione coughed politely and then again louder when she received no response. “Is that the most important bits?”

“Hmm?” The Doctor peered at her for a moment before recollecting he was educating Hermione on her new abilities. “Oh…yes…well…ah…we are extremely long lived – the potential is there to live practically forever. Pretty much anything a human can do, we can do ten times better. Better senses all round, you see. The neat bit is that we can sense Time – the timelines, all of them; distortions and jumps in time; alternate universes and so forth.”

Hermione stared at him, “…potential to live practically forever? I feel like Alice in Wonderland.”

The Doctor laughed, “oh no, my dear, you…you are much prettier than Alice could ever be.”

A deep blush covered Hermione’s face again, “…please, no false compliments…I know what I look like.”

He shook his head, “No, Hermione, my love, I don’t think you do.” He stood up and walked over to her chair, “let me show you how beautiful you really are.”

The Doctor pulled an astonished Hermione up into his arms, and claimed her lips in a deep kiss, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing her tightly to him. There was no way he was letting her go…not now that he had seen her glorious body, tasted her sweet flavor not to mention that he had always loved her mind.