I don't own Doctor Who. Rating is probably a T for teen. This is only the Doctor, Amy and Rory. I love River, but I don't quite have her voice down, and since this is my first attempt at a Doctor Who story I thought I'd start small. A couple of things. 1: I am American, so I apologize about the American tone. 2: I love Doctor Who but don't know a whole lot about back story yet, so if I get something totally wrong let me know. Thanks!
CHAPTER 1
Masonville, Indiana, April3, 1974
The day had started off well enough, Amy Pond surmised. She and her husband Rory had awoken early — well, they really couldn't be sure, since their current address was the TARDIS — to find the Doctor, all tweeded up, dark, thick brown hair wild, buzzing about the control panel of his beloved time machine.
"Oh, Ponds! Good! I was starting to think I'd have to wake you. You humans. Always needing sooooo much sleep. It gets quite boring, you know, since Time Lords need only a fraction of the sleep you lot require."
Beside her, Rory sighed as he rubbed his still-bleary eyes. "Doctor, what are you going on about now?"
Then, the alien paused and flashed one of his dazzling, slightly-scary smiles at the couple. "It's not what. It's when, Rory. I just had the most wonderful thought." he paused again, this time for effect, and Amy rolled her eyes at his theatrics. "How do you feel about visiting Rytwerneen?"
The Doctor waited again, then grumbled something about "daft humans" when he got no response. "I admit, I haven't been there in ages, but I've heard the diamond mountains are even more breathtaking than I remember —,"
"Diamond mountains?" Amy's attention was piqued now. Diamonds were quite shiny and pretty, in her opinion. "As in, mountains made of diamonds?"
"Ooh, yes, yes," The Doctor said as he fiddled with the lever on the panel. "Though I recommend you take shades with you. The light from the planet's three suns can make looking at them almost unbearable."
Amy squealed. "Mountains made of diamonds!"
••••••••••
"Doctor, where are we?" Amy asked, her big eyes wide and confused. She didn't see any diamond mountains. In fact, she didn't see any mountains. And the one lone sun that blazed high above them was a far cry from three.
The alien grinned brilliantly as he spun to face them, his back to what appeared to be miles and miles of farmland. "It seems my darling TARDIS has chosen to drop us off in the middle of the great U.S. of A., Ponds."
Amy looked at her surroundings more closely. Mostly flat green farmland stared right back. She was suddenly feeling a bit cross. "Why are we here, Doctor? This certainly isn't Rytwerneen. And I don't see any diamond mountains." Her voice took on a higher, whinier edge at the end of that sentence.
"Just, relax, Amelia," he'd used her full name, which means he was a bit annoyed that she hadn't responded with a smile and bright eyes when she'd realized they had never made it to their destination. "Roll with the punches, as they say. Maybe we'll find something adventurous to get into."
Rory snorted beside her. "And by adventurous, you mean incredibly dangerous."
The Doctor shrugged. "Tomato, tomato." Except he pronounced both words the exact same.
"Uh Doctor, I don't think that's how you —" but Rory's correction was cut off by an ominous rumble of thunder. The three turned around to see the dark, scary-looking clouds rolling across the horizon from the west.
"And with mid-America comes the storms," the Doctor said gleefully as he began tromping toward what appeared to be a small community peeking over the horizon to the east. "Come along, Ponds. Don't want to be out here in the open when those clouds let loose, now do you?"
With concerned glances back to the darkening east, the couple followed.
•••••••••
The trio managed to make it to the small farming community just before the skies opened and the rains came. The three took shelter in a general store, and as the Doctor began rattling something off about the stratosphere and thunderclouds and Rory began ambling around the store, Amy looked around for a hint of where — or when — they were at.
A newspaper rack was loaded down with editions of TheMasonvilleCourier, and the date read April 3, 1974. They were in the 1970s.
"Excuse me sir," Amy asked the burly, older man behind the counter. "Where are we?"
He looked at her strangely before answering. "Masonville, Indiana, ma'am."
Then, he leered, and Amy took a step back. "You're not from around here, are you, miss?" His eyes roved over her leggings, skirt and button-up shirt. She was definitely not dressed for the 70s, that was
for sure.
"Oi! Eyes up here, buster." she rolled her eyes before following the Doctor and Rory to the back of the general store.
The Doctor was in the candy aisle, twitching in anticipation as he stared at the rows and rows of candy — many of which Amy and Rory had never heard of before.
"I want a Sugar Daddy," he began. "I haven't had one of those in ages. Of course, they'll rise in popularity about 400 years down the road when you humans will discover that they keep in space for an exorbitant amount of time ... but they're much too expensive in that time. Supply and demand, you know."
Amy and Rory kept quiet, as they'd grown accustomed to the Doctor's ramblings.
The alien grabbed what he'd been searching for and whizzed his way back up front, where the burly cashier was waiting.
The cashier eyed Amy a bit more, making the couple a trite uncomfortable, while the Doctor dug around in his trouser pockets for the required 35 cents. Of course, his pockets were always bigger on
the inside, as he'd repeatedly reminded Rory and Amy, and it took several moments before the Doctor placed the change on the table.
Amy made a mental note to ask him later if he carried around money from every single country of every single planet in the universe for occasions such as these.
"Thank you, my good man," the Doctor grinned before ripping the yellow and red food wrapping and attacking the caramelized candy ferociously. Another rumble of thunder accompanied the droning of the rain on the roof of the store, and the trio turned to watch the weather.
Then, the Doctor sighed. "Oh dear."
"What is it, Doctor?" Amy asked, her heart sinking. This meant something bad was going to happen.
The Doctor looked at the newspaper and slapped a palm to his forehead. He may have looked quite silly, since the sugary candy was sticking out of his mouth in a most unclassy way.
"Doctor, what?" Rory tried this time.
"Radio, radio, radio ... " the Doctor turned abruptly and moved back to the counter, taking the cashier by surprise. "Do you have a radio?"
The man nodded. "Why?"
"Ah, um ...," he grinned weakly. "How long is your shift?"
The man looked at his watch. "I'm here for another five hours. Why?"
The Doctor looked at the wall clock, which read nearly 11 a.m. "Do you have a storm shelter or a basement here?"
The man, puzzled, shook his head.
"Well, I recommend you seek shelter somewhere safe at, say, around 3 p.m. today," the alien answered before reaching across the counter and turning the dial up.
"Bennie and the Jets" by Elton John was playing.
The cashier hummed appreciatively to the music. "Good song, this. That Elton, he's one of the good ones, you know?"
"Oh yes, I do," the Doctor replied, but distractedly. He didn't feel like explaining to the man that Elton John — the REAL Elton John — had been teleported to the year 4,789 for a concert on New Earth and had decided to never return.
Of course, the replacement Elton was quite good as well.
After the song ended, a run-of-the-mill radio announcer took over, calling for volatile weather with a possibility of severe storms in the outlook.
"Oh dear," the Doctor mumbled again, the Sugar Daddy now dangling from his hand, forgotten. "This is bad. This is very not good."
"Doctor, what is it?" Amy asked again, her voice louder, trying to break through the alien's thoughts, which would often threaten to consume him completely.
The storm lessened, and as the wind faded and the rain slowed to a sprinkle, the Doctor ushered his friends outside and away from prying ears.
"Ah, how are you on recent U.S. of A. history, Ponds?" he asked, glancing at the sky nervously.
Amy, fed up, folded her arms across her chest. "Not very good, Doctor. Now, tell us what is going on or so help me I'll box your ears."
He instinctively brought his hands up to the sides of his head, then sighed. "We're in one of many towns set to be destroyed in the Super Tornado Outbreak of 1974. Lives lost, homes and businesses destroyed, hundreds critically injured ... nothing will ever be the same."
Rory snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute, I remember learning something about that in school. Something like 200 tornadoes in two days." Then, he gulped. "Must we stick around, Doctor? The thought of massive, scary twisters bearing down on us doesn't exactly get me itching to jump into things."
The Doctor licked his fingers and held his hand high, testing the wind direction. Then, with a quick snap, his sonic screwdriver was out and pointed toward the horizon to the southeast. "Sorry to tell you this, Ponds, but the TARDIS brought us here for a reason. Something foul is afoot in Masonville ... it's just bad luck that it happens to coincide with history-making weather."
Then, he paused. "Or is it?"
"Yes, it is, Doctor," Rory answered as they followed the alien toward the center of town. "It's very bad luck."
"Possibly." Came the answer from ahead of the couple. "Or maybe it's all connected to the tornadoes."
The Doctor nodded, then turned to face his friends. "Right then. Shall we?"
Amy and Rory just gaped at the alien. "We ... do we have to?" Amy asked meekly. "I'm not, I'm not the biggest fan of bad weather."
The Doctor squinted at her. "Amelia Pond. You're afraid of storms?"
"Not afraid," she answered quickly. "Just a bit nervous."
"Well, there was that time in Leadworth –," Rory began, before he stopped at the glare his wife sent him.
"NOT afraid," she said again, her voice low and dangerous.
"Uh huh," the Doctor answered, unconvinced. "Well, what better way to face your fear than experience one of the worst weather events in recorded American history?"
"Now, where did my TARDIS get to?"
••••••••••
An hour later, the trio discovered the TARDIS had established itself right on the outskirts of Masonville, near the Ohio River and away from the populace.
The sky had begun to darken toward the southeast once again, but the Doctor remained cheery as he began sonicing the surrounding field and sparse trees.
Bored, Amy and Rory leaned up against the time machine as the Doctor made a path through the high grasses toward the cluster of forest directly bordering the river, mumbling something about wonky environmental output coming from the river.
Rory put a comforting arm around his wife, and silently, she accepted the gesture. The two stayed like that for a few silent moments before sharing a quick, chaste kiss.
"I'll kill you for bringing that up, stupid face," she said after they separated.
Rory sighed. "I know."
And then, the earth fell out beneath them.