Smoke rises from a strange crash site. No vehicles can be seen overturned, no victims crying out for help. Whatever had created the upturned soil and small brush fire was long gone. A small figure is seen in the distance, the awkward swagger suggesting they were possibly drunk. Slowly a blue police box materializes, and the person turns the corner and dissapears from sight.
"Strange, I coul'dve sworn..." A tall, thin, pale man pokes his head out of his tiny blue box and searches for any indication of what he'd felt just moments before. He steps into the night and straightens his bowtie, before pulling his sonic screwdriver from his pocket.
"Doctor, I thought you said we were going to some far away planet..to relax." Amy Pond calls after the man in almost a wining husband Rory, warily catches up to her taking her hand into pouts slightly and looks around confused at their location. "This looks like London." A gunshot rings out in the distance, and Rory grips Amy's hand tighter and pulls her towards him. "Correction, this looks like a rather seedy part of London." The floppy haired doctor ignores them and waves his sonic around trying to get a reading of something, anything.
The Doctor finds what he's looking for and laughs out loud, "I knew it! Knew what? you ask? Well I'm not sure, but it's fantastic!" He pockets something he found in the grass and claps his hands together. "Ponds, let's get you on that honeymoon!" He turns the couple around as they try to protest as to exactly what he had found. "No time for dillying either."He pokes Rory between the shoulder blades, "I don't know why you two are so difficult to convince to just take a vacation." He pushes them into the Tardis, and upon following slams the door behind him.
"But.." Rory starts, but the doctor shoots a hand out and covers his mouth for a moment and wags his finger in a "naughty boy" type fashion.
"I know, I know. Always up for an adventure, you two are. That's why I love you Ponds." He runs around flipping switches, and smiles wickedly, "Right, you've convinced me. Once more stop before we get you on that honeymoon of yours. I've got to see an old friend...mate...companion... comrade." Amy and Rory look at eachother, Rory brings his forefinger to the bridge of his nose, and sighs deeply. Never a dull moment... You think I'd be glad. He continues the rest of the thought in a sing song tone, but I'm nah-ot.
Darkness is all she knows, every which way she turns, there is nothing that helps reveal her location. Suddenly a small light is coming towards her, she narrows her eyes and tries to focus on the light.
"Wake up..." a woman's voice.
A blurred figure comes into view, but it is a man. His mouth is opening and closing, but she can't tell what he is trying to say. He grabs her by the shoulder and shakes her, face becoming extremely panicked. Explosions start sounding off around them, and a strange screeching fills the air...
"...you're having a nightmare!" The girl slowly opens her eyes and an unfamiliar woman comes into view. Her brown eyes widen in relief, and she yells to someone else in the room, "Mum, she's awake!" An older woman walks into the room, blonde hair similar to the girl's, but blue eyes, in place of brown.
"About time, well who are you then?" The woman puts her hands onto her hips and glares daggers towards the young woman on the bed."You come banging on our door, speaking gibberish before she falls straight down onto her face? No...Jackie Tyler is no fool. Is it drugs? You tryin to rob us for a quick quid? Plottin murder maybe?"
"What?" she tries to remember, there was an accident of some sort, she remember some sort of sound, metal grinding...voices in her head. She had been withsomeone, but who? Her head was throbbing and the woman's tone wasn't helping,"I think I hit my head, I don't believe I'm on drugs.." She paused as the woman snorts unbelieving, "I don't even remember banging on your door..." and I wish I hadn't you loud,illogical cow! She closed her eyes pushing the less than polite thoughts from her could remember darkness and then flickering lights...
The rant fell from her lips as she saw the girl's troubled look, "We'll get you to a doctor in the morning to check how bad you've addled your brains...You gotta name?" Jackie questioned, less forcefull, but still hard.
Several words flashed through the girl's mind, and she was surprised at how quickly her name came to her, when everything else seemed to be painfully slow in coming. "Grace."
"Well Grace...try anything funny, and you'll have to sort it out with me. It won't be pleasant, you got that?" she simply nodded and mumbled something before vowing to return the next morning and leaving the room.
The Doctor bent over for a moment, out of breath. Martha Jones stared at him strangely and rushed to his side, arm immediately around his shoulder. His eyes darkened dramatically before straightening. He ran to the controls of the TARDIS and started pushing buttons, pulling levers, and muttering under his breath. Martha frowned only catching a few words that troubled her deeply.
"No...not..." He kicked something that was making an odd whirring sound,"...verse imploding..." he clucked his tongue.
Martha rubbed her hands up and down her arms, suddenly chilled. "Doctor...what happened?"
"I felt a shift in my timeline..." at her blank face he tries to explain, "Imagine every single choice you make, creates a seperate reaction to that choice. A seperate road to take." He closes his eyes for a moment and continues in a rushed tone, "A normal person, a human... say... your dentist decides not to become a dentist, but a veterinarian instead. Would'nt effect you too much, you would've just gotten a different dentist, never knowing the difference. But then, take someone a bit more important, say... you, because you know me..." He pinches her right cheek, and she frowns, "You don't go to work the day that the shapeshifter pretty much tried to kill everything on the earth..." He nods as he pushes a few more buttons and the center screen lights up, he sees what seems to be a wreckage site, the only telltale signs of it being upturned grass and smoke.
The Doctor points to the screen and she notices another version of the TARDIS, dematerializing.
"I'd be alone, barefoot on the moon with a platoon of Judoon, and we wouldn't be here." He starts racing around the controls of the TARDIS, "But you're still here, and I'm still here. But someone else has been here that wasn't before. The problem is, it'll all feel natural, whatever has changed - we won't be aware of it." His face drops.
"Well that's wonderful, Doctor...that means what exactly...?"
The sound of the Tardis re-entering the time vortex does nothing but further worry Martha, especially when the Doctor answers with a shrug of his shoulders. "No idea, let's go!"