Discovering His Past

by Aaron Tveit's Broadway

The memories passed his mind in a stream. Rodney watched them as they played. He knew his friend was somewhat weird. But even weirder is the man wearing a tweed jacket, and a red bow tie and braces.

John was sitting on his bed. Talking out loud about a crack in his wall, which sat opposite him. 'There's a crack in my wall, I don't understand why it's there, or how it got there, but please can somebody send something to fix it?'

He looked up and walked to the window, as he heard a wheezing sound. He grabbed a torch as he fled the room to find out what was happening.

Flash

'Why does your box say police if you're a Doctor?' John asked inquisitively of the strange looking man standing in his kitchen.

The man glared at him slightly as he bit into an apple, before spitting it out. 'That is disgusting! What is that?' he asked.

'An apple.' He stated.

'Apples are rubbish, I hate apples.' The man said quickly.

'You said you loved them.' John stated again.

'No, no, no.' The man said as he looked around the kitchen, before focusing on John again. 'I'll have yogurt. Yogurt's my favourite.'

John rushed to the fridge to get him a yogurt, upon which he practically drank it and he spat it out again. 'I hate yogurt. It's just stuff with bits in!'

'You said it was your favourite.' John said irritated.

'New mouth! New rules! It's like eating after cleaning your teeth, everything feels wro –AARRRR.' He cut off, spasming backwards slightly.

'What is it? What's wrong with you?' he asked worriedly.

'Wrong with me? There's nothing wrong with me! What's wrong with you? You're American, make something!' he ordered.

John turned the cooker on, putting bacon on a pan to cook, while the man said 'Bacon!'

When John put the bacon in front of him, he spat it out and whispered. 'That's bacon? Are you trying to poison me?'

John next emptied beans into a pan. 'Beans!' which were next spat into the sink, whereas John hit his head onto the table. 'Beans Are Evil! Bad Bad Beans!'

The beans were followed by 'Bread and butter. Now you're talking.'

'And Stay out!"

Flash

They were sitting on the table, him eating fish fingers and custard, and John eating a scoop of ice cream.

'What's your name?' the stranger asked.

'Jonathon Sheppard.' He answered happily, glad that they had finally found something for him to eat.

'Brilliant name!' he grinned. 'Are we in America Jonathon?'

'No.' John grimaced. 'We're in Leadworth.'

'Leadworth? What's with the accent?' he asked.

'My uncle moved us here for a while for his work.' John said.

'And where is your uncle? I would have thought that we would have woken him by now.' The Doctor asked with mild interest.

'He's out.' John said unhappily.

'And where's your mum and dad?' he wondered out loud.

'I don't have a mum and dad. Just Uncle Jesse.' John murmured.

'And he's left you all alone?' he said angrily.

'I'm not scared!' John said heatedly.

'No, I know you're not. Box falls out of the sky, man pops out of box, man eats fish custard, and you're just sitting there.' He said.

Flash

'It's a crack.' The man stated. 'A crack in time and space, and I'll tell you this, if you knocked down the wall, the crack would stay where it is.' He pointed a screwdriver type of thing and it glowed blue, where the wall crack opened, and all they could see was a massive eye.

John gaped at the eye, and asked 'Is that Prisoner Zero?'

'No, it's the Atraxi.' He said. 'Prisoner Zero's guard.'

Flash

'Why did you tell me 6 months?' the man asked angrily.

John twirled around and spat. 'Why did you tell me 5 minutes?'

Flash

'You're Jonathon.' The stranger said.

I'm Jonathon and you're late.' John said as they stormed down an alley.

'Jonathon Sheppard, you're the little boy.'

'12 years.'

'You hit me with a cricket bat!'

'12 years!'

'Cricket Bat!'

'12 years, and 4 physiatrists!'

'4?'

'I kept biting them!'

'Why?'

'They said you weren't real.'

Flash

'I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than anyone's Uncle!' the Doctor said before spinning to an old lady, saying 'And that is not how I'm introducing myself.'

Flash

'That's You!' another man said to the Doctor, over John's unconscious body.

'That's what I look like?' his head popped up.

'You don't know what you look like?' he asked incredulous.

'You know what it's like, busy day.' He said, as he watched the other version of himself. 'But why is he dreaming of me?'

'I'm not.' John's voice echoed around the room as his young version stepped from behind him, holding the Doctor's hand. 'Poor little Jonathon, the forgotten, the hated and the unwanted! The second to show him attention in his whole life, and what happened? Five minutes turned into twelve years, and he doesn't want you anymore.'

'He's dreaming of me because he can hear me.' The Doctor whispered to himself before running back to the collapsed form of John. 'John, remember at the house, I told you not to go into the room, but you didn't listen to me, you need to imagine Prisoner Zero as you saw him.'

The younger John started screeching. 'No, No, NO!' and he disappeared as the real form took shape.

'Well, done Prisoner Zero.' The Doctor said quietly. 'You've done a perfect imitation of yourself.'

Flash

Have you ever run away from something because you could or because you didn't want it?' John said, fidgeting slightly under the Doctor's gaze.

The Doctor nodded. 'Who?' John asked.

'Hello.' The Doctor said nervously.

The TARDIS materialised in a blue room, and the Doctor and John popped their heads out. John pointed at a cupboard.

'Oh My god.' The Doctor whispered under his breath, before rounding 'You're getting married?'

Flash

'What happened to your parents Jonathon? The Doctor probed.

'I don't know.' John murmured. 'I can't remember.'

'The crack has been eating at your life, erasing the unimportant things to you, putting space and time energy inside your head.' The Doctor said sadly. 'How could I let you go? The boy that didn't make sense.'

A beeping interrupted them, and River Song ran up to them, waving an instrument. 'It's time to let him go John.'

'No! No, River, we can't let him go!' John grabbed her arm, tears streaming from his eyes.

'John, he's saving the universe. And all of life.' River said sadly. 'He's choosing to do this, and we have to let him.'

John turned to look at the Doctor who smiled at him sadly and simply said. 'Goodbye.'

Flash

John grabbed the Doctor, and kissed him, running his hand through the Doctor's hair, when River stepped up behind John and started kissing his back.

Flash

'I'm sorry John but I love Amy!' Rory yelled.

'So what! You're leaving me? On the night before our wedding? With AMY?' John screamed back.

'YES! Because she loves me! Unlike you, you just love the Doctor!' Rory yelled back.

Flash

River Song and The Doctor stood before him, smiling gently at him.

Flash

John was walking down a dark cold and damp ancient corridor, when a light illuminated in front of him.

'Hello darling.' River Song smiled at him.

Flash

All his memories of the Doctor and his life with him and Amy and Rory and River Song flashed in front of his eyes, the alien device magnifying them, so that all the people around him could see them too. 'Sheppard! Are these real?' Rodney yelled at him.

'No Rodney! I was just thinking about what my life could have been!' John yelled sarcastically. 'Of Course, there real!'

'How the hell are they real?' Rodney asked angrily.

'Because it happened! You expect me to understand how it happened?' John screamed, as pain coursed through his body.

'Sheppard! You have to tell me how this works.' Rodney said when he saw John getting close to unconscious.

'He was an alien, how am I supposed to know? He always had a go at us because we weren't Time Lords.' John murmured, slurring his words slightly.

'Time Lords?' Rodney wondered. 'What are they?'

'The Doctor.' John said quietly, his eyes closing. 'Race of superior humanoids. Gained the ability to travel in time and space with TARDISes.'

'He was amazing.' John murmured

'He looks like it too.' Rodney said, 'Is there any chance of meeting him?'

'I'll call him for you.' John said slowly, and fumbled in a pocket in his vest. He succeeded in getting the phone out, but he couldn't phone. 'Rodn'y, it looks like you'll have to phone him.'

Rodney grabbed the phone, protesting. 'It shouldn't even work!'

'The Doctor . . . upgraded our phones.' John said slurring.

Rodney glared at him, looking through the contacts on the phone. He hit the button to call him when he found "The Doctor".

It rang for a few minutes when a female answered the phone breathlessly.

'Darling! Didn't know that you were going to phone us so soon. You missing us?'

'Umm, this is John's friend Rodney McKay. John's in trouble.' Rodney said.

'What sorta trouble?' A man said as he took over the phone.

'the natives of the planet we were visiting took a disliking towards us because we have the ancient gene and because he has the strongest they played all his memories.' Rodney said. 'Now, the memories have stopped, and he's unconscious.'

'River will be right there,' the man promised.

And just like in John's memory, the woman appeared.

She dropped to her knees next to him, placing her fingers on his temples.

'John,' she whispered. 'Open your mind.'

A wheezing sound broke the air, bringing an old fashioned blue police box with it.

Out stepped a man, a man with braces, bowtie and tweed jacket. The Doctor! Rodney thought.

'Now John!' he cried out happily. 'What seems to be the problem?'

He knelt down, put his fingers where River's had been moments ago.

'Ummm.' He said. 'Right, the problem,' he said, removing his hands. 'He's in pain because the natives of this world are playing his memories, only problem is that, the memories they're playing, he's put in a little box in his mind to keep them safe.'

'So?' Rodney looks confused.

'He's closed all these memories into a box in his mind so that they were safe from tampering.' River Song explained.

'We get him in the TARDIS, and he'll be fine in no time at all.' The Doctor announced happily.

River Song pulled him up by his shoulders, and pulled him towards the TARDIS doors.

'Don't forget to put him in his room.' The Doctor called after River.

'Did all of those memories really happen?' Rodney wondered aloud.

The Doctor nodded. 'Yeah, they did.'

'Rory and Amy?' Rodney questioned.

'They're on the TARDIS.' The Doctor answered him. 'They're in his room. Doing god knows what.'

Rodney nodded, not really listening as he stepped into the TARDIS. 'Wow!'

The Doctor closed the doors behind them.

'Come on, Rodney, let's visit John.' He grinned.

Rodney allowed himself to be led throughout the beautiful alien ship that Rodney really wished that he could analyse, until they came to a door, which the Doctor opened, and Rodney could see John. He was sitting up and talking and giggling with River.

'Sheppard!' he yelled in relief.

'Rodney.' He grinned. 'Have you met River Song? She's the Doctor's wife.'

'Then why were you with her in your memories?' Rodney questioned.

The Doctor laughed. 'We're in a three way marriage. Most planets allow them now-a-days.'

River Song elbowed the Doctor.

'Oh, yes.' He grinned. 'Rodney, we were wondering if you wanted to take a trip with us?'

He looked at Sheppard.

'I'll be coming.' He grinned.

Rodney felt the grin spread across his face. 'Yeah, I'd love to.'