Evy dragged herself out of the pool with shaking arms, grumbling in annoyance. Who puts a pool in the library anyway? I mean, come on. She tried to stand up the best she could and tried her best to squeeze the water out of her hair. It still stayed wet, though. She stretched out and felt the tension go out of her shoulders with a sigh.

A rope swung down, smacking her in the face and she jerked back, nearly falling into the pool again. She looked up and saw the Doctor half-way there, hanging on the rope. She sighed and grabbed the rope only to pull back and the slight pain. She looked at her hand and remembered that her hand was still recovering from the burn earlier. She was only part-Time Lord so, her body won't let her heal unless absolutely necessary.

She pulled out a piece of cloth from her bigger-on-the-inside pockets and wrapped it around her palm. Hesitating, she grabbed the rope once more and winced as she used it to keep her balance while she walked sideways. Kind of like rock climbing. Except, well, the floor had become the wall.

When she finally reached the doors, she made her way to him, both of their upper bodies leaning out to the edge. While the Doctor was non-stop rambling, she just put her head in arms and exhaled loudly.

"I love apples," he was saying to a little ginger girl who was standing in front of the crashed TARDIS, looking stunned.

"Maybe I'm having a craving!" he grinned at Evy, who raised her eyebrows.

"That's new. I don't think you've had cravings before."

"Exactly." He replied, bopping her nose. Evy hoisted herself up and swung her legs over the edge, sitting on the ledge that used to be the bottom of the TARDIS. The Doctor, however, was having a bit of trouble probably due to his recent regeneration and new body. Giggling a bit, she offered him her uninjured hand and pulled him next to her with little effort.

"Are you okay?" the little girl asked slowly, but she didn't sound scared at all. Just… a bit dazed and confused. I mean, who wouldn't be? A box falls out of a sky and two people pop out, the man claiming he loves apples. Bit too much for just a kid.

The Doctor pushed his floppy wet hair out of his eyes to glance back down to the TARDIS. "Just had a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

"You're soaking wet," she pointed out and Evy groaned, pointing her thumb to the Doctor.

"Best architect in the universe over here decided to put the pool in the library."

The girl stifled a laugh and shined her flashlight in their faces, "Are you a police man?" she asked the Doctor, who leaned forward to look at her.

"Why? Did you call a policeman?"

Evy sighed again and pointed towards the sign on the top of the TARDIS. "Um, you do realize when people see a blue box that says 'POLICE BOX' on the front, they expect to see policemen."

"Yeah. That too, but, did you come about the crack in my wall?" she countered, and the Doctor looked at her more, squinting his eyes as if he was trying to look right through her.

"What cra-AHCK!" He was cut off when his body had a spasm, similar to his previous regeneration. He clutched his chest and fell right off the edge of the TARDIS, groaning and grunting in pain.

"Doctor!" Evy cried, immediately jumping down next to him.

"Are you alright, mister?"

The Doctor got up to his knees, waving his hand and the other clutching to his hearts. "No, I'm fine," he told them, his voice strained. Evy kneeled beside the Doctor and put his arm around her shoulders for support as he stood up.

"It's okay, don't be scared," She told the girl. "This is perfectly normal for-"

He jerked forward and Evy put her hand on his chest to keep him from falling again. Golden regeneration energy came out came swirling out of his mouth when he picked his head up. He grinned, the pain seeming to have disappeared with the energy.

"W-who are you?" asked the girl, looking scared now. He lifted his arms for Evy's shoulders and laughed.

"I don't know yet. I'm still cooking. Who am I?" he asked, looking at Evy, who was mostly okay with this. It was her second go-around with regenerations and heck, even she regenerated, after all.

"I haven't got the foggiest." She told him, grinning as she crossed her arms. Then looked at the little girl, turning a bit more serious. "Does it scare you?"

"No, just looks a bit weird."

"No, no, no, she meant the crack in your wall. Does it scare you?" the Doctor corrected, looking at his hands, which were still slightly glowing.

She lowered her flashlight and swallowed thickly before answering, "Yes."

"Well then," he said, hopping to his feet, "I'm the Doctor and this is Evy. Do everything we tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off."

She rolled her eyes and sighed but followed him anyway. He turned and walked briskly in the wrong direction – though Evy guessed that he probably didn't know it was wrong – and promptly walked head-first in to a tree, and falling back to the floor, the way it would happen in a corny television show.

"Ya' all right?" the girl asked and Evy held back her laugh .

"He's fine."

"Early days, Evy, remember? Steering's a bit off." And with that, he stood up and walked off – in the right direction this time – leaving Evy and the little girl to follow him.

~x~

Evy groaned and placed her head in her hands as he spat something else out onto the floor. So far, they'd found out that this regeneration did not like apples, yogurt, bacon, beans, and most recently, butter on toast.

"We've got some carrots," said he girl, rummaging through the refrigerator.

"Carrots?! Yeah, because everyone loves carrots!" Evy said sarcastically and took a sip from her cup of tea. The Doctor turned to her and scrunched his face in disgust. "I completely agree, that's disgusting. Carrots are evil. No, I know what I need." He stood up and dashed to the fridge, pulling out a box from the freezer. "Fish fingers," and grabbed a carton from the bottom fridge, "And custard."

And fish fingers and custard it was. Evy looked at him while he ate them happily, dipping the fish fingers into the custard and then just pouring the whole bowl into his mouth.

"So…" Evy said, grabbing a fish finger and eyeing it with a disgusted expression, "Fish fingers and custard… Savory and sweet…Interesting choice."

"Try one! It's delicious." He said, waving a fish finger with a blob of custard in her face. She immediately leaned back, attempting to swat his hand away, but to no avail. "Stay away from me!" She cried and they both started bursting into laughter.

The girl was watching them with a bemused expression as she ate Evy's Mille-Feulle – also called Napoleon, a classic French dessert. Evy baked one in attempt to feed the Doctor, but obviously, he spat it out.

"Funny," the girl commented, watching the Doctor lick his lips.

"Am I? Good. Funny's good."

"And you, Miss? Where did you learn to cook like this? This is amazing!" she complimented, taking another bite of the dessert.

"Oh, I learned from the best of the best," Evy replied, giving her a wink, "Marie-Antoine Carem. He was a charmer. And please, just call me Evy."

The girl smiled and nodded. She then opened her mouth to say something but shut it immediately.

Evy raised a brow at her expression and asked, "Why? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," the girl hesitated, "Are you two, like, together?"

Evy nearly spit out her tea and her face was tinted with a bright pink. The Doctor, on the other hand, dropped one of his fish fingers into the bowl of custard, his eyes wide as he blushed.

"W-what?! Us? Together?" she stuttered, rapidly pointed between the Doctor and her. "No, no no, I-I'm just his…um…"

"Uh, n-no, We're um… S-she just my…"

"Companion." they said in unison as they turned to each other, nodding in agreement. The girl nodded but hid a smirk, obviously showing that she didn't believe either of them. Then, there was an awkward silence between the three.

"So… Umm…" Evy said, attempting to break the ice, "What's your name?"

The girl snapped right to attention. "Amelia. Amelia Pond."

"Oh!" the Doctor exclaimed, "That's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond…"

"…Like a name in a fairytale," Evy agreed as they looked at each other.

"Are we in Scotland, Amelia?"

She sighed deeply. "No, had to move to England. It's rubbish."

"What about your mum and dad?" Evy asked instead, "Are they upstairs? All that noise must've woke them by now. We don't want any trouble."

"Don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt."

She sighed, but smiled weakly as she took another sip of her tea. "Me neither."

"We don't even have aunts," the Doctor told her, mouth full of fish fingers.

"Where is she then? Your aunt. Clearly there's no one else here but you."

"She's out."

"And she left you all here by yourself?" Evy was quite surprised. The girl couldn't have been older than seven.

The girl crossed her arms and protested, "I'm not scared!"

"'Course you're not!" the Doctor agreed, "You're not scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, people fall out of the box, man eats fish n' custard, and look at you," he said with his mouth full, "So you know what I think?"

"What?" she asked softly and the Doctor lowered his voice to match hers as he leaned in closer.

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."

Amelia blinked and swallowed thickly before getting up on her feet. "Come on," she said, leading them upstairs, probably to her bedroom.

Evy took a quick sip from her mug while the Doctor shoved the last fish finger into his mouth before jumping up, grabbing her hand as Amelia led them up the stair and into her room.

When they walked in, she was standing by her bed, pointing at a large crack on her wall. The Doctor went over to the wall to inspect it.

Amelia, who was standing by Evy, looked at the apple in her hand. "I used to hate apples," she said quietly, "so my mum used to put faces on them." She showed them to Evy, who smiled.

"She sounds very nice."

"Do you want it? In case you change your mind about apples?" Amelia said, offering it to the Doctor, who took it and looked at the face drawn on it before slipping it into his pocket.

"Thanks, I'll keep it for later." He went back into looking at the crack. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's the thing, where's the draft coming from?" he looked at it in bemusement.

"Scan it," Evy prodded as she reached into her jacket, tossing him her sonic screwdriver. He successfully caught it with one hand and scanned the crack.

"Thank you, Evy. Always nice to have two just in case." He scanned the wall and then looked at the screwdriver. "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. Do you want to know what this crack is?"

"It's crack. But," he continued, "I'll tell you something funny. If you knock this wall down, the crack will stay put. 'Cause the crack's not in the wall."

"Where is it, then?" Evy asked and he spun to them, sonic still in hand.

"Everywhere. And everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched," he turned back to the wall and put his ear to it, running his finger along the crack, "pressed together… right here in the wall of your bedroom. Sometimes can you hear…?"

"A voice," Amelia confirmed, "Yes."

There was a deep rumbling noise, almost like a roar, and the Doctor ran across the room and picked up a glass of water from Amelia's bedside table, tossing the water out onto the floor. He put the glass to his ear and walked back to the wall, listening.

"Prisoner Zero…"

"…has escaped," Amelia finished for him, "That's what I heard. What does it mean?"

"There's a prison on the other side of the crack. And they've lost a prisoner." Evy answered for him and he nodded.

"Exactly. And you know what that means?"

"What?"

"You're going to need a better wall." He walked over and picked up her dresser, taking it over to the crack. "The only way to close the breach is to open it up all the way. The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or…"

"What?" Amelia asked anxiously and the Doctor put down the dresser and looked at her.

"You know when grownups tell you everything's going to be fine, and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"

"Yes," Amelia said, as though it has happened to her a lot.

The Doctor looked to Evy briefly and his eyes widened as he looked back at Amelia.

"Everything's going to be fine."

"Doctor, what are you…" Evy trailed off once he gave her a look and slightly nodded. She held Amelia's hand while pushing the girl behind her a bit, to protect her as much as she could from whatever stupid thing he was about to do this time.

He raised his hand with the sonic and adjusted the setting before turning it on the crack, and everything began to glow as the crack opened.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped," said a booming, rumbly voice from somewhere in the black starry space in the crack. It repeated the sentence over and over like a mantra.

"Hello?" the Doctor called, leaning toward the crack. Amelia tightened her grip on Evy's hand, a bit frightened.

"Helloooo!" He called again, but jerked back as fast when an eyeball appeared from the crack.

"What's that?" Amelia whispered, but neither of the two answered. A light flew out from the eyeball and hit the Doctor in the chest. He fell backward as the crack closed.

"There," he said, "Y'see? Told you it would close. Good as new."

"Was that Prisoner Zero?" Evy asked, but he shook his head.

"No, no, I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent me a message," he said, pulling out his psychic paper and reading the message aloud, "Prisoner has escaped. But why tell us?"

"Doctor, you don't think…"

He looked at her, and scanned the Amelia's room. "Oh, I do think."

"What?" Amelia asked, still not being able to catch up with the two.

"Prisoner Zero escaped through here," the Doctor told her, still looking around her room.

"But he couldn't have. We'd know," Evy explained as he used the sonic to scan the room once more. As he analyzed the results on his screwdriver, his face suddenly lit up when a thought came to him and ran out of the room, grabbing Evy's injured hand, making her yelp. He let go immediately and turned to her, his face written with worry.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," she replied, brushing it off, "Just a burn."

The Doctor took her hand as gently as he could and lifted the cloth to reveal a nasty burn on her palm.

"Oh, Evy," he looked at her with eyes full of guilt, "I am so sorry."

"Hey, stop talking about it like it's your fault. I'm fine. Honestly, I am. Besides, we've got work to do," she smiled and moved the Doctor aside only for him to grab her wrist and spin her back around.

"No, no, no, no. You stay here and treat that hand. I'm sure Amelia can help. Right, Amelia?" he called the little girl, who had been sitting on her bed before being snapped back into reality.

"What?" she said, for almost the fifth time already, "Oh, I mean, y-yeah. There's a spare guestroom here upstairs with a medical kit on the side table."

The Doctor broke out into a wide grin as he pat Ameila on the head and left the room, dragging Evy with him, rambling about the TARDIS' engines.

"Wonderful!" he exclaimed, opening the door and pushing Evy towards the said guest room, "Now, you stay here. Get some rest, drink some tea, eat a Jammie Dodger, and for godsake, don't get into too much trouble. I'll just go check on the TARDIS. I won't be long," he said, finally closing door, leaving Evy alone.

She sat on the edge of the bed, removing the cloth from her palm as she opened the medical kit and began to apply a burn cream to her wound. After taking a few pain killers and applying anti-infection, she managed to finish it up with a proper bandage before hiding it in her usual fingerless gloves.

Sighing, Evy untied her shoes and crawled onto the bed before hiding herself behind the covers. She'd never realized how tired she actually was. They had just been with the Master, going head-to-head against Rassilion, and the Doctor's… regeneration.

She clutched her head, which had began to pound like mad. Then it was then she realized, she hadn't slept for nearly two months straight. Even for a Time Lord, it was a bit too much. Her vision blurred and her body felt limp. All of a sudden, everything went black, the last thing she heard being the sound of the TARDIS dematerializing.

~ x ~

"Miss? Miss?" a voice said, as the person shook her gently, "Miss Evy?"

She opened her eyes and blinked to clear the fogginess in her head.

"Yeah. Hey. I'm alright," she mumbled, her tough tripping over the words in confusion. She sat up and grabbed her hand as everything started to spin again.

"You'd better come quick if you want to see him land. He said five minutes, and it's been four already," said the little girl – Amelia.

"Wait- See him land? He left?" Evy started as she stood up and ran outside, muttering the words 'no, no, no, no' out loud. She ran to the place where the TARDIS had crashed, looking around.

"He'll be back any minute now," Amelia said, dropping the suitcase she'd been holding at sat on it. Evy noticed that the girl had on a thick winter coat and a funny little red hat with a puff on the top, her red hair fluffed out underneath it.

She plopped down on a log beside Amelia and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, smiling.

"Yeah, bet he will. And when he does, we'll show you the universe," she told her pointing towards the moon and the stars. Amelia giggled and much to Evy's surprise, she cuddled closer into her arms.

"Tell me more."

And so she did. She told her stories of a time traveller with a blue police box. He would travel through time & space and help everyone in need. How she'd met him and when he took her away in his magical box. He was the last of his kind yet it seemed as if he was the kindest and bravest of them all. This man's name was the Doctor. And she was his companion.

Minutes and hours passed by but Amelia listened to all of Evy's stories until she peacefully fell asleep in her arms. She stood up and picked up the little girl despite being exhausted herself.

Looking at the child's calm expression she brushed the red hair covering from her face. Amelia had so much faith in the Doctor that she would wait all night to see him come back. Smiling weakly, she began to sing,

Let's go in the garden

You'll find something waiting

Right there where you left it

Lying upside down

And when you finally find it,

You'll see how it's faded

The underside is lighter

When you turn it around

Everything stays

Right where you left it

Everything stays

But it still changes

Ever so slightly

Daily and nightly

In little ways

When everything stays

Evy set her down on her bed and snuggled her up in a blanket. On the other hand, she sat on a coach downstairs, waiting for the Doctor to come back. But when the sun rose and he still hadn't come back, her hope had begun to waver. She often stared at her watch and stepped outside to look at the yard every five minutes.

But when Amelia's aunt, Sharon, came back, Evy slightly began to panic. She wasn't exactly good with domestics. She decided to fake her persona and told Amelia's aunt that she was an orphan who was just looking for a place to live. So, through Evy's efforts and Amelia's pleading, Sharon ended up adopting her as Amelia's older sister.

And as the years passed by, Evy continued telling stories about the raggedy Doctor, promising her that he would some day come back. Amelia believed and became obsessed about her imaginary friend. She would often tell stories about him to her friends, a boy named Rory, in particular. But, the times grew old, and so did Amelia.

~ CHAPTER 1 END ~