A/N: Hello! This story is Endeavors in Wooing, the third story in my fourth OC series, The Time Lady Memoirs, for Doctor Who. I would recommend that new readers look at the first two stories (Losing Hope and Finding Forgiveness) to understand my OC, Mackenzie 'Mac', and the Doctor's feelings for her :) If interested, my other 3 series are 1. The Academic Series (OC - the Professor), 2. The Lunar Cycle (OC - Evy Daniels), and 3. The Heart of Time Saga (OC - the Angel) ;) This story will focus on my OC/Time Lady, Mac AKA Naery, the official pairing name for her and the Doctor being Thaery :) This story will largely follow the events that Mac is aware of and a part of, but will also include some scenes with the Doctor elsewhere and possibly others when they talk about her.
This will essentially be a revision of Series 5 to incorporate the existence of another Time Lord, Mac. This story will be updated every day with each chapter being 1 episode, however the Christmas special will be two chapters. I'll also be doing the Sarah Jane Adventures episode 'Death of the Doctor' which will only be 1 chapter :) There may be a few mini-sodes popping up along the way ;)
This will eventually be a Doctor/OC series, and this particular story will really focus on the Doctor trying to win back the woman he loves :)
Quick physical description of Mac: she's a tallish woman with wavy ginger hair that goes to a little past her shoulders, she tends to wear it hanging free with a headband. She's pale but has a few freckles splattered across her nose and light green eyes eyes. She tends to wear a strapless or thin-strapped dress that's a little more fitted on the top and loose for the skirt that goes to about her knees. She wears flats and a cardigan with bigger-on-the-inside pockets to it :) For a reference, an actress that I think is similar to Mac is Emma Stone ;) She is currently on her 8th incarnation and, as of the end of Finding Forgiveness, was 916 :)
~8~ is a scene break.
"italics" is Gallifreyan.
'italics' is telepathic communication.
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who...or we'd have likely seen a Time Lady returned for 11 to flirt with :)
Enjoy!
~8~
The Eleventh Hour
Mac winced as she pulled back from the console, starting to reconsider wearing her cardigan as it caught fire once more, singing the bottom of it as she tried to pat it out quickly while still trying to fly the TARDIS. The Doctor was grinning at her from the other side of the console, laughing and rushing about, over excited to fly the crashing TARDIS…when the box suddenly gave a jolt that sent her flying back into the captain's chair…but tossed the Doctor right towards the small ramp that led to the doors. The box tilted to the side even more, off center, and the Doctor rolled down the ramp and right out the doors that had been flapping about open and closed as they flew, the lock broken.
"Doctor!" Mac called, jolting to the console and pulling a lever to at least level them out so she wouldn't go flying out the doors as well.
"Help!" the Doctor's voice shouted from out the doors where he was dangling out them by his hands.
Mac looked around and ran to one of the grates, pulling it open and finding a small groove to the side of the Doctor's Chest, and rooted around for anything that could help, beaming when she found something. She pulled herself up and twisted, attaching one end to the railing before she threw the end of the rope towards the doors, "There! Pull yourself up!"
"Where did you get a rope from?" he strained as she heard him starting to pull himself up.
"It's not a rope!"
"Looks like a rope."
"It's a grappling rope."
"What, like attached to a grappling hook?"
Mac rolled her eyes, pulling herself up to the console, "That's usually what's attached to a grappling rope!"
The Doctor huffed as he managed to pull his arms back up onto the TARDIS floor, "Where did you get a grappling hook from?"
"You're dangling out of the TARDIS doors and you're asking ME where I got a grappling hook from?" she blinked at him.
He just grinned widely at her, "What better time is there to ask?" he chuckled, starting to pull himself back in.
She shook her head, "Where do you get anything in the TARDIS out of seemingly nowhere?" she countered.
"Your pockets?" he guessed.
"Not even I could fit a grappling hook in there," she laughed, moving to one end of the rope and tugging it, giving him a pointed look as he grabbed onto his end with one hand, her tugging and helping to pull him back into the TARDIS fully.
"Then where…"
"Where you keep all your odds and ends," she nodded to the grating just as he reached her, plopping back onto his legs as he panted a bit from the climb, "Come on," she patted his knee, "We need to keep the TARDIS from crashing."
He let out a small sad sigh, he'd just wanted…one little moment with her as his new self, just…a moment to breathe, but the TARDIS WAS crashing and if it landed in the wrong place it could hurt someone. So he pushed himself up and made his way to his half of the console to help…
~8~
"What lever did you pull?!" Mac called down to him, through the door of the gantry that the Doctor had fallen through…which was odd because it was meant to lead to the halls, but it seemed like he had fallen into a pool…but he was also in the library, and the room was the wrong side up…
"It wasn't me!" he huffed, before the grappling hook went flying past her and up through the doors of the TARDIS. He'd grabbed onto the rope to try and keep balanced while she'd held onto the railing, but with all the twisting and turning and toppling, the hook had come undone and he'd fallen back into the pool.
She shook her head but glanced at him again, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine!" he reassured her, "But we should both get out of here while she airs out."
Mac nodded and turned, straining to reach out for the rope of the grappling hook, managing to grab it, but didn't dare start climbing just yet. She waited till the Doctor had pulled himself up and gave her a confused look as to why she hadn't started up it, "I'm wearing a dress," she reminded him.
The Doctor's eyes widened at that, "Oh, right, yes, I um…hadn't noticed."
Mac gave him a look, "Liar."
He flushed at that, "Well, then…I had better um…" he just pointed up and began his climb again.
She shook her head, "You'd better hope that the TARDIS doesn't recalibrate herself and give us a glass floor or we'll have some problems Doctor."
"I'll have you know it would be no problem at all, that's just…ew," he remarked.
She laughed at that and glanced around at the room a moment longer. With all the destruction, there would be no point in the TARDIS trying to fix it all, it would be better to just start from scratch and come up with a new console room. She had no idea what would be coming, but she was rather excited to see what it would be.
She waited only a moment or two after the Doctor had passed her before she started climbing up after him, "Can I have an apple?" she heard him say as he reached the top, so clearly there was someone out there, "All I can think about, apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new, never had cravings before. Nice little Mac…intosh apple," he stuttered a bit at that, "Macintosh apples are my favorites," he recovered, glancing back down at her as she gave him a concerned look for the state of his mental wellbeing. He quickly moved up to straddle the edge of the TARDIS, "Whoa! Look at that!" he pointed down past her.
"Are you ok?" she could hear a little girl speak, a Scottish accent to her, echoing the thoughts in Mac's head as well.
"I'm wondering the same," Mac said as she reached the top as well. The Doctor immediately put both his legs over the side, moving to help her prop herself up beside him, her legs dangling inside the TARDIS like his were outside it.
"Just had a fall," he rolled his eyes, "All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."
"You're soaking wet," the little girl stated. Mac looked over at her to see she was a small ginger girl, in her night clothes, with a little red robe and red wellies on.
"I was in the swimming pool."
"You said you were in the library."
"Very good," Mac smiled at the girl, "He was in both."
"Are you policemen?" the girl asked.
Mac frowned, "Why do you need a policeman?" she turned and quickly hopped off the TARDIS, moving to kneel before the girl, taking her hands, "Are you alright? Did you need help?" she looked the girl over intently, as though searching for injuries, "Are you hurt?"
The girl gave her an odd look before glancing at the Doctor to see him smiling softly at Mac for her concern, "I'm fine," the girl told her, stepping back a bit…cautious of the woman even though she only appeared to be concerned for her, "It's just the crack in my wall…"
"What cra..." the Doctor began, before he toppled off the TARDIS, having lost his balance, and fell to the ground, "Agh!"
"Doctor!" Mac turned, still on her knees to his side, "Are you ok?"
"Are you alright, mister?" the girl asked as well.
"I'm fine," he reassured them, pushing himself up to a kneel, "It's ok," he glanced at the girl, "This is all perfectly norm..." before he grimaced and opened his mouth to allow a small wisp of regeneration energy out.
"Are you sure?" Mac asked him in Gallifreyan as the girl eyed them oddly for it, "Doctor the last time you regenerated, I read the reports, you were…"
"That was different," he cut in gently, "That was cos of the Vortex, this was just radiation, nothing I haven't encountered before."
She looked at him a moment, "If you're sure…"
He gave her a wink for it.
"Who are you?" the little girl shook her head.
"I'm Mackenzie," Mac told her, "And this is the Doctor."
The Doctor eyed his hands, seeing a faint remnant of the regeneration energy on it, and looked at it curiously, wondering what sort of hand that would be. His last self had a 'fighting hand' but this one? Hmm…he couldn't wait to find out, "Does it scare you?" he asked suddenly, turning to the girl.
"No," she shrugged, "It just looks a bit weird…"
"I think he might have been talking about the crack," Mac cut in gently.
The Doctor nodded, "Yes, yes, the crack in your wall. Does it scare you?"
The girl gave them a timid nod, quite unlike the personality they got off her, "Yes."
"Well, then!" the Doctor jumped to his feet, startling Mac with the move, "No time to lose. I'm the Doctor," he began, before blinking, "Like Kenzie said," he reached out to help her up as she watched him with concern and caution, "Do everything we tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off."
And with that, he turned and strode across the small garden they'd landed in…and walked right into a tree, knocking him back onto his back on the ground.
"Doctor!" Mac rushed over, dropping to a crouch at his head and leaning over him, gently touching his forehead, "Are you hurt?"
He blinked a bit and looked at her, "I'm seeing stars," he murmured, looking into her eyes, "Did you know, you're just as gorgeous upside down as you are right-side up?"
She stared at him a moment, "How hard did you hit your head?"
"Not hard enough if I'm only seeing one of you," he gave her a cheeky grin, "Two of you would be twice as lovely."
Mac nodded, a bit amused at his words, and looked at the little girl, "Do you have an ice pack?" she asked her, moving to help the Doctor sit up, and then get to his feet, "Or perhaps frozen peas or carrots?"
The girl nodded, "It's in the kitchen," she glanced at the Doctor as he sort of just stared at Mac, "Is he alright?"
Mac looked over to see him smile when she turned to him, "He'll be fine," she told the girl, looking back at her, seeing the Doctor pouting out of the corner of her eye for it, "He's just a bit disoriented at the moment, it'll pass."
~8~
"If he's a Doctor, what are you?" the girl asked as she went to her freezer and took out a small bag of peas, handing it to Mac as the Doctor just sort of stood there looking around at the room, like a little baby who was seeing the world for the first time.
"Ever heard of UNIT?" Mac countered as she took the peas and gently turned the Doctor's head to face her, shaking her head at how he instantly started smiling when he saw her, and lightly pressed the peas to his forehead.
"That's those alien people right?" the girl frowned, "They stop the bad aliens?"
"Exactly," Mac smiled, "We stop the bad aliens," she glanced over, "I'm one of their Agents."
"So you're not a doctor too then?"
"Nope, though I've got plenty of experience with bumps and bruises," she chuckled a bit, "Younger siblings."
"I don't have any siblings," the girl sighed, before she glanced at the Doctor. She turned and opened her fridge, rooting around in it for an apple and handing it to him, "If you're a doctor, why does your box say 'Police?'"
"This isn't a macintosh," he blinked at the apple.
The girl shrugged, "It's all we've got."
"Just be polite and eat your apple," Mac turned his head to her again and gave him the 'disapproving mother' look, one that she used to give him and the others all the time on Gallifrey.
He grinned at seeing it and took a big bite of the apple…only to turn and try to spit it out.
"Into the waste bin Doctor," Mac called when she saw his head turning, she'd seen enough of that expression with her younger siblings growing up and she knew what was coming next.
The Doctor grimaced but turned to the small waste bin behind him and spit the apple into it, "That's disgusting," he grumbled, "What is that?"
"An apple," the girl gave him a look.
"Apples are rubbish. I hate apples."
"You said you loved them."
"No, I love macintosh apples, YOU said this was not."
"What about something else then?" Mac suggested.
"Hmmm…" he hummed, "I love yogurt. Yogurt's my favorite. Give me yogurt."
"Doctor," Mac gave him the look again, crossing her arms.
He sighed, "Please."
The girl shook her head and moved to the fridge, getting him a yogurt as Mac moved to place the peas back in the freeze. The Doctor opened the yogurt pack and downed it all into his mouth…before he spit it out…though back into the pack before tossing it over his shoulder and into the still-open waste bin.
"I hate yogurt, it's just stuff with bits in!"
"You said it was your favorite!" the girl huffed.
"New mouth, new rules," he wiped his mouth.
"You know how when you get your teeth cleaned everything tastes funny?" Mac looked at the girl, "Or when you're sick nothing tastes like anything?" the girl nodded, "It's like that."
"Yes," the Doctor pointed at her, "Everything tastes wro-agh!" he flailed his arm, having a mini-fit, and ended up slapping himself in the head, "Ow…" he rubbed his head again.
"Right where you smacked it on the tree, isn't it?" Mac guessed.
"Yes," he winced.
"I'll get the peas again…"
"No, no, it's ok," he offered her a smile, "I don't need the peas."
"You're head's hurting."
"I think a kiss would be just fine," he gave her a small suggestive smile, "Mother's kisses make everything better."
"I'm not your mother," Mac gave him a smirk and turned to get the peas again, handing it to him as he pouted, "Here."
The little girl tugged on the bottom of Mac's cardigan, "What's wrong with him?" she whispered up at the woman.
"Wrong with me?" the Doctor huffed, hearing her, the peas pressed to his forehead, "It's not my fault. Why can't you give me decent food? You're Scottish, fry something."
Mac shook her head as she rubbed her forehead, "Let me help you," she offered the girl, trying to make up for how rude the Doctor was being.
The girl just shrugged and grabbed some bacon out of the fridge, handing it to Mac to open while she started the stove. Mac gently nudged her aside, a pan in hand, and began to fry the bacon, not about to let a small girl near the burning stove…even if she was likely old enough to cook on it herself. The girl didn't seem to care that she didn't have to make the food and went to get the Doctor a towel to dry himself off with.
"Finished," Mac called a few minutes later, scooping the bacon up and onto a plate the girl had gotten, turning around to see the Doctor eagerly sitting at the kitchen table and grinning up at her as she placed the bacon before him.
"Ah! Bacon!" he grinned, taking a bite of it…only to grimace and spit it out…into a napkin when Mac shot him a warning look, "I know you're angry with me but trying to poison me is rude."
Mac rolled her eyes, "I'm not angry with you anymore Doctor."
He blinked and stared at her, "Really?"
She nodded, glancing at the girl to see her eyeing them both in confusion, "But we should discuss that later," she turned to look around the kitchen before he could open his mouth to argue and found a can of beans, "May I?" she asked the girl who shrugged again, not really caring.
"Ah, you see, beans," the Doctor smiled as the girl looked back at him and, a few minutes later, Mac set a bowl of beans before him. He took a giant forkful of it…and rushed over to the sink to spit it out. Mac had to wonder just how many different places he would spit his food out into, the bin, the food container, a napkin, the sink, what would be next? The Doctor just wiped his mouth off, "Beans are evil," he moaned, "Bad, bad beans."
"Let's try simple bread then," Mac offered, moving to a small bag of bread she could see and taking out a slice, placing it on a plate as the girl offered her some butter to put on it.
"Yes, bread and butter," the Doctor nodded, "Now you're talking."
He took one bite…and promptly spit it onto the bread, folding it over into a sort of sandwich, and ran for the door, throwing it outside with a crash and a squalling meow from the dark, making both women wince, "And stay out!" he shouted, slamming the door behind him.
This was going to be a LONG night.
~8~
Fish fingers and custard was the LAST thing any of them thought the Doctor would want to eat, but when they'd gone through just about everything left in the fridge and cupboards and the only thing that remained was carrots…he'd taken it into his own hands and pulled out those two items that made the girls grimace to think of. But, surprisingly, it wasn't half bad. While the girl munched on some chocolate ice cream, Mac was slowly making her way through a fish finger, dipping it in custard here and there. She'd been working on her single fish finger while the Doctor polished off about five others. She always had been a slow eater. It hadn't come out much in UNIT, she ate smaller meals and ate in her lab so no one really saw her, but she seemed to have retained that in every body. She just liked savoring the food, perhaps she was slower now because she missed the foods of her home and knew that the food before her might not always be available to her. On Gallifrey she'd just been slower because she liked talking with others as they ate. But now it had become a more of a savoring thing.
She shook her head at the Doctor as he offered her the last bite of his own fish finger before he shrugged and popped it into his mouth, before drinking the custard and making a small moustache with it that he wiped away quickly.
"Funny," the girl remarked.
"Am I?" the Doctor asked.
"Ridiculously," Mac had to nod, offering him a small smile for it.
He seemed to beam at that, at the notion that he was funny because funny meant laughing and that meant he could make people (like Mac) laugh, and he loved that, "Good. Funny's good."
"What's your name sweetie?" Mac looked at the girl, ignoring the groan from the Doctor for her use of small nickname for the girl, sweetie likely reminded him of River Song.
"Amelia Pond," she answered.
"Ah, that's a brilliant name," the Doctor nodded, "Amelia Pond, like a name in a fairy tale."
"We're…not in Scotland, are we?" Mac guessed, with all the crashing she hadn't been able to get a scan going and she hadn't been able to focus enough on getting a sense of where they were in time and space just yet, it was easier to just ask, she didn't feel like they were in Scotland though.
"No," Amelia grumbled, stabbing her ice cream a bit, "We had to move to England. It's rubbish."
"So what about your mum and dad, then?" the Doctor wondered, "Are they upstairs? Thought we'd have woken them by now."
"I don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt."
"I don't even have an aunt."
"You're lucky."
"I know."
"Hold on," Mac frowned, "Where's your aunt then? If I heard a crash in the middle of the night, I'd have woken up…"
The Doctor snorted.
"What?" Mac demanded, looking at her.
"YOU, wake up?" he laughed, "You could sleep like the dead."
Mac rolled her eyes, "Not true."
"As I recall, the only way to wake you up without you being a right old misery for it was…"
"Your aunt?" Mac turned back to Amelia, cutting off the Doctor and making the girl eye them again, seeing her blushing and the Doctor smirking.
"She's out," Amelia shrugged.
"She left you in this house all by yourself?!" Mac stared at her, making the Doctor chuckle at her mother henning coming out.
"I'm not scared," Amelia defended.
"'Course you're not," he waved off Mac's concern easily, he'd spent plenty of time alone when he was the girl's age, getting into trouble and mischief, "You're not scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, aliens fall out of box then eat fish custard, and look at you, just sitting there with your ice cream. So you know what I think?"
"What?"
"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."
"So why don't we go and take a peek then," Mac smiled and the Doctor grinned widely at that.
~8~
The Doctor and Mac paused in the doorway to Amelia's bedroom, seeing a rather large crack on the wall and already able to tell, without even touching it, that something was wrong with it. For one…they could feel a draft coming at them from that direction and Amelia's window was closed. They glanced at each other and the Doctor gestured her on, "Ladies first," he smiled.
Mac shook her head at him with a smile but stepped into the room, going to move a small desk away from the wall so they could get a closer look. The Doctor moved to one end of the crack and began to run his finger over it, examining it, as Mac fingered just the one end of it, frowning, "This isn't right," she murmured, before she started rooting around in her pockets.
"You've had some cowboys in here," he called to Amelia, "Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."
"I used to hate apples," Amelia remarked as she stood in her doorway, not wanting to step more into her room, the crack…it really DID scare her, "So my mum put faces on them."
The Doctor looked over to see she had an apple in her hand that she held out to him. He moved over to her and took it, seeing a small smiley face carved into it and had to think if it was only a macintosh it would be a 'smiling Mac' and that would be wonderful, "She sounds good, your mum, I knew someone just like that," he glanced at Mac, she used to do that to get her siblings to eat the Gallifreyan version of vegetables, she'd make little faces in them or make little pictures out of them for her siblings to eat away at. She really would have made such a wonderful mother if she'd been given the chance. He frowned though when he saw her holding a small bit of string before the middle of the crack, the string moving, like it was drifting in a light breeze, "I'll keep it for later," he murmured, tossing the apple and putting it in his pockets, before he headed over to Mac and pulled the sonic out, ready to examine it further.
"That's what I don't understand," Mac nodded, seeing his look at the string, "If this wall is solid and the crack's just on the surface, there shouldn't be a draft."
The Doctor turned the sonic on it, running it along the line of the crack and examining the readings, "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. You know what the crack is?"
"What?" Amelia asked.
"It's a crack," he started, "I'll tell you something funny," he looked at Mac more this time, "If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, cos the crack isn't in the wall."
"You're not telling me…" Mac began slowly, realization dawning on her as she looked at the crack again, "It's not a crack, it's a split, isn't it?"
The Doctor had to nod at that, "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 Amelia."
Mac frowned and turned her head to press her ear to the wall, "I wonder if there might be…"
"A voice?" Amelia guessed, "There is."
Mac squinted trying to make it out before she sighed and turned to the desk, grabbing a piece of paper and rolling it into a slightly cone-like cylinder, pressing one end to the wall and moving her hair behind her ear to press her ear to the other end, about to listen more when…
"Your ears are adorable," the Doctor said, making her blink and look at him. He shrugged, reaching across the crack to touch the rim of the one she'd just pushed her hair behind, just noticing it now, "They're small and...nice?"
Mac gave him a slow nod, looking at him as though he were a bit mad (and thinking she really had to check just how much damage his head had taken in hitting that tree), before she pressed her ear back to the paper, listening...
"Prisoner Zero has escaped," she could hear.
"Who's Prisoner Zero?" she murmured.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped?" Amelia called as they looked at her, "Is that what it says? I hear that all the time. What does it mean?"
"It means that, on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner," the Doctor remarked, "Do you know what that means?"
"What?"
"You need a better wall. Kenzie?" he looked at her, making her blink at that, that was the second time he'd called her 'Kenzie' instead of Mackenzie, she had to wonder if it was because it was just how THIS him preferred to call her, "What do you think?"
She shrugged, shaking her head, "We need to invert the forces," she stated, "To close the breach completely."
"But if we do that…" the Doctor began, trailing off.
"What?" Amelia picked up on the tension between them.
"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."
"Everything's going to be fine."
Mac rolled her eyes, "Yes, because telling her it's a lie and then saying that exact lie is the perfect way to make her think you're telling her the truth," she huffed, turning to Amelia and kneeling down before her, taking her hands, "I'm going to be very honest with you Amelia, because you seem like a very brave and clever girl."
"I am!" Amelia declared.
Mac smiled, "To invert the forces of anything, means that we'll be setting it to the opposite of how it should be. You know how when you put two magnets that are the same end together and the repel each other, but when you switch them to opposites they attract?" Amelia nodded, "We're hoping it'll be like that. But it's not quite as easy as a magnet. When you reverse anything, it goes against what it normally is and it can react very badly. To invert the forces of something like this…it could cause the tear to get bigger. We hope, if it does get bigger, that it'll sort open like a rubber band, expand as much as it can before it snaps back. But there IS a chance it'll just keep getting bigger and bigger and either let something through or keep tearing. Ok?"
Amelia nodded, understanding that, "Ok."
"Are you sure you want us to try?"
The Doctor had to smile at that, at her asking Amelia's permission to do that. Mac really hated when he lied to companions, well, to anyone really, and she'd taken it on herself to make sure they knew the truth. He was hoping there would be some lies that she wouldn't rebuff and say the truth in, but he could understand this. This was a child's bedroom, their sanctuary, where they should be safe. If this went wrong, and Amelia didn't know it could…she'd be traumatized by seeing how bad it was getting. Mac was making sure she understood the consequences.
"I want the crack gone," Amelia decided.
"Well alright then," Mac nodded and stood up, looking at the Doctor, "You heard the girl," she winked.
"You are amazing," he told her, smiling at her softly, "Truly just…a wonder."
Mac gave a small laugh, "And when we finish here, I'll really have to check that skull of yours for injuries."
The Doctor rolled his eyes at that and glanced at the crack. He stepped back to Amelia's side and took her hand as Mac held her other hand. He took a breath and flicked the sonic at the crack, a light starting to shine through it as it widened, making her gasp. Mac squinted, able to see something like bars in the shadows through the crack.
'Well it doesn't appear to be getting bigger,' she remarked to the Doctor in his mind, 'That's a good sign.'
'THAT however…is not,' the Doctor winced as a large eyeball suddenly appeared in the crack.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped!" it called, frantically spinning around, looking through the crack at them, "Prisoner Zero has escaped."
"What's that?" Amelia frowned.
Before they could answer a small light flew out of the crack and hit the Doctor's pocket, knocking him back to the bed before the crack sealed, "Doctor!" Mac turned to him, helping him sit up, "You alright?"
He nodded, grinning reassuringly, "Just fine. There. You see, told you it would close. Good as new."
"What was that thing?" Amelia looked at them, "Was that Prisoner Zero?"
"I don't think so," Mac remarked, "It was alerting us that Prisoner Zero escaped. If it WAS Prisoner Zero, it wouldn't have said that…it was probably Zero's guard."
"Whatever it was," the Doctor pulled the psychic paper from his pocket, "It sent me a message. Psychic paper, takes a lovely little message," he turned it over to show them the same message the guard had said, 'Prisoner Zero has escaped,' before he put it away again, "But why tell us?"
"Because Zero escaped through here," Mac realized, "In UNIT we sent out alerts and messages to all departments to let them know Groskes had escaped and were…" she trailed off.
"Were what?" Amelia tensed.
"Still in the building," she looked at the Doctor,
"But he couldn't be," the Doctor shook his head, standing up, "We'd know. We'd have seen him…" he turned and ran out of the room, looking around, trying to see where it might be. Mac ran past him to the other doors on the floor and opened them, running into them to look around herself, "It's difficult," he muttered to Amelia, as Mac ran to the second room, "Brand-new me, nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing..." he followed Mac's progress as she made it to the 4th door on the floor, "In the corner..." and then to the 5th, just beside a door he almost couldn't look at, "Of my eye…"
Just as Mac ran out of the 5th room and turned to the last, a rather sharp grinding noise echoed up to them from outside, the klaxon of the TARDIS going off.
"The TARDIS!" Mac gasped, forgetting the door for a moment, before she turned and rushed down the stairs, the Doctor after her.
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" he followed her, Amelia just behind him, "We've got to get back in there!" the Doctor called to Mac as they reached the TARDIS, "The engines are phasing, it's going to burn!"
"I know!" Mac turned and grabbed the grappling hook off of the item it was hooked on, turning to wrap it around the inner handle of the TARDIS doors.
"But... it's just a box!" Amelia frowned, "How can a box have engines?"
"It's not a box," the Doctor moved to help Mac loop the end of the rope through the other door's handle, "It's a time machine."
"What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?"
"Not if we don't stabilize her," Mac muttered, looking at the Doctor, "A minor temporal jump should work."
"Five minutes?" he suggested.
"Perfect," she smiled.
"Can I come?" Amelia called, making them pause.
"Not safe in here, not yet," the Doctor shook his head and got back to work, "Five minutes. Give us five minutes, we'll be right back," he turned and helped Mac onto the edge of the box, about to pull himself up as well when Amelia sighed behind him.
"People always say that," the girl murmured.
The Doctor stopped and turned around, "Are we people?" he asked her, moving to stand before her, leaning over to look in her eyes with a small smile, "Do we even look like people? Trust me, I'm the Doctor," he gave her a small wink, making her smile before he turned and hopped back onto the edge. He and Mac turned around so their feet were dangling inside the TARDIS.
He looked at Mac a moment, holding out a hand to her. She smiled and took it, the two of them gripping hands as they jumped down into the TARDIS, the Doctor shouting, "Geronimo!" as the doors slammed shut above them.
The TARDIS disappeared moments later.
~8~
"Kenzie!" the Doctor shouted as Mac bolted out of the TARDIS the second it landed again and ran for Amelia's house, "Wait!" he rushed after her, the TARDIS smoking and grinding behind them.
"Amelia's in danger!" she called back, trying to shove the front door open. The Doctor ran up to her, knowing she was worried about the little girl, and flashed the sonic on the lock, opening it, the two of them bursting inside, "Amelia! Amelia! Sweetie are you ok!?"
"We worked out what it was," the Doctor yelled as well, "I know what I was missing! You've got to get out of there!"
"Amelia?" Mac rushed up the stairs, looking around the halls for her, heading for her bed room as the Doctor tried to get into the last door she hadn't checked, "Amelia, sweetheart are you here?"
"Prisoner Zero is here," the Doctor kept shouting, struggling with the door, "Prisoner Zero is here! Prisoner Zero is here! Do you understand me? Prisoner Zero is..." he turned around, hearing a creak behind him, and fell to the ground as a cricket bat smacked across his head, the last thing he heard was Mac shouting 'Doctor!' before his world went black.
~8~
The Doctor slowly came to to find himself sitting on the ground before a radiator and noticed two things. The first was that there was a female police officer standing before him in a rather short skirt and talking into her radio, describing him and Mac to her boss and requesting assistance for them breaking and entering. And the second…was that Mac was right beside him, his head turned towards hers as hers was towards him, unconscious as well. He tried to reach for her with his left hand, and realized a third thing…he was handcuffed to the base of the radiator…as was Mac's right hand.
He groaned and moved his right hand instead towards her face, lightly touching it, stroking her cheek to try and wake her up, "Kenzie…" he murmured, hearing the police woman fall silent as she noticed him up, "Wake up…Kenzie?"
Mac frowned, wincing and putting a hand to her left hand to her head as she slowly blinked awake to see the Doctor's green eyes looking into hers with concern as he offered her a small, worried smile. Their heads were nearly touching, them sitting right beside each other. She flinched at the move of using her left hand and tried to bring her right one to her left arm…only to see she was handcuffed too, "Why does my arm hurt and why do I feel like I ran headfirst into a wall?"
"Because you did," the police woman informed them, "You two, sit still."
"I'm getting cricket bat," the Doctor rubbed his own head, the two of them sitting back a bit, straightening out and not leaning on each other as much.
"You were breaking and entering."
"Brilliant," Mac mumbled sarcastically, "New you and you get a smack in the head worse than that tree," she glanced at the Doctor, her eyes going right to a bruise forming at the corner of his forehead, "I'm really going to need to get you looked at."
"As long as it's you looking at me, I'm ok with that," he gave her a cheeky grin.
"Does it hurt?" she continued, ignoring how the police woman was starting to tap her foot on the ground in irritation at them ignoring her.
"Not now that I'm the one looking at you," he winked, "I feel better already."
"Definitely got some brain trauma there," she murmured at that, making him laugh.
"Do you want to shut up now?" the police woman cut in, "I've got backup on the way!"
"Why did you hit us with a cricket bat?" Mac turned to her.
"You were breaking and entering," she replied as though it should be obvious. She'd gone into the hall, seen the man trying to break into another room and quickly grabbed her bat, smacking him. The girl had come running around the corner, out of the bedroom, and she'd just sort of reacted and spun around, swinging the bat. It caught the girl in the shoulder and sent her stumbling into the wall. She'd hit the back of her head on it, not quite as hard as the bat had hit the man, but enough to knock her out at least.
"But what are you doing here?" the Doctor shook his head.
"Where is Amelia Pond?" Mac added, but the woman was silent, staring at her, "Small Scottish girl? Where is she?"
"I promised her five minutes but the engines were phasing," the Doctor groaned at that, "I suppose we must have gone a bit far."
"Is she ok? Did something happen to her?"
The woman just frowned, eyeing them, "Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time."
"How long?" the Doctor demanded.
"Six months."
"No, no, no! We can't be six months late! I said five minutes. I promised."
"Where did she go?" Mac frowned, "Why did she leave? Did her aunt get a new job or something?"
The officer just turned away from them and lifted the radio to her mouth, "Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up, these two know something about Amelia Pond."
'Naery,' Mac looked over, hearing the Doctor's voice in her mind, 'Do you see it? The last door?'
She turned her gaze on the door at the end of the hall, the one she'd almost checked and frowned, squinting at it, forcing herself to look at it, 'Perception Filter,' she agreed.
'Can you get us out of here?' he glanced at her.
She looked down only to sigh, seeing that her cardigan had been removed and was hanging on the banister across from her, just out of reach, 'She must have tried to search my pockets,' she muttered, guessing that that was the reason her cardigan and all her useful odds and ends had been removed. If she couldn't get to it, she wouldn't be able to pick the lock on the handcuffs.
"We need to speak to whoever lives in this house now," the Doctor called, trying to look for the sonic to help them, or get the woman to give up the key.
"I live here," the woman stated.
"But you're the police."
"Yes, and this is where I live. You got a problem with that?!"
"How many rooms are there on this floor?" Mac cut in, making the 'stop talking' sign to the Doctor, if they wanted any chance of getting out of there, they HAD to get the woman to realize something was wrong and that they could help her.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"On this floor," the Doctor nodded, "How many rooms on this floor? Count them for us now."
"Why?"
"Just do it!" Mac huffed.
The Doctor squeezed her hand, knowing she was getting antsy and tense, knowing that, if the perception filter was STILL on the door as it had been all those years ago…then whatever was in that room was STILL there…and they were handcuffed and trapped.
"Because it will change your life," he offered as well.
"Five," the woman rolled her eyes, pointing at each as she counted, "One, two, three, four, five."
"No," Mac shook her head, "Six."
The woman scoffed, "Six?"
"Look at the door at the end of the hall."
"What door?" the woman frowned.
"The door you never want to look at," the Doctor put his gaze on it, "The one you only see in the corner of your eye. The one right behind you."
The woman slowly turned, her eyes widening as she caught sight of the door, "That's...that is not possible. How's that possible?"
"There's an object called a perception filter that can make you not notice things," Mac told her, "There's one on the door."
"Sensed it the last time we were here," the Doctor sighed, rubbing his forehead, "Should've seen it."
"But that's a whole room," the woman breathed, staring at it, "That's a whole room I've never even noticed."
"And there is the point of the filter," Mac blinked at her and glanced at the Doctor, "Did I not just say that?"
The Doctor chuckled at that and called to the woman, "Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding. You need to uncuff us now!"
"I don't have the key," the woman murmured, starting to walk towards the door, "I lost it."
"How can you have lost it?!" the Doctor cried, the same time that Mac warned, "Stay away from the door!"
"Do not touch that door!" the Doctor started to struggle, trying to get them out of the cuffs as the woman ignored him and touched the knob, "Listen to me! Do not open that..." and opened the door, "Why does no one ever listen to me?" he looked at Mac, huffing, "Do I just have a face that nobody listens to? I mean I know your face is nothing like that but…"
"Where's the sonic?" Mac asked him, starting to look around, cutting into his thoughts, "We don't have the time to go on a tangent Doctor," she glanced at the door as the woman stepped through it, "Do you have the sonic?"
"No," he sighed, "My screwdriver," he called to the woman, "Where is it? Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?"
"There's nothing here," the woman shouted from inside the room.
"For the third time," Mac rolled her eyes, "There's a perception filter on the door, chance are, there's one in the room, it's meant to make you NOT see anything!"
"Now, please, just get out!" the Doctor cried.
"Silver, blue at the end?" the woman just inquired instead.
"My screwdriver, yeah."
"It's here."
"Must have rolled under the door," the Doctor let out a sigh, happy and relieved.
"Yeah. Must have. And then it must have jumped up on the table..."
"Get out!" Mac shouted, thinking for a brief moment that if the situation wasn't so deadly, she'd rather like that woman and her sarcasm, "Please, just get out of there!"
"What is it?" the Doctor called, not hearing any movement from within, "What are you doing?"
"There's nothing here, but..." the woman began.
"Corner of your eye."
"What is it?"
"Don't try to see it. If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you. Don't look at it. Do not look…"
"Get out!" Mac yelled as the woman screamed and, finally, came running out of the room with the sonic in hand, slamming the door shut behind her.
"Give me that!" the Doctor snatched the sonic from her as soon as she was near enough and flashed it at the door, locking it before he turned it on the handcuffs.
"It's not wood!" Mac actually shouted at the sonic as it failed to work, before stealing it from the Doctor's hands and bashing it on the floor.
"What's the bad alien done to you?" he murmured at it as well.
"Will that door hold it?" the officer panted.
"Why wouldn't it?" Mac muttered sarcastically, "Every single alien inter-dimensional multi-form is allergic to wood!"
"What's that?" the woman gasped, seeing a light flash from under the door, "What's it doing?"
"I don't know," the Doctor pulled the sonic back and tried to wipe it off, "Getting dressed? Run. Just go. Your backup's coming, we'll be fine."
"There is no backup."
"We heard you on the radio," the Doctor looked at her as Mac took the sonic again and tried it on the cuffs, starting to whack it on the radiator, "You called for backup!"
"I was pretending. It's a pretend radio."
"You're a policewoman!"
"I'm a kissogram!" the woman snapped, pulling off the bowler hat she'd been wearing and allowing her ginger hair to fall around her shoulders.
They had little time to think on that though when the door suddenly burst open, falling off its hinges and onto the ground as an older man in blue coveralls appeared, holding the leash of a rather big Rottweiler dog beside him.
"But it's just..." the ginger frowned.
"Still an alien," Mac muttered, "We're proof enough it can LOOK human to you."
"Look at the faces," the Doctor offered, grabbing the sonic back to try himself.
The woman frowned as the man growled and barked at her, just like a dog, though the dog itself was just staring at her.
"Give me my cardigan," Mac called to the woman.
"What?" she shook her head and stared at Mac, "I'm sorry, but what?! There's some sort of alien in my house and you want your jacket?!"
"It's got paperclips in the pockets!" she huffed, "Just get it!"
The ginger woman jerked forward, grabbing the cardigan off the banister and tossing it to Mac as she rooted through the pockets, knowing that the sonic was malfunctioning at the moment and she'd need to get them out.
"What is that thing?!" the woman demanded.
"It's all one creature," the Doctor explained quickly, glancing at the man as both he and the dog turned their heads to him at once, "One creature disguised as two. Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though," he called to it, trying to distract it from Mac as she pulled a paper clip out, "Got the voice a bit muddled, did you? Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?" it snarled and tried to advance but the Doctor barked out, "Stay, boy!" and it stopped, "The three of us, we're safe. Want to know why? She sent for backup," he nodded his head at the woman.
"I didn't send for backup!" she muttered under her breath.
"I know, that was a clever lie to save our lives," the Doctor rubbed his head, glancing at Mac to see her working on the handcuffs, "Ok," he turned back to the alien, "Yeah, NO backup! And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we HAD backup, then you'd have to kill us!"
"Attention, Prisoner Zero," a voice boomed from outside, making the Time Lords freeze a moment, "The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. 'The human residence is surrounded."
"What's that?" the woman whispered.
"Backup," Mac mumbled, getting back to the cuffs.
"Ok," the Doctor sighed, "One more time. We do have backup and that's definitely why we're safe."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"Well, safe apart from, you know, incineration," he tried to joke, glancing at Mac with a smile, "You're safe though."
"How so?" Mac mumbled, nearly getting her cuff open as the alien turned and stepped into another room to check outside for the voice.
"You're 'hot' enough," he murmured under his breath.
Mac stilled and looked up at him, concerned, "Have you got any sort of sloshing in your head? Any internal bleeding maybe?"
He just winked at her.
She shook her head and looked back down, hearing a click, "Finally!" she huffed, pulling the cuff off her arm, allowing the end of it to slip through the bottom of the radiator and freeing the Doctor.
"Yes," He grinned at it, helping her up, "Run!" he shouted to the ginger woman, running off down the hall and pulling Mac with him, "Run!" they bolted down the stairs and out the front door, the Doctor turning to flash the sonic on the lock so that it would shut behind them, "Kissogram?" he spun to the woman, sounding both confused and annoyed she'd tricked him.
"Yes!" the woman rolled her eyes.
"Why would you pretend to be the police then?" Mac shook her head, turning with the Doctor to head back to the TARDIS.
"You broke into my house! It was this or a French maid! What's going on? Tell me! Tell me!"
"An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house," the Doctor said quickly, actually being completely honest for once, "Any questions?"
"Yes!"
"You're not the only one," Mac told her, "What's wrong?" she looked at the Doctor as the key wouldn't turn to allow them in.
"It's still rebuilding," the Doctor sighed, rubbing his head.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
They spun around at the message going off when they heard a bark to see the alien was I n the window of the house, looking at them.
The ginger woman reached out blindly, grabbing the Doctor's arm, "Come on!"
"No, wait, hang on, wait, wait, wait," the Doctor pulled his arm away, "The shed."
"Doctor we really DO have to go," Mac argued.
"But the shed!" he pointed to it, rushing over towards it, "We destroyed that shed last time we were here, remember?" he looked at her, "We smashed it to pieces!"
Mac blinked and looked at it closely, seeing what he was getting at, "I suppose your new eyes are settling then…"
"On you," he tried to lean against the shed casually, possibly even flirtily…had he not misjudged it and ended up falling past the shed entirely, reaching out to the corner just in time to keep from toppling over.
"So there's a new one," the woman rolled her eyes at the Doctor's antics, rushing over, not having heard his comment to Mac, "Let's go."
"This shed is 10 years old," Mac turned to her, "Not new, and not even 6 months old."
"No, no," the Doctor sniffed his hand that had grabbed the shed…and then licked it, "12 years," he confirmed, "We're not six months late, we're 12 years late."
"Why would you tell us 12 years?" Mac frowned at the woman.
"He's coming…" she stepped back, glancing at the house, seeming a little on edge now.
"You said six months," the Doctor agreed, "Why did you say six months?"
"We've got to go…"
"This matters. This is important. Why did you say six months?"
"Why did you say five minutes?!" she snapped back at him, startling him.
"What?" the Doctor blinked.
"Come on."
"What?"
"Oh not again," Mac mock-moaned, "Just…come on Doctor!" she grabbed his arm and pulled him on, the ginger woman already rushing off.
"What?!"
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
~8~
"So you're Amelia Pond then?" Mac reasoned as they followed her down a village lane a short distance from her house. Her hand was in the Doctor's as she led him on.
He seemed to have developed a bit of a nervous twitch sort of thing after she'd gotten his handcuff off…he stopped walking if she let go of his hand. Well, it was more like if she let go of his hand and didn't pull him on, he'd stop and get distracted by something beside him. He seemed a bit TOO pleased when she'd take his hand again.
"And you're late," Amelia muttered, stalking down the road.
"You can't be the little Scottish girl…"
"I AM the little Scottish girl, and you're late."
"What happened?" the Doctor looked at her, hearing a very deep anger in her voice and flinching unintentionally. He still heard anger and…well, he thought of Mac, the last her, how angry she'd been. He didn't like people being angry with him. And if he could do anything to fix it, he would.
"12 years."
"You hit us with a cricket bat!"
"12 years."
"A cricket bat!"
"12 years and four psychiatrists."
"Really?" Mac frowned, "Four?"
"I kept biting them," Amelia muttered.
"My sister was a biter."
"Why would you bite them?" the Doctor glanced at her.
Amelia looked back at them, slowly coming to a stop, "They said you weren't real."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
They looked over to see that the voice sounded much closer than just above them and was, in fact, coming from a ice cream truck parked only a few feet away.
Amelia groaned, "No, no, no, come on… What? We're being staked out by an ice-cream van?"
The Time Lords rushed for the van, "What's that?" the Doctor called to the vendor, "Why are you playing that?"
"It's supposed to be Claire De Lune," the vendor shrugged.
The Doctor picked up the player and listened to it, "Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat, Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"It's everywhere," Mac frowned, spotting a jogger fiddling with their MP3 player, and another woman frowning at her mobile, "Basics…it's never good when it affects the entire planet."
"What's happening?" Amelia frowned, seeing them exchange a solemn look.
But they didn't answer. Instead, the Doctor just turned and ran for the nearest house, hopping over a low white fence and into the garden, Mac right after him as Amelia scurried after them, tugging at her skirt as she went.
"Hello!" the Doctor shouted as he and Mac ran into the house, seeing a little old woman standing before the telly, flicking through the channels but they were all playing the same eye that they'd seen through the crack in Amelia's wall, "Sorry to burst in, we're doing a special on television faults in this area."
"As well as crime," Mac offered, glancing at Amelia, and back to the woman, "You really should lock your doors you know."
"Let's have a look," the Doctor snatched the remote from the woman and flicked through the channels himself.
"I was just about to phone," the woman smiled, "It's on every channel. Hello, Amy, dear," she smiled at Amelia as well, "Are you a policewoman now?"
"Well, sometimes," Amelia-now-Amy flushed.
"I thought you were a nurse."
"I can be a nurse."
"Or, actually, a nun."
"I dabble."
"As fascinating as that is," Mac cut in a bit, giving Amy an amused look, "We ought to focus on the telly, shouldn't we Doctor?" she gave him a pointed look, the man have sort of stopped flicking and glanced at her and Amy when the woman started discussing her various costumes.
'What?' Mac frowned, seeing him blinking at her.
'Nothing!' he flushed and quickly turned back to the television, rushing behind it to look at the back of it, not about to even let it slip through his mind that he may or may not have gotten a brief flash of picturing Mac dressed as a nurse, a nurse to his Doctor, but perhaps in a skirt about the same length as Amy's was...
"Amy, who is your friend?" the woman glanced at them.
"I take it you've shortened your name to Amy then?" Mac guessed.
"Yeah," Amy nodded.
"Oh why would you go and do that?" the Doctor whined a bit, "Amelia Pond, that was a great name."
"Bit fairy tale."
"I know you, don't I?" the woman looked between them, "I've seen you somewhere before."
"Not me at least," the Doctor came back from around the telly, "Brand-new face..." he stretched his face out widely to show it off, "First time on. Not quite so for Kenzie here."
"Ever been around London or UNIT?" she inquired of the woman.
"No," the woman blinked.
"Then we haven't met either. Though, as WE have met," she turned to Amy, "And you were a little girl not five minutes ago…what exactly is a kissogram?"
"I go to parties and I kiss people," Amy cleared her throat, "With outfits. It's a laugh."
"What would possess you to kiss random strangers? A lovely girl like you? Haven't you got a boyfriend?"
"You're worse than my aunt," Amy muttered.
The Doctor snorted at that, "And she hasn't even got going yet."
"Nice, Doctor," Mac rolled her eyes at him.
"Yes you are," he nodded, sending her a wink before he picked up a radio and flashed the sonic at it, "Ok," he frowned, hearing the same message in different languages, "So it's everywhere, in every language."
"Which means they're likely broadcasting to the whole world as a warning," Mac murmured, heading for the window and glancing out, "The Sycorax did that, the 456 as well…but through people…"
The Doctor sighed, thinking about that, the 456, rather nasty aliens that had taken control of the children of Earth and used them to convey messages, had demanded about 10% of them or something for payment or they'd kill all of them. Torchwood had gotten involved and lost Ianto Jones for it before they'd managed to stop them. He had no idea why, but the TARDIS hadn't alerted them to the danger Earth was in, they hadn't even realized something happened to Ianto till after they'd gone to Earth to try and see Jack and his team again and been told by Gwen Cooper about it. They didn't know what it was, it wasn't a fixed point, he hadn't broken the phone lines…the only thing they could think of was that the TARDIS's circuits were still a bit fried from when they'd stopped the Trickster. It had only happened a month later and they hadn't even gotten a quarter of the repairs made by then. It would be easy for the circuits to have malfunctioned. They both felt incredibly guilty about it, about having not been there when such a terrible event was occurring, especially with children involved, but there was little they could do after the fact without distorting the timelines.
"What's up there?" Amy called to Mac, "What are you looking for?"
Mac shook her head though and came back in, looking at the Doctor, "Not visible yet, the ships are likely too far away or haven't descended yet. We have about 20 minutes."
"20 minutes?"
The Doctor nodded, moving to Mac's side, putting an arm around her waist to stabilize himself as he leaned over to look out the window again, only taking a glance before he spun back around, moving his one arm off her and his other around her shoulder, "Planet this size with two poles and a basic molten core, they'll need a 40% fission blast," he glanced over as a young, rather buff man entered with a laptop under his arm, "But they'll have to power up first," he moved over to the man, his eyes slightly narrow, "Assuming a medium-sized starship, that's 20 minutes," he moved on his toes, sizing the man up, "Just as Kenzie said. We've got 20 minutes."
"20 minutes to what?"
"Save the planet," Mac told her.
"Are you the Doctor?" the young man asked, "And Kenny?"
"Mackenzie," Mac corrected, blinking at how odd that was that he'd thought her a boy apparently if his stunned gaze was anything to go by. Well, one day she could be a 'Kenny' instead of a 'Kenzie' she sort of liked Mac for that reason, could be a girl or boy's name which was good as one never knew what they'd get with regeneration.
"They are!" the old woman cheered, "They're the Doctor and Kenny!"
"Kenzie," the Doctor corrected this time.
But the old woman was just too thrilled to see them, "The Raggedy Doctor and his Nurse Kenny!"
"Kenzie."
"All those cartoons you did when you were little," the woman looked at Amy, "It's them! The Raggedy Doctor, Nurse Kenny."
"Kenzie!" the Doctor snapped, "It's Kenzie! Mac-Kenzie!"
Mac blinked, "It's alright Doctor," she told him, a bit startled he was getting that offended over her name. She had been telling Wilf the truth, humans were growing on her more in this new body than her last, but…she wasn't quite to the point of loving them as much as the Doctor did. She hadn't really cared to know them or love them in her last body, but this one was a little more fond of them. It didn't really matter to her whether or not a handful of humans knew her name.
"No it's not," the Doctor huffed, "Your name is lovely, and it should be said properly."
"And she was 7 years old," Mac reminded him, "Met us for all of an hour, things get skewed over time."
"She remembered me," the Doctor pointed out, not seeing Amy start to blush a bit at that.
"Yes…" Mac nodded slowly, SHE had caught that at least, and shifted a bit, "Well you are rather impressive."
He blinked this time and smiled, "Am I?"
Mac rolled her eyes, "You will be if we can save the planet," she looked at him pointedly.
"Gran," the boy whispered to the old woman, the two of them still staring at the aliens, "It's them, isn't it? It's really them!"
"Jeff, shut up!" Amy snapped, spinning to the Time Lords, "20 minutes to save the planet?"
"The 'human residence' is what many other species, especially those in law enforcement, term a planet," Mac explained, having learned that after dealing with the Judoon quite a few times.
"Yes," the Doctor sighed, "Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship and it's going to incinerate the planet. 20 minutes to the end of the world."
"So we'd best get cracking then," Mac smiled.
The Doctor beamed, "UNIT's finest," he joked, making her laugh before they ran out of the house, Amy after them, looking more than a bit exasperated.
~8~
Mac smiled softly as she saw a young boy running down one of the roads with a little toy helicopter in his hand, completely oblivious that there was anything wrong. But, then again, most humans were as well. Until they actually SAW a space ship, they'd likely think that the message was some sort of glitch with the emergency broadcasting networks.
"What is this place?" the Doctor asked, looking around, clearly it was NOT London, "Where are we?"
"Leadworth," Mac answered, "I managed a quick scan during our jump."
"Where's the rest of it?"
"This is it," Amy shrugged.
"Is there an airport?"
"No."
"A nuclear power station?"
"No."
"Even a little one?"
"No."
"Nearest city?"
"Gloucester, half an hour by car."
"We don't have half an hour. Do we have a car?"
"No."
"We would have had the TARDIS if she weren't rebuilding," Mac sighed, looking around for anything that might help them, she always had been the better of the two at seeing the resources at their disposal.
"Well, that's good!" he huffed, "Fantastic, that is. 20 minutes to save the world and we've got a post office. And it's shut! WHAT is that?" he pointed to the side, before rushing off towards a small duck pond a few feet away.
"Looks like a puddle," Mac observed.
"It's a duck pond," Amy corrected.
"How can you tell?" Mac frowned, "There aren't any ducks."
"There's never any ducks."
"So how is it a duck pond then?"
"It just is. Why do you care about the duck pond?"
"I like ponds," Mac shrugged, "Ponds, oceans, streams, rivers, creaks…"
"Water," the Doctor cut in, "She likes water, best swimmer in the Academy."
Mac shook her head, "I wasn't the best, I was decent. Never won any awards…"
"Well..." he grinned suggestively at her.
"That one did NOT count!" Mac huffed, slapping him on the shoulder.
"Still an award."
"What award?" Amy glanced between them.
"Best swimsu…"
Mac quickly made the 'stop talking' motion to quiet him, "We do not bring that up in front of little girls."
"I'm 19!" Amy huffed.
"And we're over 900, you're a toddler to us," Mac shrugged.
"We should go to the beach," the Doctor suggested.
Mac gave him a look, his mind was really all over the place wasn't it? "How about we do that AFTER we stop whatever's about to destroy the planet?"
"Yes, yes," he sighed, "I suppose, if we must."
"So what do we do?" Amy shook her head, not having a clue what they were talking about.
"I don't know," the Doctor suddenly winced as a pain hit him in the chest, a small burst of regeneration energy escaping him, "Why would I know?" he plopped on the ground, clutching at his chest, "I'm not ready," he looked at Mac, "I'm not done yet."
Mac knelt beside him and leaned over, pressing her ear to his chest to listen to his hearts pounding away and getting faster the longer she listened. And he didn't appear to be breathing either, so she pulled back and looked at him, to see him staring at her, "It helps if you breathe," she reminded him, "Helps slow your hearts down."
"I doubt that'll happen with you next to me," he gave her a soft smile, a pointed look, "And you take my breath away as it is."
"This is more serious than I thought," Mac frowned, reaching out to put a hand to his forehead to check for fever, his eyes drifting shut with a happy smile on his face, a content look about him, "You feel a bit warm…"
"Would you say I'm…hot?" he joked, cracking an eye open.
"I think you may actually have a fever yes," Mac nodded…when the sky suddenly darkened.
They looked up, frowning to see that the sun looked a bit gray, only to flicker and almost look normal but more blotted.
"What's happening?" Amy blinked, squinting, "Why's it going dark? What's wrong with the sun?"
"That's what the sun looks like through a force field," Mac informed her, "And that means whoever's out there has sealed the upper atmosphere. Come on," she held out a hand to the Doctor, standing and helping him up as well.
"Oh, and here they come," the Doctor scoffed when he looked over to see that the humans around them, who had also noticed the change in the sun, had stopped to, of all things, take pictures of it, "The human race. The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone!"
"This isn't real, is it?" Amy turned to them, "This is some kind of big wind-up."
"What would be the point in winding you up?" Mac frowned, not following.
"You told me you had a time machine."
"And you believed me," the Doctor nodded.
"Then I grew up."
"Oh, you never want to do that. No, hang on, shut up, wait!" he spun around, "I missed it!" he smacked his forehead.
"Do that again Doctor and you'll really give yourself brain damage with all the smacks to your head," Mac muttered dryly.
"Did YOU see it?" he pointed at Mac.
"I was too busy checking on you," she told him.
"Checking me out you mean?" he started to grin "No, no, focus, I saw it and I missed it," he smacked himself again…and then winced and rubbed his head, he probably should really stop doing that, "What did I see?" he spun around again, realizing what it was he'd missed, "20 minutes," he nodded to himself, looking at Mac, "We can do it. 20 minutes, the planet burns," he turned to Amy, "Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help us."
"No," Amy decided.
"I'm sorry?"
"No!" she reached out and grabbed the Doctor by his long tie, dragging him off.
"Amy stop it!" Mac called, rushing after her, "We don't have the time!"
"No!" the Doctor struggled, "No! What are you doing?" but Amy just turned and pushed him against a car just as a man stepped out of it, slamming the door shut on his tie before she locked the door with the remote she'd nicked off the driver, "Are you out of your mind?"
"Who are you?" Amy demanded.
"We already told you," Mac caught up to them, starting to dig around in her pockets, "Mackenzie," she pointed to herself, and then the Doctor, "And the Doctor."
"No, really, who are you?" Amy looked between them.
"Look at the sky!" the Doctor struggled to get the tie out, "End of the world, 20 minutes."
"Better talk quickly, then!"
"Oh honestly Amy," Mac pulled out her pocket knife, walking over and cutting right across the tie, freeing the Doctor though now he only had half a tie, "Now give the nice man back his car keys."
Amy looked over at the driver that was blinking and staring at her with his hand still raised where he'd gotten out of the car. She sighed and handed them back.
The Doctor pulled the apple from his pocket and tossed it to Amy, knowing they still needed to convince her or she'd just tag along, asking question and countering them at every corner when they needed cooperation, "Catch. Kenzie and I ARE time travelers," he told her, "Everything we told you 12 years ago is true. We're real. What's happening in the sky is real."
Amy started to shake her head, "I don't believe you."
"Well then that's your problem," Mac cut in, getting more than a bit impatient with the girl, the entire fate of the planet was at stake and she had been ready to leave the Doctor trapped in a car door, "So while you sort out the fact that we're real and that's the same apple from 12 years ago, we'll be over there saving the world. Come find us."
"Kenz…" the Doctor began.
But Mac, without looking, just reached back and grabbed what was left of his tie, tugging him off only a step or two before letting go and pushing him on before her, "What did you see before?"
The Doctor sighed, knowing that they really DID need to focus on the matter at hand, "A nurse," he said, before dashing back onto the green and heading for a rather lovely young man with light brown hair, a slightly big nose, dressed in blue nurse scrubs. He ran right up to the boy and nicked his mobile out of his hand, "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?"
"Amy?" the boy looked over.
Mac glanced back to see Amy had run after them, the apple clutched firmly in her hand, "Believe us then?"
Amy nodded, but the boy looked more confused, "What's going on?"
"Oh, this is Rory," she awkwardly patted Rory on the shoulder, "He's a...friend."
"Boyfriend," Rory corrected instantly, looking annoyed, which made Mac frown, it sounded almost…expectant, like this was something he did often, had to tell people he was Amy's boyfriend because she didn't.
"Kind of boyfriend," Amy corrected.
"Amy!" Rory huffed.
"I don't really think they come in 'kind ofs,'" Mac remarked, "Unless it's a new human thing…"
"Man and dog," the Doctor cut in, actually being the one to keep on track this time, "Why?"
"Oh…" Rory blinked, staring at them, actually seeming to notice them now, "Oh my God, it's them!"
"Just answer his question, please," Amy nearly begged, starting to blush again, clearly embarrassed.
"It's them, though. The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor and…" he paused, looking at Mac, "Kenny?"
"Kenzie!" the Doctor huffed, "Man and dog, anyone?"
"Mackenzie," Mac added.
"Yeah," Amy nodded, "They came back."
"But they were a story," Rory shook his head, "They were a game!"
The Doctor surged forward and grabbed Rory by the front of his shirt, nearly hefting him up as he pulled him closer, "Man and dog, why? Tell me now."
"Sorry," Rory winced, "Because he can't be there. Because he's…in a hospital, in a coma," he said the last part in unison with the Doctor.
"Knew it," he smirked at Mac, "Multi-form, you see?"
"Doctor?" she gave him a pointed look at Rory.
"Oh, yes, sorry," he slowly let the boy go.
Mac shook her head and stepped over, "You alright?" she asked him, smoothing down the neckline of his scrubs from where the Doctor grabbed him, "Sorry about him."
"No, no, it's fine," Rory blinked, a little startled she was being nice to him.
"Disguise itself as anything, right Mackenzie?" the Doctor called. Mac paused, a little confused as to why he was back to calling her Mackenzie again, and turned to him, seeing him smiling but with a tension in it, "But it needs a live feed, a psychic link with a living but dormant mind…"
"Like that one right there?" Mac nodded behind him, and the Doctor spun around to see the older man and his dog standing behind them, "Hello Prisoner Zero."
"What, there's a Prisoner Zero too?" Rory gaped.
"Yes," Amy sighed, only to look up when an electrical buzz sounded above them and a spaceship descended, a rather large eye, the same one from the telly and the crack swerving around to look at the green, as though searching for something.
"See," the Doctor called, pulling the sonic out of his pocket as he tossed Rory back his phone, "That ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver!" he quickly held it above his head and flicked it on, wincing as chaos erupted. Streetlights shattered, car alarms went off, sirens blared, the humans ran around, screaming, including a team of firemen who began to chase after their fire truck as it rolled down a hill.
"Well," Mac shouted above the noise, "For once your dramatics are a good thing. They'll definitely notice that!"
The Doctor grinned, going for a bigger finish and aimed the sonic at a phone box, making it explode…only for it to be too much for the poor sonic as it started to spark and smoke in his hand, making him snap his hand back and drop it to the ground, "No, no, no, don't do that!"
"Look!" Rory pointed to the sky as the ship started to drift away, "It's going."
"No, come back, he's here! Come back! He's here, Prisoner Zero is here. Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is..."
"Escaping down the sewer drain," Mac sighed as the alien did just that, turned into a mist and sort of just drifted down through the grating in the drain.
"It just sort of melted and went down the drain…" Amy stared at it, moving to lean over the drain and try to see it.
"Best not," Mac gently tugged her back, concerned for the girl as they didn't know what Zero might try to do next.
"Well, of course it did," the Doctor huffed, picking up his dead sonic and trying to see if he could possibly salvage it.
"What do we do now?" Amy looked at them.
"It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open. No TARDIS, no screwdriver, 17 minutes…" he started to pace, "Come on, think. Think!"
"So that thing, THAT hid in my house for 12 years?"
"Multi-forms can live for thousands of years," Mac told her, "A decade or so isn't all that long."
"So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do?" Amy shook her head, "The same minute?"
"They got a trace on us when they sent the message to the psychic paper. They tracked us down and came after us. If we'd managed to get the TARDIS working properly we'd have been here five minutes later."
"It's not my fault!" the Doctor suddenly declared.
Mac blinked, "I…didn't say it was," she frowned at him.
"Oh," he nodded, "Right, sorry, it's just…" he shrugged, "Usually when the piloting's off, everyone usually blames me."
Mac gave him a sad smile, knowing that by 'everyone' he really meant 'SHE' blamed him, "I'm not the best pilot either," she offered him, "Especially not when things are exploding around me and time is of the essence. It was just as much my fault as yours."
The Doctor smiled at her, "Thanks," he…really liked this new her. He loved every version of her, but he could admit this new her was…nicer to him, more understanding and he got the feeling that would be very much needed in the future. He felt like this new him was a bit…more rambunctious, a bit more of a handful and would probably get them all into much worse situations than his last self. He certainly felt more curious and excitable than he remembered his last self being.
"What exactly is she talking about?" Rory whispered to Amy, who just shrugged, not entirely sure herself.
"Now, sport," the Doctor turned to Rory, "Give me your phone."
"How can they be real? They were never real."
"Phone, now, give me!"
"Please," Mac emphasized, sending the Doctor a look even though Rory was already handing over the phone.
"They were just a game," Rory continued, "We were kids. You made me dress up as Nurse Kenny to play 'The Doctor' with you."
Mac blinked and glanced at Rory's scrubs, his ID reading that he was currently a nurse as the Doctor had guessed. She had to wonder, given Rory's clear affection for Amy, if he'd only gone for his 'nursing' career because he'd played Nurse 'Kenny' (likely a male nurse to the boy) because Amy clearly saw herself more like the Doctor and it was a way to at least remain in her life as a duo.
"These are all coma patients?" the Doctor called and Mac looked back over to see him going through the photos on Rory's phone. She made her way over to it, the Doctor holding the phone in such a way that she had to rest a hand on his arm and lean over slightly to see the various men and women just walking about…but all with the same blank expressions on their faces.
"Yeah," Rory nodded.
"So that's all the forms Zero's able to take then," Mac mused, "8 so far…"
"He had a dog, though," Amy shook her head, "There's a dog in a coma?"
"If that particular patient is dreaming of his dog than yes, it would appear with Zero," Mac nodded.
"Laptop!" the Doctor called, spinning around to Amy, "Your friend, what was his name? Not him," he waved Rory off, "The good-looking one."
"Thanks," Rory huffed, looking down but also looking far too used to that, the fact that Amy immediately answered with 'Jeff,' didn't help either, "Oh, thanks."
"Beauty is subjective," Mac winked at Rory, making him blink, a little startled at that. But she couldn't help it, Amy, the boy's own girlfriend clearly didn't think he was 'good looking' if she instantly knew the Doctor was talking about Jeff. A true girlfriend would have countered with 'Rory' or even said 'Rory's the good-looking one' or 'Rory's right here, who were you talking about?' not just…Jeff.
"He had a laptop in his bag," the Doctor continued, "A laptop. Big bag, big laptop, I need Jeff's laptop. You two, get to the hospital, get everyone out, clear the whole floor. Phone me when you're done," he turned to run off when…
"I'll go with you," Mac offered the humans.
The Doctor turned right around, "What?"
"I'm going to go with them to the hospital," she said, the humans stopping as well in their own turn to dart off.
"No, but you can't."
"Why not?" she frowned.
"Because…I…I need your help."
"You're going to get a laptop Doctor," she smiled a bit, "My paperclips and pocket knife won't be needed. They may need me to pick a lock or something," she nodded at the humans.
"But…"
"We don't know where Zero went," she pointed out, "IF the alien's gone to the hospital too, back to the coma ward, they'll need one of us there with them."
"What if Zero goes to Jeff's?" he asked, even though they all knew that was a rather rubbish excuse.
"Then you'll be able to handle him," she told him, "I know you Doctor, you can handle anything any alien throws at you. Even me," her smile turned sad at that. She still felt SO guilty over what she'd done to him, how she'd treated him, "If you could handle who I was…you can handle anything."
The Doctor sighed, running a hand through his hair, NOT liking this.
"Go on," she nodded him off, "You'll be fine. You're just fantastic," she added the last word with a small wink, making him smile at it, knowing she'd probably had files of his 'favored word' from his 9th self.
"Well you're stunning," he countered.
"And I'll have two humans to help me out," she added, "We'll keep each other safe. You worry about the ship, leave Zero to me. You'll save the earth yet."
"You really think so?" he started to smile.
"I do."
"Bet your life on it?"
"With you working at it?" she nodded, " Yeah," she took a breath, "Always."
He smiled at that, touched, and nodded, "Fine, fine, fine, go, go, go," he shooed her off.
"Rory's car is over here," Amy called and the three of them ran off, cramming into the small mini while the Doctor ran back towards Jeff's house.
~8~
They'd made it to the hospital not quite as quickly as Mac would have preferred but as Leadworth was such a small town, there were quite a few people walking about and crossing streets and the hospital was just a mess to get into and park near. And they soon found out why.
"Something's happened up there," Rory returned to Mac and Amy as they stood in the hall of the hospital, Amy on her mobile, while Mac looked around, keeping an eye open for Zero, "We can't get through."
The hall was blocked off ahead of them, the stairwells closed down there as well, and they all knew that the original suspicion that Zero had gone back to the coma ward was confirmed.
"Yes, but what's happened?" Amy dialed again.
"I don't know. No one knows. Phone him."
"She's been doing," Mac sighed, "I warned her though, the Doctor's rubbish at answering phones when people call him. Look, Amy," she reached out and took the phone from her, "We don't need to call him."
"But we can't get through!" Amy huffed.
"You DO realize you're still dressed as a POLICE officer yes?"
Amy blinked and looked down, "Right," she laughed a bit and started to put her hair up, getting ready to play the role.
Rory and Mac stayed behind as Amy strode right up to one of the officials, her hands on her hips, seeming very authoritative in posture, and was quickly let through. She held up a hand and turned to them, beckoning them over and they dashed off after her.
Mac looked down, seeing a text on the phone, 'On my way!' from Rory's phone and knew it was the Doctor. She was just hoping he both got there in time and hadn't stolen something too flashy like a sports car or a school bus or a fire truck or anything to get there as she doubted he'd jog there and the TARDIS was out of commission.
She got into a lift at the end of the hall, Rory hitting the button for the coma ward and up they went, stepping out onto the floor only to stop short. It was wrecked. There were gurneys everywhere, tables over turned, scrubs torn on the ground, utensils and other medical equipment scattered about…and there, right in the middle of the hall was an older woman with short brown hair, holding the hands of two little girls on either side of her in dark dresses.
"Officer," the woman greeted.
"Careful," Mac whispered to her, putting the phone behind her back to text the Doctor, "It's Zero."
Amy glanced at her but Mac nodded towards the woman's face, her expression, along with the identical expressions of her 'daughters' as blank as the man with the dog's had been. She took a breath and faced the woman again, trying not to let on that she knew, "What happened?"
"There was a man," the woman stated, her voice flat, "A man with a dog. I think Dr. Ramsden's dead. And the nurses."
Mac pulled the phone out as it started to ring, only seconds after she'd sent the text 'Zero's here' to Rory's phone, "Doctor," she answered.
"Prisoner Zero's there!?" he nearly shouted.
"Yes," she kept her gaze on the three women.
"You need to get out of there."
"No, I hadn't realized that," she muttered.
"He was so angry," the woman spoke again, thankfully unable to hear the Doctor over the phone, but all three of them could see that the woman's voice was coming out of one of her daughters, "He kept shouting. And that dog, the size of that dog, I swear it was rabid. And he just went mad, attacking everyone. Where did he go, did you see? Has he gone? We hid in the ladies."
The woman's head twitched to look at Mac as she slowly started backing Amy and Rory up, moving herself in front of them in the process and subtly handing Amy the phone to free her hands, "Oh, I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I?" the actual woman spoke this time, "I'm always doing that. So many mouths," she smirked before she opened her mouth wide, as did her 'daughters' to reveal their rather sharp, thin teeth.
"Oh, my God!" Rory stared in horror.
"Kenzie!?" the Doctor was shouting over the phone, "What's happening?"
"Run!" Mac turned and pushed the humans on, through a set of double doors, pushing a broom handle through the handles to buy them time.
"Mackenzie! Talk to me!"
Mac ignored the Doctor's shouts and ran to the window, looking out and down and up, checking their position, their possible escape, and the sky for the ship as well.
"We're in the coma ward," Amy answered on the phone, "But it's here, it's getting in."
"Which window are you?"
"What, sorry?"
"Which window?"
"I'll make it obvious Doctor!" Mac shouted, grabbing a sheet off the nearest coma patent and throwing it out the window, slamming the window down onto it so it was like a small flag signaling where they were. She wasn't going to risk Amy or Rory trying to recall their exact location by window position, it was easier to make it as obvious as possible.
"Oh, dear," Zero called as she shoved the doors open, the broom handle snapping easily as she entered, "Little Amelia Pond. I've watched you grow up. 12 years, and you never even knew I was there. Little Amelia Pond, waiting for her magic Doctor to return, but not this time, Amelia."
Mac pulled Amy behind her as Zero opened her mouth to reveal her teeth, when the phone pinged. Amy looked down at the text for a moment before she grabbed Mac this time and pulled her, and Rory, down to the ground just as a large ladder from a fire truck broke through the window Mac had stuck the sheet out of. Moments later the Doctor climbed through and hopped down into the room.
"Kenzie!" he cheered, rushing forward to hug her tightly, "You're alright yeah?"
"Would be better if…you know…" she nodded to Zero.
The Doctor glanced over, "Right! Hello!" he smiled at the alien, "Am I late?"
"Three minutes left," Mac glanced at a clock.
"So still time then. Excellent."
"Time for what, Time Lords?" Zero asked, frowning between them.
Mac stiffened, "How do you know who we are?"
"The Doctor?" the woman scoffed, "The legends of him and his Chosen are far spread."
The Doctor's eyes narrowed at that as Mac frowned, why did people keep calling her his Chosen? They weren't and…and she wasn't…she just…she didn't know how she felt about that.
"Take the disguise off," the Doctor ordered, "They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies."
"The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire."
"Ok," he sighed, "You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again, just leave."
"I don't think it was her, Doctor," Mac remarked, "To do something like that…" she shook her head, "It would be beyond the tech available to a prisoner."
"I did not open the crack," Zero agreed.
"Well somebody did," he reasoned.
"The cracks in the skin of the universe," Zero eyed them, "Don't you know where they came from? You don't, do you?" it realized, "The Time Lords in the TARDIS don't know," the 'mother' spoke in her daughter's voice, growing taunting in quality, "Don't know, don't know!" before it returned to normal, "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."
The Doctor glanced at the wall as he heard a click sound and grinned, "And we're off! Look at that!" he cheered, pointing at the clock that now read 0:00, "Look at that! Yeah, I know, just a clock, whatever. But do you know what's happening right now? In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word all over the world, quantum fast. The word is out. And do you know what the word is?" he snapped his finger and pointed at Mac.
"At a guess?" she laughed, "0?"
"Correctamundo!" he chuckled, "Now, you know, if one of us was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, we'd take that as a hint. And if we had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, we'd be able track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute?"
"Maybe for you," she joked, nudging him playfully.
"Oi," he poked her back, "YOU're the one whose all paperclips and rubber bands!"
"AND the computers and tech expert at UNIT," she reminded him.
"There IS that," he agreed before pulling Rory's mobile out of his pocket, "The source, by the way, is right here."
"I think they've found us," Mac smirked, seeing a bright light start to shine through the windows, coming from the sky and moving too rapidly to NOT be a spaceship.
"The Atraxi are limited," Zero sneered, "While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me."
"Yeah," the Doctor could see the point in that, "But this is the good bit. I mean, this is my favorite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here. Oh, and being uploaded about now. And the final score is…no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare," he threw out his arms in triumph, "Who da man?"
Silence.
"Oh, I'm never saying that again," he lowered his arms.
"That WAS fairly terrible," Mac patted his shoulder.
"Fine," he muttered.
"Still you DID save the world," she reminded him.
"I shall take just a new form then," Zero threatened.
"Oh, stop it," the Doctor waved her off, "You know you can't. Takes months to form that kind of psychic link."
The smirk on Zero's face worried them, "And I've had years," the alien began to glow…and Amy collapsed to the ground behind them.
"Amy!" Rory shouted, catching her and lowering her down.
"What?" Mac spun around, "Amy!" she rushed over with the Doctor, "Amelia," she dropped to her knees, quickly checking the girl over.
"You've got to hold on," the Doctor told her, "Amy! Don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please."
"Um…Doctor?" Rory stared past them at something.
The Doctor and Mac turned to see the Doctor standing there with his hands behind his back, "Well, that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?"
"You," Mac and Rory told him.
"Me?" he frowned, looking back at them, "Is that what I look like?"
"You don't know?" Rory gave him an odd look for that.
"Busy day," he shrugged, glancing at Mac, "Can you…" he nodded at Amy.
"I was going to anyway," she shooed him away, moving closer to Amy and feeling her forehead, and cheeks, trying to wake her up.
The Doctor nodded and faced Zero, "Why be me?" he asked the alien, "You're linked with her. Why are you copying me?"
"I'm not," a small, Scottish voice from behind his image called and little Amelia stepped out from behind him, holding her Doctor's hand, "Poor Amy Pond. Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've been."
"What about Kenzie then?" he scoffed, "She was there too."
"Didn't make as much of an impact on an impressionable young girl I suppose?" the little Amelia shrugged.
Mac smirked though, not as put off by that as Zero had probably hoped, "You know what else made an impression on her?" Mac looked at Zero, "YOU did," and turned back to Amy, "Amy, listen to me. I know you can hear me. You're ok, YOU aren't in a coma, your mind is still active, it's just feeding Zero to maintain her shape. So you need to think about that room you went into, think about Zero, think about what you saw. We know you saw what Zero actually looks like…think on it, hold it in your mind…"
"No!" Zero started to thrash about as the Doctor looked back with a smirk, watching as Zero began to glow once more, a transformation being forced on her, "No...no!"
"Well done, Prisoner Zero," he clapped, seeing a rather large eel-like alien with sharp teeth before him now, "A perfect impersonation of yourself."
"Prisoner Zero is located!" the voice called from outside as the light locked onto the alien, trapping it, "Prisoner Zero is restrained."
"Silence, Doctor," Zero hissed at him even as it started to fade away, "Silence will fall."
The Doctor waited only a moment till it was fully gone before he ran to the window and looked out, seeing the ship with the eyeball start to fly away and shook his head, pulling out Rory's mobile again and dialing.
"The sun," Rory frowned "It's back to normal, right? That's...that's good, yeah? That means it's over."
"Amy?" Mac whispered, trying not to be too loud as Amy would likely have a rather bad headache because of this, "You alright?" she gently helped the girl sit up, "Head hurt a bit?"
Amy nodded and winced, pressing a hand to her head, "What happened?"
"He did it," Rory told her, "The Doctor did it."
"No, I didn't," the Doctor shook his head.
Mac sighed and stood, "Need any help?"
"What are you doing?" Rory frowned as Mac went over to look over the Doctor's shoulder at what he was doing.
"Trying to tracking the signal back…" he glanced at Rory, "Sorry, in advance."
"About what?"
"I imagine the bill to call a spaceship would be rather a bit much," Mac assumed.
"Oi!" the Doctor frowned, serious as he managed to contact the ship, "We didn't say you could go! Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established, level 5 planet, and you were going to burn it? What, did you think no one was watching? You lot, back here. Now!" he ended the call and tossed the phone to Rory, "Ok. Now I've done it."
"Well come on then," Mac turned to lead the way out of the room, "You can't leave them waiting after you've called them back, that's just rude."
"Did he just bring them back?" Rory shouted as Amy dashed off after them, "Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?" he sighed and pushed himself to his feet, running off.
"Where are you going?" Amy called, catching up to the Time Lords as they strode down the halls.
"The roof," Mac sighed, "It's the only place large enough and open enough and close enough to speak to them…"
"No," the Doctor suddenly veered to the side, "Hang on," and entered a changing room, starting to rummage around the clothes.
"What's in here?" Amy glanced around as he started throwing clothes away and keeping some.
"I'm saving the world, I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show!"
"Now?" Mac scoffed, "You're going to do this now?" she shook her head, "You've got an entire wardrobe in the TARDIS and you want to steal clothes from an Earth hospital? You really need to meet with them first."
"You just summoned aliens back to Earth," Rory seemed to be of the same agreement as Mac on that, "Actual aliens, deadly aliens, aliens of death, and now you're…" he sighed as the Doctor began to pull off his shirt, "Taking your clothes off...Amy, he's taking his clothes off. Mackenzie he's…"
"I'm aware Rory," Mac smiled softly at him, trying to offer him reassurance as his girlfriend decided to watch the alien strip.
"Turn your back if it embarrasses you," the Doctor called.
"You stealing clothes," Rory tried to repeat what Mac had said, "Those clothes belong to people, you know," before he huffed and turned his back…but Amy didn't, "Are you not you going to turn your back?"
"Nope," Amy smirked.
Mac frowned, "Amy, if you're going to watch anyone strip, it'll be your boyfriend," she reminded the girl.
But Amy just shrugged, "Fine by me."
Mac's frown deepened, glancing over to the Doctor to see him about to undo his pants, and grabbed Amy's arm to forcibly turn her around, "Your boyfriend is RORY," she emphasized, incase Amy had just…forgotten that detail, that her boyfriend was the timid human boy beside her and NOT the Time Lord in the back.
"Killjoy," Amy grumbled.
Mac just looked at her a long moment, before she caught sight of Rory's downed expression, she knew it had to have been just another nail to his heart to hear his girlfriend essentially verbalize that she wished (or possibly even thought) the Doctor was her boyfriend instead.
"You know," the Doctor called back, "Talking about boyfriends, it's ok if YOU want to look Kenzie."
Mac shook her head, "You're NOT my boyfriend Doctor."
She tried VERY hard not to see the pleased smirk on Amy's face at that declaration…and to push down the sort of…odd stirring in her stomach, like a faint weight there, at the thought that Amy was happy the Doctor was single…at the idea that the Doctor was even single to being with.
"You're apparently my Chosen though," he reminded her, "How many people have called you that so far?"
"None that count," she countered, "It's a future that's not set in stone Doctor."
He paused in his dressing to glance back at her knowing that his last self would have felt a pang of hurt at that…but this him? He couldn't help but grin.
Challenge accepted.
~8~
Amy and Rory watched as the Doctor and Mac strode right across the roof of the hospital and towards the ship with the giant eyeball sticking out of it. The Doctor was now in a long sleeved, pinkish shirt with new pants that had braces on them. There were quite a few ties dangling from around his neck as he couldn't quite seem to pick which one he liked best in the changing room, something about the lighting. Poor Rory had been left to carry the three or so jackets that the Doctor felt would be proper for his outfit, but it would all depend upon the tie he chose, he'd said. Mac had just shaken her head and said that they'd likely never see him in another outfit besides the one he chose then.
"So this was a good idea, was it?" Amy shifted as they came to a stop in the middle of the roof, "They were leaving."
"He was very cautious to demand them back, actually," Mac remarked, making the Doctor beam and stick out his tongue at Amy, "If you can make sure they leave and never come back…that's always the best option, and I'd hate to have to call in favors from UNIT to have them destroy the ships upon departure," she gave the ship a firm look for that.
The Doctor just patted her shoulder, "Let's give them a chance first," he laughed, "Come on, then!" he called up to the eye, "The Doctor will see you now!"
The eyeball disconnected from the ship and floated down to the Doctor and Mac scanning the both of them as they stood side by side, "You are not of this world."
"You're right, we're not, but we've both put a lot of work into it," he glanced at a tie, getting distracted, "I don't know. What do you think?" he held it up.
"Doctor, stop using your mouth and start using your brain," she murmured to him, "Focus."
"Is this world important?" the Atraxi asked.
"Important?" the Doctor nearly laughed at the absurdity of the question, "What's that mean, important?" he tossed the tie back to Rory, "6 billion people live here, is that important?"
"Actually, why don't you answer this," Mac offered, "Is Earth a threat to you?"
"Well, come on," the Doctor urged them, throwing another tie to Amy this time, "You're monitoring the whole planet. IS this world a threat?"
A projection shot out of the Atraxi and formed a small circular holographic monitor, showing them various bits of Earth and its history, "No."
"Well then did they break any of your laws?" Mac put her hands on her hips, giving the eye a look.
The projection shifted to various historical events, "No."
"Ok," the Doctor nodded, smiling, "One more. Just one. Is this world protected?" he asked it, "Because you're not the first lot to come here," he watched as the projection shifted once more to images of all the alien enemies that had ever come to Earth, the Cybermen and Daleks, Racnoss and Sycorax, the Sontarans and Reapers, "Oh, there have been so many! And what you've got to ask is...what happened to them?"
He stepped away from the projection and over to Amy, having selected a tie and now in need of a coat. Mac stood there though, watching the projection move through all of the Doctor's past incarnations, though she was a bit startled to see her last self mixed in there at the end, working in her lab at UNIT just in between his 9th and 10th self…she would have to investigate how they got that image.
But the Doctor disrupted the feed as he stepped through the image of his 10th self and smirked at the Atraxi, "Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically...run!"
Mac shook her head at him as the Atraxi immediately flew back to its ship and the entire thing bolted off into the sky. But her gaze was pulled away when she saw the Doctor flinch and stepped over to him to check if he was hurt…to see him pulling out the TARDIS key, it was glowing. He grinned at her and took her hand, pulling her off as Amy and Rory ran to the edge of the roof to watch the ship fly away, the two of them making their way down and down and down and out of the building, racing across the courtyard and roads and streets till they made it back to Amy's home. They slowed as they reached the back garden to see the TARDIS, blue as ever, standing there looking good as new.
"Ok," the Doctor breathed as they slowly made their way towards it, "What have you got for us this time?"
He looked at Mac and she smiled, reaching out with her necklace key and unlocking the door, pushing them open as they stood there, staring in amazement at what lay beyond. The ship looked more…organic but still very mechanical, borderline whimsical if they had to guess. There was a space beneath the console with steps leading down to it, no more grating, and the console itself which was less sharp and more curved. The captain's chair was replaced by a jump seat and the Y-beams were gone. There seemed to be a set of stairs to the left that led to the halls, and a set of stairs to the right to an upper level.
"Oh you're kidding me," Mac muttered, looking down at the floor.
"What?" the Doctor turned to her, smiling, "I think she's beautiful," he looked at her a moment longer, giving her the feeling he wasn't just talking about the ship before he glanced at it again, "Look at you! Oh, you sexy thing! Look at you!" he laughed and turned back to Mac, "What's wrong with her?"
"She's got a glass floor," Mac gestured to it.
The Doctor blinked at that, recalling that Mac (and Amy it seemed) favored wearing skirts… "Right…"
Mac sighed and shook her head, "Developed a sense of humor have you?" she called to the ship as it seemed to hum back at her.
The Doctor chuckled, "Come on," he put his hand to the small of her back and urged her in, the doors shutting behind them just as Amy and Rory ran into the garden…the TARDIS disappearing moments later.
~8~
The Doctor and Mac slowly and quietly slipped out of the TARDIS and into Amy's back garden one night, waiting as they heard a rummaging in the house and saw Amy rush out the back door, in a nightie, dressing gown, and small tennis shoes, heading for them.
"Sorry about running off earlier," the Doctor winced a bit, "Brand-new TARDIS, bit exciting. Just had a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in. She's ready for the big stuff now."
"It's you," Amy breathed, staring at them…though Mac frowned, seeing she seemed a tiny bit more focused and awed by the Doctor being there, "You came back."
"We tried to," Mac reasoned, cutting of the Doctor, sure that he was going to let out another lie about how he 'always came back' or something.
"And you kept the clothes?" Amy eyed the Doctor's bowtie.
"Well, I just saved the world, the whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge," he rolled his eyes, "Yeah, shoot me! I kept the clothes."
"Including the bowtie," she flicked it.
"Yeah," he straightened it, "It's cool. Bow ties are cool."
"That's still to be determined," Mac laughed as he pouted at that, "Learned your lesson from Amy then?"
He sighed, "Long ties get stuck too easily."
"Are you from another planet?" Amy asked suddenly, looking at them both intently now.
"Yes," Mac nodded, "Gallifrey, our people are called Time Lords," she added, "In case that was your next question."
"Ok," Amy breathed, taking that in.
"So what do you think?" the Doctor smiled.
"Of what?"
"Other planets. Want to check some out?"
"What does that mean?"
"He's inviting you to be his companion," Mac told her, "It means…travelling with us."
"But as HIS companion?" Amy emphasized.
"…yes," Mac said slowly, not quite sure why Amy seemed to hone in on THAT particular…not quite sure why she felt a little uneasy about that now.
"Where?"
"Wherever you like," the Doctor shrugged.
Amy paused, thinking about that, "All that stuff, the hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero..."
"Oh, don't worry," he grinned, "That's just the beginning. There's loads more."
"Yeah, but those things, amazing things, all that stuff..." she suddenly glared at him, "That was two years ago!"
"Oh," the Doctor's eyes widened, "Oh! Oops."
"I tried to tell you Doctor," Mac shook her head at him, amused, "But you were too excited and ran out the door before I could."
"So that's...
"14 years," Mac nodded.
"14 years since fish custard," he winced and looked at Amy, the girl crossing her arms, "Amy Pond, the girl who waited, you've waited long enough."
"When I was a kid," Amy began slowly, "You said there was a swimming pool and a library, and the swimming pool was IN the library."
"Yeah," He started to smile again, "Not sure where it's got to now. It'll turn up. So…coming?"
"No!"
"7-year-old you did," Mac reminded her.
"I grew up," she defended.
"No one grows out of adventure," she smiled, "Just…take a peek inside first," she offered and the Doctor snapped his fingers, the doors to the TARDIS opening behind them, a warm orange glow shining out at them.
The Doctor grinned at Mac, excited, as he followed Amy in after she'd slowly entered the box, Mac followed, her smile on her face but…not quite as excited as the Doctor felt. She wasn't sure if it was because she wasn't and couldn't be a designated and official pilot so…she wouldn't ever be able to take on an official companion and he could…or if perhaps it was his choice in companion this time? But that was silly, wasn't it? He'd had so many companions, another wouldn't make a difference and nothing would really change. She was still set in him treating all his companions equally and the same so…he wouldn't treat this Amy differently than say…Donna. Right? No, no he wouldn't.
"Well?" the Doctor grinned, half-hopping up to the console, Mac following more calmly, "Anything you want to say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all."
"Please DON'T say 'it's bigger on the inside,'" Mac had to get out.
And so Amy surprised them both by going in the direction of, "I'm in my nightie," instead.
"Thank you," Mac laughed, though she felt a tightening in her stomach at that, the girl…was in her nightie. And glanced at the Doctor for a moment feeling almost…concerned about that fact…no, no, she was just curious as to his reaction to her comment, yes.
He just laughed, "Oh, don't worry. Plenty of clothes in the wardrobe. AND possibly a swimming pool. So..." he clapped, "All of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will…" he turned and smiled at the two girls, "Where do you want to start?"
"You are so sure that I'm coming," Amy remarked.
"Yeah, I am."
"Why?"
"Cos you're the Scottish girl in the English village, and I know how that feels," he glanced at Mac, "We both do."
"Oh, do you?" Amy teased, leaning over on the console to catch his eye again.
But his attention remained on Mac, "All these years living here most of your life," he began, "And you've still got that…accent," he blinked and turned to Amy, blushing a bit, recovering and covering up what he'd been about to say rather quickly, almost having forgotten she was standing there and that would not do for him to ignore his companion like that, "Yeah, you're coming."
"Can you get me back for tomorrow morning?"
"Amy, this really IS a time machine," Mac reminded her, "I think we've proven that with our jumps in years between seeing you. If we're careful, we could get you back five minutes ago."
"Why, what's tomorrow?" the Doctor eyed her.
"Nothing!" she said quickly, before clearing her throat, "Nothing. Just...you know, stuff."
"Alright, then," he shrugged, "Back in time for stuff…Oh!" he cheered seeing a new sonic pop out of the console, "A new one!" he beamed, flashing it at Mac to test it, "Lovely," he pat the console a moment, "Thanks, dear."
Amy watched them closely as they began to set the controls, noting that they both seemed to have set places that they operated, set sides…which reminded her a bit too much like a couple, 'his and her' towels and 'his and her' side of the bed, sort of thing, "Why me?" she had to ask.
"Why not?" the Doctor countered.
"No, seriously," she actually sounded serious for once, "You are asking me to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. Why me?"
"I don't know. Fun? Do we have to have a reason?"
"People always have a reason."
"Do we look like people?"
"Yes."
"We've been on our own for a while," Mac answered, frowning as she looked between them, "The Doctor gets a bit mad without a human to impress and…it gets a little lonely just the two of us at times."
"You're lonely?" Amy frowned, almost seeming…disappointed that was the reason, "That's it? Just that?"
"Just that," the Doctor nodded, not seeming to notice her sadness over the answer, "Promise."
Mac made to move around the console to another half of her section when she paused, spotting something that looked very much like the crack on Amy's wall…on the monitor and quickly turned it off.
"Ok," Amy took a breath, smiling at them.
"Good," Mac smiled in return and moved over to her instead, "Will you be ok though?" she asked, concerned, "Travel in the TARDIS, the TARDIS itself, it can get overwhelming and dangerous at times and…"
"I'm fine," Amy cut in, nodding eagerly, "It's just...there's a whole world in here, just like you said. It's all true. I thought...well, I started to think that maybe you were just like a madman and woman with a box."
"Completely sane," Mac promised her, "At least I am."
The Doctor chuckled at that, "Amy Pond, there's something you'd better understand. It's important and, one day, your life may depend on it…I am definitely a madman with a box," he laughed, getting her to chuckle as well, "Goodbye, Leadworth!" he turned to the controls, "Hello, everything!"
Mac smiled as she pulled a lever, sending them off into the Vortex and onto their first adventure, all three of them gripping the console as the box shook.
A/N: I'm really excited for the 'calmer' adventures where there's actually less running around and more than 20 minutes to save the world, just so we can get some more wooing going on ;) I can say the Doctor will be 'endeavoring' quite a bit to win back Mac's affections ;) I hope you liked the little hints of it here, we'll be getting more in the calmer moments as I don't really think, as the danger is looming, his first thoughts would be to woo her as they face down certain death, though there may be a bit high-tension moments broken by wooing and fluff ;)
I can't wait for Rory though, he and Mac get on just swimmingly ;) And I can say we'll find out eventually why Mac was 'Kenny' to Amy and a little bit more about Mac not being angry with the Doctor anymore ;)
Lol, I just realized I forgot to add 8th Mac's theme to the end of Finding Forgiveness :) It's 'Journey Home' by Brand X Music ;)
Some notes on reviews...(from the end of Finding Forgiveness)...
Yup, Mac will have quite a bit of guilt about the war, we'll see much more of it to come in this series at times :) I think in this chapter she was a bit too preoccupied to think much on what she'd learned, but now that they're out of danger we'll see it much more }:) I think 11 was definitely the one that put the war behind him more than the others. Endeavors means 'activities, actions, attempts, happenings, accomplishments' it'll basically just be his attempts at wooing Mac ;) So yup, this will be set to Romance ;)
I think 9 is underused in a lot of things because he was only there 1 series :( We have about 4 for 10, 3 for 11 plus the 50th, there's just a natural weight against 9, out of the 8 (counting the 10-specials) series of New Who, 9 is only in 1 :( But I do have him in the Academic Series AU right from just after Rose starts :) And I'll be doing an AU for Evy and Mac where 9 finds them as well, but that might be as far as it can go for cameos unless he shows up in the show again ;) But he'll get his just due in the AUs. I'm more on a quest to try and start each TL I come up with in a different series, so 9 really could only come about in 1 main series ;) My next TL after Mac will appear in Series 7, and another in series 5 for this year. Then next year I have 2 more coming for series 6 and the 10-specials :) Once I accomplish that, 9 might find himself with another TL you never know ;)
