A/N I'm back you guys! I didn't finish any of the fics I planned to but I missed uploading this so here I am! I hope you guys are still reading this series.
FYI This is a sequel to my story 'Meant To Be' so if you have not read that yet please do so. I do not own any characters, dialogue or plotlines originally found in the series, comics or any other properties under the title 'Doctor Who'. The characters, lines, and plots not originally found in the series however belong to me.
Ariel Parsons was thrown across the floor of the library, but before she was flung into one of the bookcases, the pool flew forward from across the hall as though the machine was trying to catch the young woman with it in her scattered state
The brunette's flickering stormy grey eyes widened at the sight of the deep blue beneath her. She sucked in a sharp breath right before she fell backwards into the pool with a loud splash. She swam around in the pool wildly, but something was holding her back. It was as though an invisible force was pressing on her chest keeping her from swimming forward.
Just when she thought it was hopeless, there was another loud splash and a blurry figure in a blue shirt and tie fell in.
"Doctor!" Ariel exclaimed, but all that came out were bubbles and an inaudible voice. He was unable to hear her and possibly help her get out.
Ariel watched with wide eyes as the Doctor clung to the wall of the swimming pool and bolted out.
Great, she thought. I'm gonna die in a swimming pool that's stuck in a library.
The water pushed Ariel even further backwards, pressing against her chest like a large pair of hands just pushing her ribs down into her lungs. Her back hit the wall of the swimming pool and she let out a small gasp with nothing but bubbles coming out of her mouth at the emotion.
Ariel turned around with a bit of difficulty and grappled at the wall before eventually using it to pull herself up and out of the swimming pool.
She fell to the ground and automatically rolled to the bookcase lining the back wall of the library as she coughed the water out of her lungs and brushed her wet yet short brown hair out of her face.
Ariel glanced up with a sigh and noticed the entire Tardis looked as though it had fell onto its backside. Whatever happened with the Doctor's regeneration, it wasn't good.
She took a deep breath. She had so been hoping for a normal regeneration and a chance to spend some time with her boyfriend and get to know his new face. Of course, while dating the Doctor, things were never as simple as you'd like them to be.
Ariel was still unbothered by it, she had learned to go with the flow after a year with traveling with him. After all, if you don't roll with the punches while traveling through time and space with an alien from another planet, you likely wouldn't last long.
She never minded the rapid pace of things and the maddening events that always seemed to unfold while standing by his side because without him, her life was dead ordinary. Sure, she had been happy secluded and dreaming herself into far off lands and unknown places, but with the Doctor she got to live out those dreams and truly live.
She had decided a long time ago, that she would never leave his side unless he wanted her to. Living in his world alongside him was just too good to pass up of your own free will.
Of course, there were moments when it was painful and she wondered what was the point in all of it, but being in love with the Doctor had reassured her that while there was bad: there was always good right alongside it.
Ariel took a deep breath and stared up at the climb she had before her. Traveling with the Doctor, there were also many moments where you had to figure out a way out on your own.
She jumped up and latched onto one of the bookcases in front of her. She used it like a ladder to get to the front of the library and crawled onto the top of it to get her bearings. She glanced around and saw a rope at the very end of the corridor outside the console room. The Doctor had probably left it for her to crawl out, all she had to do was get to it.
Ariel sucked in a sharp breath and jumped up, clinging to the wall beside the entrance. The doors were swinging haphazardly beside it and Ariel jumped up quickly, not wanting to be smacked in the stomach by a large wooden door.
She jumped over the gap of the entrance and crawled towards the rope, not wanting to risk standing and possibly slipping all the way into the library again.
She clung to one of the corridor lights with one hand and stretched over to the rope swaying back and forth slowly before her. She missed the rope on the first try, but on the second she grinned as she grabbed it and walked up to the console room.
Ariel coughed, using the sleeve of her jumper to cover her nose and mouth against the smoke and various fires throughout the room.
Now, she knew how they crashed.
She got to the very top of the Tardis where the doors were still open and jumped up to grab the floor. She dropped the rope and climbed over the Tardis before falling into the grass with a thud.
Ariel groaned and rubbed her head. Apparently, regeneration couldn't be difficult for just the Doctor.
She scrambled off the ground and brushed the dirt off her trousers, glancing up at a dimly lit house across the garden. If she had to guess where the Doctor was, that was a good a start as any.
Ariel winced as her feet sloshed in her sneakers, the water from the swimming pool still inside. She was too annoyed and far too tired to care.
All she wanted was to find the Doctor and figure out what they could do with their home literally up in flames behind her.
Ariel shoved the small metal gate open and it clanged loudly as it hit the fencing. She marched through the already open door and stopped at the entrance. She stared at the house for a single moment before screaming loudly so anyone in there could hear.
"Doctor!" Ariel yelled.
"Ah, and there she is," a distant voice chuckled from the kitchen.
Ariel's eyes widened. It couldn't be. The man who phoned her before her mother's funeral? Bowtie?
She frowned as she realized and took a deep breath. She was surprised, sure, but the more she thought on it the more it made sense. The only person who could possibly ask her age and moan about getting the time wrong was none other than the Doctor himself.
Ariel squelched her way into the kitchen and, hardly noticing the young ginger Scottish woman running about, her eyes were fixated on the Doctor.
"What do you think?" the Doctor smirked. "New, new Doctor."
Ariel smiled softly as she walked up closer to get a better look at him. He had dark floppy hair that looked gorgeous over his young face. His bright green eyes sparkled as he grinned at her making her smile despite her anger. Her heart skipped a beat and she felt an overwhelming surge of happiness. However small, a tiny bit of her had wondered if she would find the Doctor just as handsome as before. Sure, they were both still the Doctor and she would always love his personality, but they bore the faces and bodies of two different people. She couldn't help but be a bit worried. "I love the hair," she muttered. "Chin's a bit much though," she remarked.
"Ah, that's why I said," the Doctor mumbled as he took a bite of his food. "Still," he shrugged. "Can only focus on so many things to do right during regeneration. I didn't have time for the nitty gritty like chins."
"Next time, you'll have some other strange part that sticks out like eyebrows," Ariel giggled.
The Doctor laughed and shook his head. "So, you like it?"
"Yeah," Ariel smiled and nodded. She ran her fingers through his new, yet slightly damp hair. "It's a bit younger than the last one," she noticed. "But I like it," she nodded, much firmer this time.
The Doctor beamed up at her. It broke his hearts when people didn't like his new face. It wasn't like there was anything he could do about it. Especially since this would be his last face. More than anything, he wanted Ariel to like it.
"Are you eating fish fingers and custard?" Ariel frowned at the bowl.
"Oh, it's brilliant," the Doctor said with a mouthful of food. "D'you want a bite?" He prompted, holding up the fish finger he had already half bitten into.
Ariel stared down at it for a minute before shrugging and taking a bite. "Oh," she said with wide eyes. "Not half bad."
"It's the only thing the new mouth has liked so far," the Doctor sighed.
The young ginger grabbed some ice cream and a spoon and sat it at the table before standing up and looking up at Ariel with wide eyes.
"Are you the lady he wouldn't stop talking about?" The young girl asked in a thick Scottish accent.
Ariel giggled and raised an eyebrow at the Doctor who blushed profusely.
"I guess so," Ariel shrugged.
"Were you in the library too?" The girl asked.
Ariel sighed softly and glanced down at her drenched attire. "Yeah, sort of," she mumbled awkwardly.
The girl just smiled. "Would you like a towel?"
"Yes, please, thanks," Ariel grinned. The girl ran off to get her some towels and Ariel smirked at the Doctor, grabbing one of the fish fingers from his bowl.
"The girl ran in with two towels and a bag. "I brought these for your clothes and hair and these for your shoes."
"Thank you," Ariel smiled. "You're so sweet," she said as she took the items. "I'm gonna go dry off but you haven't got any apples by any chance have you? This idiot hasn't eaten all of them, has he?"
"Oi!" the Doctor snapped and Ariel just giggled.
"No, he said they were rubbish," the girl replied.
"Oh, yep. New mouth, new rules I suppose," Ariel shrugged.
"I'll leave one out for you," the girl nodded.
"Thanks," Ariel smiled. She grabbed a chair and removed her shoes and socks to put them in the plastic bag before using the towels to dry her hair and clothes.
The little girl glanced at the pair of them with a grin.
"Funny," she remarked.
"Are we?" the Doctor prompted and the little girl nodded. "Good," the Doctor nodded. "Funny's good. What's your name?" He asked.
"Amelia Pond," the girl replied proudly.
"Oh, that's a brilliant name," the Doctor laughed. "Amelia Pond," he smiled, glancing back at Ariel who nodded with a grin.
"Wish I had a name like that rather than being called a bloody mermaid all my life," Ariel mumbled bitterly.
"It's like a name in a fairy tale," the Doctor grinned. "Are we in Scotland, Amelia?"
"Oh, please don't be Edinburgh," Ariel breathed. She didn't want to revisit the city that held her dead mother anytime soon.
"No," Amelia sighed and shook her head. "We had to move to England. It's rubbish."
"I had to move to Scotland," Ariel nodded in understanding. "I was miserable," she said.
"Ah, the English girl who moved to Scotland and the Scottish girl who moved to England. What a combo," the Doctor hummed.
"Yeah, I can definitely see them making some odd sitcom out of that one," Ariel chuckled.
The Doctor laughed and turned to Amelia with a soft smile. "So what about your Mum and Dad, then? Are they upstairs? Thought we'd have woken them by now," he observed, dipping another fish finger into the custard. "Especially with Miss Parsons screaming for me the second she walked in."
"I couldn't help it. I was wet, angry, and had smoke in my lungs," Ariel shrugged as she wrapped one of the towels around her body and scooting her chair up to the table.
"I don't have a Mum and Dad. Just an Aunt," Amelia shrugged.
"I don't even have an aunt," the Doctor sighed.
"You're lucky," Amelia nodded, grimacing as she thought back on her own aunt.
"I know," the Doctor nodded with a small smirk.
"I just have an Uncle," Ariel shrugged as she grabbed a fish finger from the Doctor's bowl. "Believe me, they're worse," she sighed.
"So, your Aunt, where is she?" the Doctor wondered, swatting Ariel's gingers away from a fish finger he wanted to grab as she giggled.
"She's out," Amelia said simply.
"And she left you all alone?" the Doctor frowned.
"I'm not scared," Amelia retorted.
Ariel grabbed the apple that Amelia had grabbed for her from the table and swatted the Doctor's fingers away as she grabbed a knife by his side. The pair were all too used to doing everything in each other's space, constantly being mere inches from the other.
Ariel began carving a smiling face into the apple as the Doctor spoke.
"Course, you're not," the Doctor shrugged. "You're not scared of anything. Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of a box, woman falls out of box, man and woman eat fish custard, and look at you, just sitting there. So you know what I think?" the Doctor prompted.
"What?" Amelia asked.
"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall," the Doctor hummed as he took another bite of his fish finger.
"What crack?" Ariel frowned, looking up from carving the face in the apple.
"What are you doing?" Amelia asked, peering over the tub of ice cream to try and get a better look at the apple.
"Oh, the fish custard filled me up so I'm carving a face," Ariel shrugged. "My Dad once did this when I was a kid. I think it was my ninth birthday. Nobody had showed to my party and when I started to cry, my Dad thought of something quick and carved a bunch of smiling faces into apples. I had like this tiny army of smiling apples and it made me laugh so hard I forgot that nobody was there except him and my Mum," Ariel smiled fondly at the memory. "Anyway, I'm getting off track," she shook her head. "What's with this crack?"
"Miss Amelia Pond has a crack in her wall that she wanted a policeman to come over and fix," the Doctor nodded.
"Ah," Ariel hummed. "Well, then what's the hold up? Let's see this scary crack," she smiled.
Amelia lead them up to her bedroom where, along the pale blue wall there was a crack, slightly w shaped and four feet long.
"You've had some cowboys in here," the Doctor remarked, spinning around the room as he took in everything. "Not actual cowboys, though that can happen," he chuckled with a smirk.
"What would space cowboys want with a little girl's bedroom?" Ariel wondered.
"Also a good point," the Doctor smiled and nodded before walking up to the crack in the wall and delicating grazing his fingers along it.
Ariel spun around to Amelia and knelt down before her, holding out the apple with the smiley face she had carved into it.
"Here, you should have this. Keep it for when this crack in your wall gets too scary," Ariel smiled kindly, holding out the apple.
Amelia took the apple and held it, grinning down at the smiling face. "You keep it," Amelia said, holding out the apple. "I'm not scared," she assured her.
"Then you're braver than I am," Ariel giggled. She took the apple back and held it while walking up to the Doctor's side. "Well?" She prompted.
"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?" the Doctor wondered.
"What, like something between this crack and the other side of the wall?" Ariel guessed.
"Possibly," the Doctor hummed. He pulled out his sonic and scanned the wall. He looked down at the readings with wide eyes. "Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. You know what the crack is?" He asked the girls, glancing at each of them in turn.
"What?" Amelia asked with a slight shrug.
"It's a crack," the Doctor mumbled, frowning at the crack in the wall. "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?" Amelia asked.
"Everywhere," the Doctor breathed, pressing his ear against the wall curiously and listening. "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," he murmured. "Sometimes, can you hear?" He prompted, waving for Ariel to listen by his side.
Ariel pushed Amelia's small desk to the side and pressed her ear up against the wall. There was a faint growling on the other side of the wall, but it sounded odd, like whoever was speaking was under water.
"A voice," Amelia breathed, her voice shaky as she spoke, betraying all the nights she had laid awake listening to that faint growling on the other side of her wall. "Yes," she nodded.
"I need a cup," the Doctor mumbled.
Ariel turned and raised an eyebrow at Amelia. She ran to get her nighttime glass of water and emptied it out, handing it to the pair of them. The Doctor placed the cup in between his ear and the wall and Ariel watched him warily as he listened.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped," a muddled, low voice announced.
The Doctor's eyes widened and Ariel just raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, curious as to what the voice was saying.
"What is it?" Ariel asked.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped," the Doctor breathed. Ariel's eyes widened. Wherever that crack lead to, they had lost a prisoner and knowing their luck, the Prisoner was probably somewhere nearby on Earth.
"That's what I heard," Amelia nodded. "What does it mean?" She asked.
The Doctor passed the cup to Ariel so she could listen while he turned back to Amelia.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped," the voice from the other side of the wall announced.
"It means that on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner," the Doctor sighed. "And you know what that means?" He asked.
Ariel pulled away from the wall and put the cup away. The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her and she nodded.
"What?" Amelia asked.
The Doctor and Ariel pulled Amelia's desk away from her wall and stepped back. "You need a better wall," the Doctor muttered. "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," he took a shaky breath and Ariel watched him with wide eyes.
"What?" Amelia prompted.
The Doctor inhaled sharply and stared at Ariel, silently asking her to mend his error. She took a deep breath and knelt down in front of Amelia.
"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?" Ariel prompted with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes," Amelia groaned, visibly frustrated with the habit.
"Everything's going to be fine," Ariel lied fluidly with a small shrug.
Amelia narrowed her eyes at the woman, knowing she was lying but not saying anything as she jumped up to the Doctor's side. He used his sonic screwdriver to open the crack and it parted like a wide mouth with an ominous dark lighting flooding the room.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped. Prisoner Zero has escaped," the voice announced, much more clear as it spoke but still carrying the same low gravelly tone.
"Hello?" the Doctor prompted. "Hello?"
All of a sudden, a giant blue eyeball swung down and glanced at all, three of them.
Ariel gasped and jumped back at the sight while Amelia stared at it with wide eyes, frozen in shock.
"What's that?" Amelia gasped.
"Is there something you want to tell us?" Ariel implored the eyeball.
The eyeball seemed to be scanning the room and moments later a bolt of light hit the Doctor's side and he doubled over. The eyeball watched him for a second before flying back up and closing the crack once again.
The Doctor sat in a chair beside Amelia's bed, fidgeting restlessly for his psychic paper as he grinned at the crack.
Ariel swatted his hand away and pulled out his psychic paper for him while he beamed at Amelia.
"There, you see?" the Doctor smirked. "Told you it would close. Good as new," he nodded.
"What's that thing?" Amelia asked, glancing back and forth between the crack and the Doctor. "Was that Prisoner Zero?"
"No, no, I don't think it was," Ariel sighed, reading the psychic paper and turning it to the Doctor.
"That was Prisoner Zero's guard," the Doctor breathed. "Prisoner Zero has escaped," he read once again. "But why tell us? Unless," his eyes widened as he realized what Ariel was beginning to understand.
"Unless what?" Amelia implored.
"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here," the Doctor murmured. "But he couldn't have. We'd know," he muttered, grabbing Ariel's hand and marching out into the corridor, glancing around the house with wide eyes.
"Could he be hiding?" Ariel guessed with a shrug. "Would there be any way to find him?"
"It's difficult," the Doctor sighed, raking his fingers through his hair as he took a deep breath and stared at the empty corridor. "Brand new me. Nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing. In the corner of my eye," he murmured, beginning to turn slowly.
Before he could turn all the way, out in the garden the Tardis cloister bells tolled loudly.
"Oh, God," Ariel gasped with wide eyes.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor cried. He grabbed Ariel's hand and bolted out into the garden with Amelia chasing after the pair desperately.
"We've got to get back in there!" the Doctor exclaimed. "The engines are phasing. It's going to burn!" He yelled.
"But it's just a box," Amelia sighed. "How can a box have engines?" She wondered.
"How can a box have a library?" Ariel frowned. "Perspective, Amelia!"
"It's not a box," the Doctor snapped, taking great offense whenever someone called his Tardis a box. "It's a time machine," he said.
"What, a real one?" Amelia gasped. "You've got a real time machine?"
"Live in one," Ariel nodded with a small grin.
"Not for much longer if we can't get her stabilised," the Doctor sighed and Ariel inhaled sharply. "Five minute hop into the future should do it," he nodded.
"Can I come?" Amelia asked, fidgeting slightly with clear anxiety over the possibility of traveling into the future.
"Not safe in here. Not yet," the Doctor shook his head.
"Yet, he wants me to go in with him," Ariel chuckled. "Somethings never change," she sighed.
The Doctor chuckled and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead before turning back to Amelia. "Five minutes," the Doctor assured her. "Give us five minutes, we'll be right back."
"People always say that," Amelia mumbled with a small frown.
Ariel's eyes widened and she sighed softly, grabbing the Doctor's arm before he could crawl back into the Tardis and gesturing to Amelia. The Doctor shrugged slightly and raised an eyebrow, unsure of what he could do. Ariel glared at him and he sighed as he rolled his eyes.
The Doctor took a deep breath and knelt down before Amelia. "Are we people?" The Doctor asked, gesturing between himself and Ariel. "Do we even look like people? Trust me," he nodded. "I'm the Doctor," he smiled.
Ariel grinned at him and he grabbed her hand as they both climbed back onto the Tardis. They stared down at the chaos below with fires raging across the console room and the water from the swimming pool beginning to flood the rooms beyond it.
The Doctor and Ariel shared a smile.
"Geronimo!" the Doctor exclaimed and they both jumped down into the Tardis.
There was a loud splash and moments later the Tardis began to dematerialize before Amelia.