A/N: Yes, hello! Thank you for clicking in this story. So, I was having a look through here and it came to my attention that there weren't enough crossovers between Doctor Who and Les Misérables. After having an even better look, I also discovered that there aren't enough Female!Doctor fanfictions, so I put two and two together and came up with this fanfiction. It's extremely AU-ish and it's also being posted on AO3. It's basically a season five to seven re-write using Les Misérables characters and... yeah, that's pretty much it.
Well, thanks for reading this and I hope you enjoy it. And pretty please, drop a review? :)
Chapter I, Part One:
The Eleventh Hour or That Time When The Doctor Saved The World In Less Than 20 Minutes
The red-head woman leaned against the door after she closed it. Taking a deep breath, she pulled herself along by the handrail, and took off her trench-coat, letting it fall to the ground. She looked at her right hand, as it began to glow with energy. She walked around the console, leaning her body against it, tears streaming down her face. She looked up for a moment.
"I don't want to go..." She whispered, closing her eyes.
She stepped back as the pain hit her. The energy began to flow through her body. She threw her head back and opened her arms as a blast of energy poured from her. The force of the process caused her ship to shake heavily as a small fire started in the console. She screamed in pain once more, and then it was over.
Her new body felt slightly different. The woman looked down at her new self, sighing in relief. "Legs. I've still got legs, good." She sighed, planting a kiss on her knees. "Arms. Hands. Ooh, fingers, lots of fingers... Ears, yes. Eyes, two. Nose, good. Chin, blimey. Hair..." She run her fingers though her hair. "No longer ginger, I see!" She then reached out her hands to the rest of her body. "Oh, curves. That's good. Good. I feel smaller... Oh!" She exclaimed, now looking down at her breasts. "I'm still a girl. Amazing." She grinned, before clasping her new hands together and turning around. "And something else, something important, I'm, I'm... I'm..." There was an explosion coming from behind her. "Ha! Crashing!"
The ship was still shaking. The woman turned around, tripping on her own feet as she grabbed hold of one the levers in the console. She let out an exclamation of excitement, before pressing one of the buttons. "Geronimo!"
The seven-year old boy was lying on his bed, humming the same lullaby his mother used to sing to him. He glanced at the wall of his bedroom for a moment, analyzing the unusual crack about three to four feet long on it. He sighed and got off the bed. Wrapping his blanket around himself, he got down in his knees, clasping his hands together as his mother had taught him to do.
"Dear Santa." He started, in a low tone of voice. "Thank you for the little soldiers and the books and the crayons. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you, but honestly, it is an emergency…" He trailed off, looking at his wall once again. "There's a crack in my wall. Papa says it's just an ordinary crack, due to this house being old, but I know it's not. Sometimes there are… voices. Especially during the night… So please, please, could you send someone to fix it? Perhaps someone from the police forces or someone from the -"
Before the little boy could finish his sentence, he was startled by a huge noise coming from the garden. He flinched and reached for the candle in his nightstand. Moved by curiosity and still wrapped around his blanket, he got up and made his way downstairs as quickly as he could.
The source of the noise, he found out, was caused by the crashing of a huge blue box against one of the trees his father had planted a few years ago. The little boy approached it, trying to decide between running away and hiding or staying and finding out what the blue box was.
Before he could make up his mind, though, the doors of the blue box snapped open outwards, facing the sky. Two hands got hold of one of the edges, and soon, a strange-looking woman popped out of it.
The woman took a deep breath, before looking up. "Oh, hello, little guy." She smiled, waving her hand. "Could you please tell me where I am at the moment?"
The little boy raised an eyebrow in confusion. "We're in Paris, mademoiselle. Obviously."
"Paris? We're in Paris? I'm in freaking Paris? Oh, how rubbish is that." She scoffed, pulling herself up and out of the blue box.
The little boy stared at her, wide-eyed, for a few seconds. She seemed a rather normal looking woman, in his opinion. She was about the same age of his eldest sister, maybe a bit older. But there was something strange about her. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on.
The little boy tilted his head to the side. "You're funny."
"Funny?" She asks, looking at him with an amused expression. "Blimey, that's new. You are the first person to call me funny… I've been called weird many times. And this one time this old woman called me mental… But never funny, though." She tried to walk, but tripped on her own feet. She regained her balance in a matter of seconds, and looked at her surroundings. "Whoa. I'm clumsy now. Won't you look at that?"
"Mademoiselle?" The little boy asked. "Are you all right?"
"Oh, don't worry about me, kid." She chuckled. "Just had a fall. All the way down there" She pointed at the blue box "right into the library. Hell of a climb up, let me tell you."
"You're soaking wet." He pointed out.
"Yeah. I was in the swimming pool." She replied, taking one of the strands of her messy blonde hair and having a look at it. "Blimey, this looks horrible."
The little boy blinked his eyes and crossed his arms, becoming slightly frustrated. "You said you were in the library." He said, a million questions going through his head. Was she lying to him? Why? What the hell was that strange woman doing in his garden? Why had the blue box crashed against a tree? What exactly was that blue box?
"So was the swimming pool." She sighed. "Awful combination. Never put a swimming pool in a library, kid. Things just get messy."
"Are you from the police?" He asked, eying her with suspicion.
"No. Why, did you call the police?"
The little boy didn't give her an answer. Instead, he just approached her, becoming less and less scared as the seconds flew by. "Did you come about the crack on my wall?"
"Crack?" The woman asked, impatient. "What do you mean? What cra-Ah.-AAAUCH." She collapsed to the ground, letting out a moan of pain.
"Mademoiselle? Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes. Yes, I'm okay. This… This is perfectly normal." She replied, as a small breath of gold energy came out of her mouth and disappeared in thin air. The woman shook her head, and looked up at him. "Oh. Can I have an apple? That's all I can't think about. Apples. Big, red and tasty apples. Blimey, I think I'm having a craving. That's new. Never had cravings before."
"I don't mean to be rude, but Mademoiselle… Who are you?"
"Who am I? What a wonderful question. Who am I? Oh, I don't know yet. I'm still cooking." She replied, getting up on her feet and stretching her back "Does it scare you?"
"No. It just looks a bit funny."
"Again with the funny." She muttered, with a sigh. "I meant the crack on your wall. Does it scare you?"
"Hum…" The little boy hesitated for a few seconds. He looked up at her, and merely nodded his head. "Yes."
"Well, no time to lose them." The woman smiled kindly at him. "I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off." She turned around to walk, but ended up hitting one of the remaining trees of the garden and falling into the ground once more.
The little boy rolled his eyes, approaching the woman. "Are you completely sure that you are all right?' He asked, trying to not sound rude.
"Early days. Steering it's a bit off."
"If you're a doctor, then why does your box say 'police'?"
"Long story" she replied, shrugging.
The little boy had taken her to the kitchen of his house, and after grabbing an apple from the table he started to lead the way upstairs, being careful to not trip over his blanket. The Doctor had taken out an odd-looking object from her pockets - 'sonic screwdriver', as she called it - and was using it to light up the way. (She had confiscated the candle from him, rambling about how dangerous it would be if he dropped that on the ground.)
Once they were upstairs, the little boy handed her the apple. "Here, mademoiselle. The apple you asked for."
"Thank you so much." The Doctor replied, looking down at the apple. She noticed that there was a face carved into it. "Oh, look. A smiley face. How different."
The little boy nodded his head, as he watched the Doctor take a bite of it. "I used to hate apples when I was younger. So my mama used to put faces in them."
"I'm going to save this for later." She commented, glancing at the apple and putting it in her pocket. "But she sounds good. Your mum."
"She was."
"Was?" The Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow. "What happened to her?"
"I don't remember." He replied, slightly upset. "I only have a dad and my three sisters. One of them is married, so she doesn't live here."
"I see." She commented, nodding her head. "Sorry, I haven't asked yet. What's your name, huh?"
"Thomas." The little boy replied, smiling at the woman for the first time.
"Okay, then. Where are your other sisters and your father, Thomas?" She asked, with curiosity. "I thought we would have waked them up by now."
"They're not here." The little boy said, crossing his arms. "Papa took them to a fancy ball and they didn't want me to come. But I didn't want to go anyway."
"So they left you alone?"
"I'm not scared."
"Course, you're not. You're not scared of anything. Box falls out of the sky, woman falls out of a box, woman eats apple, and look at you, just standing there. So you know what I think?"
He shook his head, now opening the door of his bedroom. He turned to look at her. "What?"
"It must be a hell of a scary crack in this wall of yours."
The little boy nodded, pointing at the crack. The Doctor stepped inside his bedroom and approached the wall rupture right away, running her fingers through it and muttering non-senses to herself. Thomas thought about saying something, but she looked deep in thoughts.
After what seemed to be five minutes, the Doctor spoke. "You've had some cowboys in here. Well, not actually cowboys, though that can happen." She pointed the sonic screwdriver at the crack and it made a rather annoying noise for a few moments. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing. Where's the drought coming from? Oh, blimey." She analyzed the sonic screwdriver, and looked at him. "Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. You know what the crack is?"
"What?"
"It's a crack. But I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, because the crack isn't in the wall."
Thomas shot her a look of disbelief. "Where is it then?"
"Everywhere. In everything." She replied, taking a few steps back and staring into the crack. "It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together right here in the wall of your bedroom…" She trailed off, now turning around to face the little boy. "Tell me. Sometimes, can you hear...?"
"A voice?" He interrupted her. "Yes."
There was a growling sound coming from the wall. The Doctor turned around, and noticing a glass of water placed in the nightstand next to Thomas' bed, she quickly grabbed it and emptied it on the floor - which earned her a glare from the little boy. She pressed one of the ends against the wall, and placed her ear on the other end of the cup. She could hear a muffled voice, whispering and yelling. She couldn't understand exactly what it was saying, except from two words. "Prisoner Zero?"
"Prisoner Zero has escaped." Thomas says, looking slightly scared. "That's what I heard. What does it mean?"
The Doctor bit her lower lip, turning around and putting the cup back on the nightstand. "It means that on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner. And you know what that means?"
"What?"
"You need a better wall." She stated, with a sigh. "The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way. The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or…"
"Or what?" The little boy asked, his eyes wide.
"Well…" The Doctor trailed of, scratching the back of her head with her free hand. "You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"
There were tears in the little boy's eyes as he simply nodded his head and muttered something that sounded like "Yes".
The Doctor smiled kindly at him. "Everything's going to be fine."
She takes Thomas' hands into hers, and aimed her sonic screwdriver at the crack. It made a funny noise as the crack began to widen, filling the bedroom with a bright light. The voice could be heard now, loud and clear, echoing through the crack. "Prisoner Zero has escaped. Prisoner Zero has escaped."
"Hello?" The Doctor calls, taking a few steps ahead.
Thomas followed close, hiding behind her. He didn't let go of the woman's hand. He was too scared of the crack to do that. He lets out a cry when big blue eyes appeared into the other side. "What's that?"
There was a big noise and suddenly, the crack closed itself.
"There, you see? Told you it would close. Good as new." The Doctor cheered, letting go of his hand.
"What's that thing? Was that Prisoner Zero?"
"No. I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent me a message." She says, reaching out to her pockets and taking out something that looked like a document. "Psychic paper. Takes a lovely little message." She commented, before looking at it. "Prisoner Zero has escaped. But why tell us?" She made a pause. "Unless…"
"Unless what?"
"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here." The Doctor shook her head, putting the psychic paper back into her pockets. "But he couldn't have. We'd know." Slightly confused, she stepped into the corridors, turning around. "There's something I'm missing here, Thomas. Something in the corner of my eye…"
"Mademoiselle?" Thomas asked, uncertain.
Suddenly there was an explosion outside. The Doctor gulped, sheer panic splattered across her face as she started to run downstairs. "No. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, damn it."
"Mademoiselle?" Thomas asked, as he ran after her. "Where are you going?"
"I've got to get back in there." The Doctor replied, approaching the blue box and turning around to face the little boy. "The engines are phasing. It's going to burn!"
"But it's just a box. How can a box have engines?" He asked, confused. "Wait, what are engines?"
"Never mind the engines. It's not a box. It's a time machine."
"What's a time machine?"
The Doctor sighed. "It's a machine that can travel in time."
"And you've got a real time machine?"
"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilized." The Doctor commented, biting her lower lip. "Five minute hop into the future should do it."
Thomas looked at her with puppy eyes. "Can I come?"
"What? Are you crazy?" The Doctor asked, shaking her head. "Not safe in here. Not yet. Five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back."
The little boy pouted, crossing his arms. "People always say that."
The Doctor laughed, climbing into one of the TARDIS' doors. She turns to look at Thomas. "Am I people? Do I even look like people?" She asked, grinning. "Trust me. I'm the Doctor."
Before Thomas could say anything, The Doctor jumped into the TARDIS, yelling something that sounded like "Geronimo". Right after that, he could hear the sound of water moving around and the doors of the blue box closed itself. There was a big, whirring noise, and the TARDIS disappeared into thin air.
It was now daytime. There was smoke coming out of the TARDIS when it finally materialized back into the garden. The Doctor stumbled out of it, taking a huge breath. She looked at her surroundings, but there was no sign of Thomas in the garden. She turned around and ran towards the house. She used the kitchen entrance that the little boy had shown her less than half an hour ago, and was slightly surprised to find the place empty.
"Thomas!" She called, making her way to the living room. "Thomas, are you there?" There was no answer. She frowned, biting her lower lip. Something wasn't right. "I worked out what it was. I know what I was missing! You've got to get out of there!" She spoke again, waiting for an answer. But nothing.
She cursed under her breath and ran upstairs, going to the bedroom. "Thomas? Thomas, are you all right? Are you there?" She opened the door of the little boy's bedroom and sighed, wondering where the kid was. Stepping into the hallway again, she turned around. "Prisoner Zero's here. Prisoner Zero is here! Prisoner Zero is here! Do you understand me?" She called, hoping that wherever he was, he could hear her "Prisoner Zero is -!"
Before she could finish her sentence, she felt something pressed against her back. She gulped, as a strange voice spoke. "What are you doing in my house?"
"Is that a gun or are you just happy to see me?" The Doctor asked, ignoring his question.
"Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" The man repeated, not showing any emotions on his voice.
"Who am I?" She scoffed. "Who are you?"
"I'm warning you. I work for the police and I've sent my maid to call for backup. I can get you arrested in a blink of an eye." He told her. "What are you doing in my house?"
"Hang on, no, wait." The Doctor says, blinking her eyes in confusion. "You're a police officer".
"And you're breaking and entering. You see how this works?"
"But what are you doing here? Where's Thomas?"
The man scoffed. "Thomas?"
"Yeah, Thomas. Little French Boy. Oh, You know what…" She started, trying hard not to move herself too much. The gun pressed against her back felt uncomfortable and alarming. "Why don't you put the gun down and then we'll talk?"
"All right. But no funny business." He agreed, putting his gun down.
The Doctor turned around, only to find the gun was now pointed at her forehead. She sighed. "Where is Thomas? He lives here. I promised him five minutes but the engines were phasing. I suppose I must have gone a bit far. Has something happened to him?"
"Sorry, Ma'am. Thomas hasn't lived here for a long time."
"How long?"
"Six months."
"No." The Doctor shook her head. "No, I can't be six months late. I said five minutes. I promised. What happened to him? What happened to Thomas?" She asked, before taking a deep breath. "I need to- I need to speak to whoever lives in this house right now."
"I live here."
"But you're the police."
"Yes, and this is where I live." He put the gun down, taking some time to analyze her. "Have you got a problem with that?"
"How many rooms?" The Doctor suddenly asked.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"On this floor. How many rooms on this floor? Count them for me now." She explained, leaning against a wall.
"Why?"
"Because it will change your life."
The man rolled his eyes. "Five." He said, pointing the doors with his fingers and counting them. "One, two, three, four, five."
"Six." The Doctor corrected. "Look."
"Look where?" He asked, getting slightly impatient by the moment.
"Exactly where you don't want to look. Where you never want to look. The corner of your eye. Look behind you."
The man hesitated for a few seconds, but did as the Doctor told. He spotted a new room this time. A room he had never noticed before. He gasped, taking a few steps back. "That's, that is not possible. How's that possible?"
"There's a perception filter all around the door. Sensed it the last time I was here. Should have seen it."
"What on earth is a perception filter?" He asked, looking at her with wide eyes.
"It's some sort of machine that can disguise or hide anything."
"But that's a whole room. That's a whole room I've never even noticed."
"The filter stops you from noticing. Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding, and you need to stay away from that door!" The Doctor warned.
The man moved towards the door, which caused the Doctor to try to follow him. She had barely taken two steps, though, when the man turned to her. "Stay here. One more step and I shoot you."
"But -"
"I'm warning you." He said, making his way over to the room.
"No. Do not touch that door! Listen to me, do not open that." The Doctor warned, but the man ignored her. He entered the room, not bothering to hear what she was saying. "Why does no-one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to?"
"There's nothing here." The man called.
"Whatever is there stopped you from seeing the room. What makes you think you could see it?" She asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Now please, just get out."
"I'm hearing something." He told her. "I'm hearing something but I can't see it."
"Don't try to see it. If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you. Don't look at it."
The man suddenly ran out of the room, and the Doctor used her sonic screwdriver to shut the door. He turned to look at her, his eyes wide with fear. "Will that door hold it?"
"Of course. It's an inter-dimensional multiform from outer space. They're all terrified of wood." The Doctor answered. She then looked up to see a bright light emerging from the room. "Blimey."
"What's that? What's it doing?" The man asked.
"I don't know. Getting dressed?" She sighed. "Run. Just go. Your back up is coming. I'll be fine."
He bit his lower lip, giving her an apologetic smile. "There is no back up."
"What do you mean there is no back up? You told me your maid went for back up."
"I was lying."
"You're a police officer."
"I'm an art student." He confessed, running his fingers through his own hair. "I don't even have a maid! I can't afford that."
The Doctor was about to reply when suddenly the door fell down to the floor, revealing a man wearing overalls, accompanied by a black dog. She blinked her eyes, tilting her head to the side.
"That's just a man."
"No it isn't. Look at the faces." She warned, taking a few steps back.
"What?" The man asked, giving the creature another look. The creature suddenly let out a bark. "What is that?"
"It's all one creature. One creature disguised as two. Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, did you? Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?"
The creature suddenly opened its mouth, showing a mouthful of sharp teeth.
"Good God." The man muttered. "I'm too sober for this."
"Stay, boy!" The Doctor warned, pointing her sonic screwdriver at the creature. "Him and me, we're safe, mate. Want to know why? He sent for back up."
"I didn't send for back-up!"
She shot him a glare. "I know. That was a clever lie to save our lives." Then, turning back at the creature, she waved her hands in a dismissive gesture. "Okay, yeah, no back up. And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had back up, you'd have to kill us."
And suddenly, a voice echoed through the house. Loud and clear, just like the guard's voice from before. "Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded."
"What's that?"
"Well, that would be back up." The Doctor commented. "Okay, one more time. We do have back up and that's definitely why we're safe."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"Well, safe apart from, you know, incineration."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"I'm the Doctor, by the way." She said, looking over at the man. "What's your name?"
"Grantaire."
"Well, nice to meet you, Grantaire." And grabbing his hand, she continued. "Now run for your life."
