Mundane Days
A/N: I own nothing. And this is sooo bad, because A) this wasn't supposed to be a fanfic. Much less from Doctor Who. But, as with every fandom I go through, if I write, it becomes fanfiction. SO ENJOY. And I own nothing. So far as you know. I'm working on that.
"Walking dead, coming through!" Shouted a white blur as it ran past the check-in counter at Hopedance Hospital (and mental ward, the receptionist thought), of Hoot Owl, Oklahoma. The lady behind the counter glanced up from her magazine, took a sip of coffee, and put her reading glasses away.
"Good morning Mr. Hope," she greeted her boss as he ran by, following the patient. He nodded curtly without the time to stop and chat. It was rather comical to see him jaunting about in brown pinstripe pants and a tweed jacket. At 6ft 1 he barely made it under the short doorways throughout the hospital. And, if you couldn't guess, though most did as soon as they learned he founded the place, 'Hopedance hospital' was for his namesake. And his wife, Dancer. But Karen (the receptionist) chose to forget her existence.
"Look out, Carebear!" The cheerful ghost-girl's voice came from behind as the patient swung herself under the counter and peered out as Mr. Hope flew in the wrong direction. River Fay. 14 years old and the longest resident/patient, preceding even Dancer (lucky thing). Seeing her scampering around became a regular occurrence on Karen's shift. Since hardly anyone came to the place, the two naturally formed a fast and strong friendship in those lonely hours. "Man he's angry today." River pouted, sliding out to lean against the receptionist's chair.
Karen rolled her eyes. "What did you do this time?"
"What didn't I do! Oh, don't glare at me like that. Maybe I snuck into his office and maybe I wallpapered my room with all the documents regarding me- hey, that one thing with carjacking that Ferrari, I so don't remember that. Was it fun? Tell me, I had fun, didn't I, Before I got amne-"
"You're ranting, Riv. And that was MY car." Karen sighed. "Beautiful electric blue…." She whispered. It took a few seconds to realize River had gotten deadly quiet. "What is it sweetie?"
River shifted, staring into nothing, a whirring sound in her head. "Sweetie…." She murmured. "'Ello, Sweetie." Pulling herself up, she winked at Karen to calm the lady's nerves. "Sorry, something about the color blue. Can't quite put my finger on it. Think I'll go steal some stuff until I do."
"Now wait that's not-" Karen protested, but the girl was gone. Mr. Hope appeared then, frustrated and wearing a bowler hat. He was always showing up with random hats on, that man. That mad, mystical, brilliant… married man. The odd thought that she was also married to someone came to mind, but Karen shook it. "Evenin' sir. What can I do for you today?"
Mr. Hope smiled and shook his head. "Oh Pond, little pond, you're keeping her from me again." There was no shock there. She was, after all, aiding and abetting the criminal amnesiac.
"You're hopeless." Karen narrowed her eyes, loving the way Mr. Hope always said her last name. Somehow it made him feel older, but to her it just made him seem more childish.
"Am I?" The man paused. "Well… a little. Well, except for that one time…." He counted on his fingers, "Then again-"
"I meant with River. What she needs is freedom to start over, instead of you keeping her, constantly trying to recover what's not coming back." Actually, it seemed like there was something all of them weren't quite getting. Mr. Hope scoffed.
"What she needs, Pond, is help from a medical professional." Karen laughed, stopped, thought about it, and smirked a bit more.
"And that's you?" She asked more or less rhetorically. A smile gradually crept onto the man's face in answer as he leaned closer to her.
"Well, I am the doctor."
The air conditioner clicked on, a whirring gasp to match the one River sometimes got in her head. She was crawling around in the air ducts as she often did to escape needles and 'tests', so perhaps the sound she heard was only residual noise from there. In the meantime, she couldn't worry about it. She knew the pathways inside and out, and yet here was something new. Sliding the strange door, she leaned foreword and fell, tumbling into a black shaft.
The floor she woke up on was metallic and hard and the room was damp. "What in the hell?" River groaned, rubbing her head and moving into a crouch. Lights flooded in from the 'ceiling' and she could see where she fell from. Then she saw something else. "Is that-?" She gasped, eyes wide with excitement. "Oh ho, you are sexy." Her fingers touched the blue paint, the handles. Opening the doors wide, she stepped inside and disappeared.
"Did you hear that, Pond?" Mr. Hope turned then, startled by something.
Karen was confused. "That's just the air turning… on…." She gasped as a blue box materialized in the waiting room. "Mr. Hope?" She turned to him, mouth open.
"Pond," The man took off his bowler hat and flung it behind him, "I'd like you to meet Dancer. Or, should I say, the TARDIS."
"Doctor!" 'Karen' yelled as he marched right up to the thing and opened the doors. River came tumbling out. "River?" 'Karen' had to catch her breath.
The Doctor and River hugged and the small blond smirked "Hello Sweetie. Hope you don't mind, but I'd like to stay in this body a little longer." The Doctor nodded and turned behind her to the large inside of the TARDIS.
"Rory, you can come out now," and a man walked out, blinked a few times and landed his gaze on the very confused receptionist.
"Amy?" He ventured. Then, with more confidence, went running to her. "Amy! It's been years I was stuck in that stupid time-lock and you… you don't know me."
"Slight side-effect of the device the Sontarans used to convince us of this place's existence, she'll remember in a second. Timey-wimey, spacey-wacey, shall we go?"
"We're not in Oklahoma." Amy stated, standing up.
"Never were." The Doctor confirmed, following River into the TARDIS.
"We're on a spaceship." She guessed.
"And we're about to get on another one, so come ON" He urged.
Amy/Karen turned to the mostly silent Rory and glared. "Oh, I am so going to kill both of you."
"The only thing I don't get," The Doctor mused to himself much later, as the Ponds fought in a corner. "Why didn't the Sontarans just kill us?"