one

Nina had an enormous headache as she slowly came into consciousness. She slowly sat up from the spot on the ground where she had been lying down, and brought her hands to her head, gripping her hair tightly. She felt like there was a hammer in her head, pounding in her brain. She soon shook that through when she remembered that the brain had no pain receptors, so if someone was actually hammering her brain, she wouldn't even feel it.

She slowly stood up, using the wall next to her as support as her legs almost gave up, trying to support her own weight. Nina looked around, the corridor slightly familiar. She frowned. Was this Hydra? Had they gotten to her again? Nina started to panic as she walked through the halls, looking past her shoulder every few seconds.

She tried to remember how she had gotten there, but nothing came to her mind. She couldn't remember anything. She didn't know where she was, where she had been for the past few days.

She thought about her friends. If she had been missing for more than a couple days, they were probably worried about here. It wasn't like her to simply disappear, leaving no note, no trace.

"What?" She heard a voice exclaim in confusion. She turned around, to see whose voice it was, but ended up doing so too quickly, sending another wave of pain through her head. She couldn't help but send her hands to her head once more, closing her eyes in agony.

She heard footsteps walking at a fast pace towards her, and then felt two hands landing on top of her own. The touch sent a wave of warmth throughout her body, and a sense of calm suddenly took over her.

"Are you alright?" The voice asked. Nina didn't move, and her breathing was just as rapid as it was. "It's okay, open your eyes. It's just me. I'm the Doctor, you can trust me."

Trust. Nina definitely didn't trust him. How could she? She had trust issues, which was quite understandable after everything she went through. But for some reason, she opened her eyes, just as the man had told her to. She looked up to see a brown haired, brown eyed man staring down at her. He had such kind eyes, but also... sad.

"Your head hurts?" He asked her, his voice soothing. She slowly nodded.

This isn't Hydra, she realized. This man is way too kind for this to be Hydra.

"Do you know how you got here?" He asked her, looking into her eyes as if he were looking for the cause of her headache through them.

"Not really," she finally spoke.

"Let's get you home, shall we?"

The Doctor led her through a bunch of corridors, and she followed him close behind. The man was rambling, he wouldn't stop talking, but Nina wasn't paying much attention to anything he was saying. She was really trying to concentrate on how she had gotten there.

The last thing she remembered was going to sleep. She went to sleep after a long day and simply collapsed onto the bed. Nina grunted again when another wave of pain, this one even stronger than last time, hit her.

This was weird. Nina didn't have headaches very often. The last time she had one this painful was...

No.

The last time she had had a headache this painful was when she fell through the void and ended up on earth in another universe. This was exactly what had happened: she had gone to sleep, woke up with her eyes glowing and a giant headache. The eyes probably weren't glowing anymore, because the Doctor hadn't made any comments about it. Then, something the man said took her from her thoughts.

"I mean, what's going on, people just appearing in the TARDIS?" The man asked. Nina froze. Had she heard right?

"What did you just say?" She asked, her voice breaking at the end of the phrase. The man didn't even notice as he kept on walking until they reached the room Nina immediately recognized as the console room. A young woman with dark eyes and dark hair was sitting on a chair next to some railings.

"You're the second one that appeared here," he explained, never looking back to see her shocked face as he started to push on buttons and pull on levers. "Although Donna had a pretty good explanation." He looked at the scans and froze. "The TARDIS is telling me you're from another universe, a parallel universe."

"Another universe? That's possible?" The girl asked, in awe. "Can we go there?" The Doctor's face suddenly darkened, as he kept on staring at the screen.

"No, we can't," he said. He then turned back at Nina. "Who are you? How did you get here?" He approached her and she took a step back, not sure of what he might do. Nina knew what he was. She knew the anger of a Time Lord was not something to be messed with.

"My name's Nina. I don't know how I got here," she told him. "Well, I know how I got here in this universe, but not how I got in your TARDIS," she corrected herself. "Well, I don't actually know how I got here, but I kind of do. It's - I know the cause, it's just not very clear to me how it actually happened." Nina realized she was rambling and immediately stopped talking. The woman raised her eyebrows at her.

"She's just like you," she said to the Doctor, a smirk on her face.

The Doctor stared at her for a few seconds, before realization was written all over his face.

"But--" he cut himself off.

"Are you sure I just came from another Universe?" Nina asked him. If there were any chances she could still have a way of going home, she needed to take them.

"See for yourself," he said quietly, stepping back to let her approach the monitor. All of the data was written in circular Gallifreyan. The Doctor obviously already knew who she was. Martha, on the other hand, didn't. She frowned as Nina approached the screen and read what was written. Her body was vibrating at a different frequency as this universe, it was still getting used to this world's frequency. That was probably why her brain was pounding in her head and she could barely stand up. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, stepping back.

"I can't believe this is happening again," she whispered in frustration.

"What do you mean again?" The Doctor finally spoke. "This has happened before?" He asked, using what looked to be a sonic pen to scan her brain.

"Yes, once -- is that a sonic pen?" She asked, her head slightly tilted in confusion.

"Screwdriver," he answered, entering the pen -- screwdriver into a cylindrical slot on the control panel of the TARDIS. He then turned back to face her. "What happened last time? How did you actually travel to another Universe?"

"Well I don't know exactly how or why it happens, as I mentioned before," she said. "Last time, I just blacked out and woke up in 1863, West Virginia, in the middle of the Civil War."

"And when did you leave?" He asked, turning back to the screen.

"2018." The Doctor and the girl froze and looked at her. The girl was quite confused as was he, but the Doctor's face also showed hints of pity.

"You were on Earth for 155 years?" He asked quietly. Nina barely shrugged.

"Trust me, you get used to it," she told him with a small smile on her face. Except the Doctor saw how fake her smile was. He saw how much she resented having to live one century and a half on Earth, in America of all places.

"I'm sorry, I'm really not following," the girl said, standing up from her seat.

"What happened then? Did you find out why you just suddenly appeared somewhere else?" The Doctor asked, completely ignoring her question.

"Well, I scared off some Union soldiers, that's for sure," she told him. "Apparently, my eyes were glowing gold or something. I didn't really get a chance to see it, seeing I literally woke up in a battlefield."

"No, he was telling the truth," he said, looking at the scans more carefully.

"How do you know?" Nina asked, stepping next to him to read the scans.

" 'Cause they were glowing just a minute ago when I found you in the corridor," he told her.

"My eyes were glowing," Nina said. "My eyes were glowing and you didn't bother to ask me why, or maybe tell me: 'hey, random girl who just appeared inside of my Time Machine, your eyes are gold, are they usually like that?' Because let me tell you, they are not."

"Well, I thought it was the Time Energy from appearing in here in mid-flight!" He argued. Nina froze, looking up to him, still standing next to him in front of the screen.

"That's not supposed to be possible," she said, quietly, shaking her head slightly. He looked down at her.

"I'm aware, but it keeps happening."

Nina suddenly felt her legs go weak as a new wave of pain, greater than before, hit her head. She let out a strained yell as she brought her hands to her head and her knees just gave up. She would have hit her knees on the ground if the Doctor hadn't reached to grab her.

He pulled her close to his body before slowly walking her to the seat the other girl was previously sitting on.

"That's also going to keep happening," he informed her once she was sitting down, her hands still gripping her hair. "Until your body gets used to this Universe's frequency," he said, gently stroking her back. He looked at the screen. "And seeing the gap is huge, this place is vibrating at such a higher frequency than your body currently is, I'm guessing it's going to take some time before everything goes back to normal."

"Great," she said sarcastically, her voice slightly muffled by her hands. She slowly lowered them onto her lap and took a deep breath, feeling the wave of pain go away.

"You have no idea how lost I actually am," the girl mumbled from the other side of the console. Nina smiled faintly at her.

"Right," the Doctor said, standing up from his spot next to Nina. "Martha, that is Nina. Nina, meet Martha Jones." Nina smirked.

"Jones?" Martha nodded. Nina chuckled lightly. "Alright, then."

"Right, so we should get going," he said, walking to the console. He pulled on some levers and the TARDIS shook.

"Where are we going?" Martha asked, grabbing onto the railings. Nina decided to do the same.

"Somewhere special, you'll see," the Doctor told her. The TARDIS shook more violently this time, sending the Doctor away from the console. Nina rolled her eyes and took this opportunity to attack the console and pull on a lever before pushing a blue button. The TARDIS suddenly stabilized and its three occupants were able to stand up straight without holding on for dear life onto the railings. "What did you do?" The Doctor asked when he noticed her standing next to the console.

"I stabilized it," she simply said. He frowned.

"How did you manage that?" Nina kept her gaze on him, almost laughing before she realized he was serious, and it was a legitimate question.

"I pressed the blue button," she told him, a smirk on her face. "Blue stabilizes."