Chapter Text
Jane rolled again in her bed, staring up at the ceiling as her fellows slept in their beds. As she had only four nights ago, she rose from her bed and took a small candle from the room. She didn’t feel the cold of the ground on her feet as she walked, moving slowly to avoid the creaking boards and hinges of the old house. This time not headed to Miss Temple's room, but to the small mound that now covered her dear friend. Brambles tore at her thin dress and her feet, but she was numb to the pain of the world compared to what she felt in her heart.
Slowly, steadily, she made her way through the night mist to Helen’s grave, wondering if she would find her spirit haunting the place. Half of her heart was terrified that she would, the other half hoping she was so that Helen could guide her from this cold and dark place. When she reached the small, unmarked grave, she lay down on the damp earth, tears pricked the back of her eyes and fell without her willing them. When she clasped her hands together they felt icy, though she did not notice the chill in the rest of her body. “Helen,” she choked out, “Helen, why did you leave me?” The cold continued to seep through her body, but all Jane could feel was her heart split in two, the tears choking her every breath. The world began to dim, everything slowed, for a moment she thought she saw Helen sitting on the far field in the midst of wildflowers.
A groaning, grinding warping noise permeated the fog, then a bright light flashed behind the young girl. She turned away from Helen towards the bright light, a tall figures stepping through it and rushing towards her just as everything went dark.
When she woke; it was warm and safe in a little cradle. The room around her was dark and small, not her hall at Lowood where she had spent the past year or her room in Gateshead. The floor beneath her feet was warm to the touch and she felt her way to the wall until a door handle could be found. What was on the other side though, betrayed all forms of logic. A great pillar stood in the center of a pedestal just half a floor below her, uneven warped walls with little round windows surrounded her. A man with wild brown hair, strange cloths, and a bow around his neck flitted from one area of the pillar to the next turning knobs and switches and levers as a mad man. On one such flourishing movement he stopped in the middle of a turn, “Oh good, you’re awake. You certainly had us worried for a while." He patted the side of the room, smiling fondly as if it could hear him. "Now tell me,” his voice turned from loud to soft and caring as he spoke. “What was a little girl doing crying at a grave in the middle of winter with barely any cloths on?”
“Where am I?” Jane asked. “Who are you?”
“We’ll ignore the breach of protocol and I’ll go ahead and answer your questions first,” the man said. He gently lifted her from the stairs and set her on a comfortable chair before she could protest the treatment. “My name is The Doctor, and you are in the TARDIS, my home.”
“I’m Jane,” she said quietly, “And I was in the graveyard to see my friend Helen. What's a Tardis?”
“A graveyard is a strange place to meet,” Doctor replied. “Why didn’t you wait until it was daylight and warm, and had cloths on. And a TARDIS is a type of ship, a very special ship.”
“I have school in the day, they wouldn’t let me go see her,” Jane said, when she saw the confused man she continued. “Helen is dead, it’s her grave I visit. Where does this ship go?”
“I’d say that’s foolish, but you’re a little girl so I think it’s allowed,” The Doctor said. “And I know loss, sometimes is makes us to foolish crazy things. Especially loosing those we love.” He moved in close and sat down on the stair next to her so they could look each other in the eye. “As for where this ship goes, it goes anywhere and any time we want to go. Well, what do you say to loosing yourself for a while. I promise I’ll have you back in time for school tomorrow morning.”
“You promise?” Jane asked.
“What’s your name?” The Doctor asked.
“Jane Eyre,” she replied.
"Well then, Miss Jane Eyre," he said, smiling brightly. "How does the Festival of Lights on The Rings of Antaris sound? Or maybe, the nebulonic rings around planets that your world will not see for another thousand years."
"That sounds like foolishness," Jane replied.
"Yes, Jane, it will be very foolish," The Doctor said, "But won't that be the great fun of it." He extended his hand. "Now Jane, your answer?" The young girl smiled and took his hand. She traveled with him on and off for the better part of the year past Helen's death without her guardians or friends every knowing. Jane kept her memories of her Doctor deep in her heart, her own secret. Then his visits became less frequent, then they stopped all together.