Chapter One: Promise?
[Tardis]
High above the city of London, the TARDIS was tumbling out of control. It flew over the Millennium Dome with the Doctor dangling from the threshold, sonic screwdriver between his teeth and trying to pull himself back inside. They were heading straight for the Parliament Clock Tower, but the Doctor soniced the controls and it changed course just in time. He climbed back inside and shut the doors behind him, exhausted, as the Tardis careered on its way.
[Bedroom]
A pinwheel rattled in the dark of the overgrown garden of an old house. A little red-haired Scottish girl sat on her younger sister's colourful bed, boredly watching as the slightly darker haired girl said her prayers, neeling in front of her bed.
"Dear Santa. Thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you, but honest, it is an emergency. There's a crack in my wall. Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack, but I know it's not, because at night there's voices, so please, please, could you send someone to fix it? Or a policeman. Or a-"
She paused as she heard a strange wheezing sound outside, then a crash.
"Back in a moment."
Her sister grabbed a torch from her bedside table and the two girls rushed to look outside the window, the younger girl being slightly more hesitant than her fiery haired sister. What they saw was a blue box that read police on its front had crash-landed on its side, completely destroying the garden shed.
"Thank you, Santa." The little girl whispered.
The older girl grabbed her sisters arm and dragged her down the stairs, barely pausing to get their coats and boots on, before racing out into the garden.
[Garden]
Both girls, despite their early excitement, slowly approach the smoking box, curious but slightly scared.
Suddenly, for only the second time ever, the Tardis doors opened outwards and a grappling hook is thrown out. Both girls jump a bit, the younger latching on to her sisters arm for comfort.
And out pops the soaking wet head of the Doctor. The youngest girl, whom had fully hidden herself behind her when the doors burst open, shyly peeked out from her sisters back and studied the strange man. The first thing she noticed was his giant grin. Then his large chin and his almost no existent eyebrows. She was sure that, if his hair wasn't wet, it would be floppy and soft. The kind of hair she liked to play with.
"Can I have an apple?" He asked breathlessly. "All I can think about. Apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving? That's new. Never had cravings before."
He grinned even wider, if that was possible, and clambered out, sitting on the ledge of the TARDIS doors and looking into the box.
He whistled and looked back at the two little girls. "Whoa. Look at that."
"Are you okay?" Amelia asked uncertainty.
"Just had a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."
"You're soaking wet."
"I was in the swimming pool."
Amelia was confused. "You said you were in the library."
"So was the swimming pool."
"Are you a policeman?"
He stiffened and asked suspiciously. "Why? Did you call a policeman?"
"Did you come about the crack in my wall?" The younger girl spoke for the first time. She was intrigued by the strange man.
The Doctor looked the girl curiously as she peeked out further from behind her sister. It was clear that this crack terrified the little girl.
"What crack? Argh!"
He falls to the ground as he shouts in pain, writhing around and clutching his chest. Emily, the younger girl, ignored everything everyone ever told her about stranger danger and started forward in concern for the stranger. She didn't want to see him in pain.
"Are you all right, mister?" She asked, tentatively neeling next to him.
"No, I'm fine. It's okay. This is all perfectly norm-"
He cuts off as a breath of golden particles come from his mouth. Emily watches as the pretty gold dust floats away into the sky.
"Who are you?" She breathed.
"I don't know yet. I'm still cooking. Does it scare you?"
"No, it just looks a bit weird."
"No, no, no. The crack in your wall. Does it scare you?"
Emily flinched and nodded. It scared her very much.
"Yes." She quietly whispered.
The Doctor looked briefly concerned, before covering it up with a grin. "Well then, no time to lose." He announced, popping up from the ground and making Emily jump back behind her sister. "I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off."
The Doctor started walking to the house, but walks straight into a tree instead and falls to the ground with a thud.
"Are you all right?"
"Early days. Steering's a bit off."
[Kitchen]
In the kitchen, Amelia passed the Doctor an apple while Emily watched silently from the doorway. He was looking around the room, studying it.
"If you're a doctor, why does your box say Police?" Amelia quizzed.
The Doctor snatches the apple and bites into it. He chewed for a moment before spitting it out, narrowly missing Amelia. Emily suppressed a giggle at his somewhat offended face.
"That's disgusting. What is that?"
"An apple." Amelia said in a 'duh' tone.
"Apple's rubbish. I hate apples." He replied childishly. Emily suppressed another giggle.
"You said you loved them."
"No, no, no. I like yoghurt. Yoghurt's my favourite. Give me yoghurt." He demanded.
Amelia gets him a pot from the fridge. He pours it in his mouth and then spits that out too, again narrowly missing Amelia. This time Emily didn't hold back her giggles and grinned back at the Doctor when he gave her a cheeky grin.
"I hate yoghurt. It's just stuff with bits in." He complained to Amelia.
"You said it was your favourite." She accused.
"New mouth. New rules. It's like eating after cleaning your teeth. Everything tastes wrong. Argh!"
The Doctor twitches violently and places a hand on the fridge. Emily once again started forward in concern.
"What is it? What's wrong with you?"
"Wrong with me?! It's not my fault!" He calmed down. "Do you have any towels? I need to dry myself off."
Amelia rushed out the kitchen in search for some towels, leaving her little sister with the strange man. Emily continued to gaze at him, quite concerned.
"Are you okay?" She asked quietly, partially hidden behind the door frame.
The Doctor crouched down to her level and she shied away further behind the door frame.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm the King of fine. Okay, rubbish title."
She bit her lip, holding back the tiny smile that wanted to brake out at his words. He paused before holding his hand out towards her. She flinched away and stared at the hand like it was about to eat her. She didn't like touching people.
The Doctor gave her a reassuring grin, cocking his head to the side goofily.
"I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. Why don't you come out from behind there, aye? I can't very well have a one sided conversation, now can I?" He paused, seemingly rethinking his words. "Well I can, but I don't really want to right now."
She hesitated, first staring at his hand, then back to his face, seemly searching for something. She search eyebrows, his nose, his cheeks, his chin, his forehead, his hair and his eyes.
Such pretty green eyes, she thought.
She nodded, finding what she was looking for, and came out from behind the door frame. She didn't take his hand though. She eyed it as if it were going to jump out and attack her. She really didn't like touching people.
The Doctor was confused and was going to ask what was wrong, but Amelia came back with a towel and he snatched it from her hands, instantly rubbing his hair and making it go fluffy, question momentarily forgotten.
"Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish. Fry something."
So Amelia got the frying pay out while the Doctor dries his hair and Emily sat at the table, quietly watching the Doctor.
"Ah, bacon!"
Amelia smiled and placed the plate on the table. The Doctor happily stabbed a piece and chewed, until he made another disgusted face and spat it back on to the plate.
"Bacon. That's bacon. Are you trying to poison me?" He asked suspiciously.
Emily shook her head with a same grin. She liked him. He was funny.
Meanwhile, Amelia heated up a saucepan of baked beans and Emily got up to sit next to the Doctor, waiting to see what happened next. She had a feeling he wouldn't like beans either.
"Ah, you see? Beans."
Amelia smiled, but once again, that vanished when the Doctor ran to the sink and spat it out.
"Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans." He told Emily seriously and she nodded her little head giggling, completely agreeing with him.
The Doctor sat back down next to her and grinned, while Amelia tried once more to find him something that he wouldn't spit out. He started making funny faces at Emily and she giggled even more, a sound that he loved hearing.
Amelia placed a plate in front of him, interrupting their little competition.
"Bread and butter. Now you're talking."
He took a bite and not a second later, angrily marches to the front door and throws plate of bread and butter out, hitting a cat.
"And stay out!"
Emily let out another giggle, the most sound she's made all night, while Amelia searches desperately through the fridge.
"We've got some carrots."
"Carrots? Are you insane? No. Wait. Hang on. I know what I need. I need, I need, I need fish fingers and custard."
•|•
The Doctor contently dipped the fish fingers into a bowl of custard and ate, while Amelia has ice cream. Emily curiously examines the Doctors food choice from her place next to him and looks tentatively looks at him, asking for permission. He nods and nudged the plate and bowl towards her so that she could try the peculiar combination.
It was good.
"Funny." Amelia remarks.
"Am I?"
Emily nods, still nibbling on her fish fingers and custard.
"Good. Funny's good. What's your names?"
"Amelia Pond."
"Oh, that's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond. What about you?"
He looked curiously at the younger girl, who hid her face in her dark auburn hair.
"Emily." She mumbled. "Emily Pond."
"Ah. Emily. Emily Pond. Like a name in a fairy tale." She grinned, her confidence back, and took another fish finger. "Love a good Emily. Are we in Scotland, Emily?
"No. We had to move to England. It's rubbish." Amelia interjects.
"So what about your mum and dad, then? Are they upstairs? Thought we'd have woken them by now."
Emily's posture drooped.
"We don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt."
"I don't even have an aunt."
"You're lucky." Amelia grumbles.
"I know. So, your aunt, where is she?"
"Out."
"And she left you all alone? "
"We're not scared."
Emily stared down at the table, her good mood forgotten. She was scared. She was very scared. It's just that being alone isn't what's scaring her.
"Of course, you're not. You're not scared of anything. Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of a box, man eats fish custard, and look at you two, just sitting there. So you know what I think?"
"What?" Emily asked. She had a feeling she knew what he would say.
"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."
She stiffened.
[Emily's Bedroom]
The girls lead the Doctor to Emily's room. There were a couple of toys strewn across the room, her bed still made. She had a wardrobe in the corner and a desk against the wall, a giant crack above it. The crack was about three to four feet long, and slightly w shaped. Emily once again hid behind her sister as she stared at the crack above her desk. She could already hear the whispers.
"You've had some cowboys in here." The Doctor said, pointing a small cylindrical device around her room. "Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."
"I used to hate apples, so my mum put faces on them." Amelia said giving the Doctor an apple with a smiley face cut into it.
Emily missed her mum. No one would ever tell her why one day she was there, cooking dinner and playing dolls, and the next, she was gone. Not a note, not a message, not a trace. Just. . .gone.
"She sounds good, your mum. I'll keep it for later. This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing. Where's the draught coming from?"
He once again waved his cylindrical device around, following the line of the crack.
"Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey." He muttered. "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."
"Where is it then?"
"Everywhere. In everything. 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. Sometimes, can you hear?
"A voice? Yes, not me though. Emily can."
Emily whimpered slightly as a vague growling sounded throughout the room. The Doctor empties her nighttime glass of water and places it on the crack.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped."
The Doctor's brow furrowed in confusion. "Prisoner Zero?"
"Prisoner Zero has escaped." Emily whispered, finishing the sentence. "That's what I hear. Every night."
Amelia looked expectantly at the Doctor. She was never really believed her little sister, putting it down to imagination, but now? Now she was scared for her.
"What does it mean?"
"Prisoner Zero has escaped."
"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. 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-"
"What?" Emily timidly asked as she peered at the Doctor through her hair. She was even more scared now.
The Doctor looked at her guiltily, almost regretting bringing it up and scaring the little girl even more. He kneeled in front of her, trying to find the right words.
"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?"
"Yes." Both girls said, Amelia annoyed and Emily scared.
"Everything's going to be fine."
The Doctor holds his hand out for the little girl to take. Emily hesitated before grasping his hand tightly, flinching minutely as she does so. The Doctor sends her a reassuring smile, not noticing the flinch and aims the his device at the crack. It widens, flooding the bedroom with bright light and Emily clutched at the Doctors leg.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped. Prisoner Zero has escaped."
"Hello? Hello?"
A giant blue eye looks at them through the crack.
"What's that?" Amelia asked.
A bolt of light goes to the Doctor, and he doubles over, then the crack closes again.
"There, you see?" He cooed to Emily, patting her head as she buried her face in his side. "Told you it would close. Good as new."
"What's that thing? Was that Prisoner Zero?" Amelia persisted.
"No. I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent me a message. Psychic paper. Takes a lovely little message."
He read something off the leather wallet, still rubbing comforting circles in Emily's back. The young girl was terrified.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped. But why tell us? Unless . . ."
"Unless what?"
"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here. But he couldn't have. We'd know."
The Doctor grabbed the youngest girl's hand and wandered out of the room to the landing.
"It's difficult. Brand new me. Nothing works yet." He explained to no one. "But there's something I'm missing. In the corner of my eye."
He slowly turns his head and Emily glances at where was looking. It was a door at the end of the hall. Emily was getting a bad feeling, something wasn't right . . .
Suddenly, the Tardis Cloister Bell tolls and the Doctor lost his train of thought.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
[Garden]
"I've got to get back in there. The engines are phasing. It's going to burn!" He shouted, running about. Emily had significantly calmed down.
"But it's just a box. How can a box have engines?"
"It's not a box. It's a time machine."
"What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?" Amelia asked disbelieving, while Emily looked at him in awe.
The strange man was just getting better and better.
"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilised. Five minute hop into the future should do it."
"Can we come?"
"Not safe in here. Not yet. Five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back."
He walked over to his box and started tying rope around the doors.
"People always say that." Emily said disappointedly. The Doctor stopped what he was doing and made his way back to the two girls.
"Am I people? Do I even look like people? Trust me. I'm the Doctor."
"Promise?" Emily's soft voice questioned.
The Doctor crouched in front of the young girl and held both her hands in his own. She once again flinched at the contact.
She really didn't like touching people.
"I will always come back for you. I promise." He told her seriously, staring her directly in the eye.
And he meant it. The moment he said it, he knew it was true.
He would always come back for her. No matter what.
He tapped her nose with reassuring smile, before running back to his blue box and sitting on the ledge. He gives the girls one last, quick, cheeky grin and jumps down into the Tardis.
"Geronimo!"
There was a splash as the doors close and the Tardis started to fade away. Amelia and Emily ran back to their room, got their suitcases from underneath their beds and packed. As Amelia ran down the stairs, she didn't notice that one of the doors at the end was now open. Emily however, pauses in front of the door, a bad feeling of dread pooling in her stomach.
She neared to door, bile burning in her tummy and hesitantly reached out her hand. However, before she could push it open, Amelia called for her to hurry up and she ran down the stairs with one last glance at the door.
Emily shuddered. She did not like that door.
As she joined her sister outside, the girls sat on their suitcases in the garden and waited, both dressed in duffel coats and wooly hats.
They sat and they waited. Never once speaking to each other.
And they waited.
And waited.
Five minutes passed, but still they waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Amelia fell asleep after the third hour, but Emily stayed vigilant and placed her coat around her sister to give her extra warmth.
And she waited.
And waited.
She was still awake and waiting by the time morning came around when their Aunt found them. She refused to move from her seat, though she was cold, tired and very, very wet. Not even when her Aunt tried to drag her back to the house.
She wouldn't move an inch.
Because the Doctor was coming back. He promised.
And she could tell that he didn't brake promises.
So she waited for him.
And waited.
Because he promised.
And she waited.
And waited.
And she never gave up.
She just waited.
And waited.
. . . . But he didn't come back.
•|•
Why do you think Emily flinches away from contact?
Why could only Emily hear the voice?
Or is there no reason and it's just plot convenience devised by the author?
Some answers will be present in the next chapter.
Probably.
Most likely.
I'm like 75% sure.
. . . I have 12% of a plan to