The Oncoming Storm and The Girl Who Waited

by graceanneidk

Doctor Who written as if Amelia Pond was The Doctor's love interest. Will continue onto season 7 pt. 2 and beyond. This is an ElevenAmy fic with a touch of unrequited love on Rory's part. Rory will still be a main character because I love him but there will be no relationship between him and Amy.

Chapter One

The Eleventh Hour

Disclaimer: You guys know how this goes. I wish I owned Doctor Who and its respective characters, but I do not.

Authors Note: Guys don't get me wrong, I love Rory. I love Amy and Rory together. They're adorable and Rory is husband goals, but I just can't help wondering what if. What if it had gone the other way? What if Rory was JUST a best friend and our Doctor was the best friend AND the love interest. And... I can't help shipping it. Rory will still be a major part of the story, and will still be a companion. So please read and review and here we go :)

Little Amelia Pond was staring at the jagged crack spreading across her wall, terror visible on her freckled face. It seemed to have a voice reverberating from it. Amelia rushed to the side of her bed and dropped to her knees, folding her hands together to pray. "Dear Santa, thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you, but honest, it is an emergency. There's a crack in my wall. Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack, but I know it's not, because at night there's voices, so please, please, could you send someone to fix it? A policeman. Or a..."

A strange, hollow sounding, wheeze filled Amelia's room before a loud crash sounded from outside and seemed to shake the whole house. "Back in a moment."

She jumped up from her kneeling position and dashed down the stairs and out of the house, pulling on her rain jacket and wellies along the way. When the big, blue, box, which was tipped on it's side, came into view, she froze in place. The glowing sign describing this strange blue box as a police box confirmed Amelia's suspicion. Santa had answered her prayer. That had to be it. She had just prayed for a policeman to come help her and a police box drops from the sky. It took everything in her not to stumble backwards and the doors flew open, towards the starry sky, and out flew a grappling hook. Out clambered a soaking wet man. His brown hair clung to his face and neck, curling around his ear, and Amelia could see his green eyes from where she was standing. He gave her a goofy grin, "Could I have an apple? All I can think about, apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving? That's new. Never had cravings before." This odd man moved to sit on the edge the blue box and peers over his shoulder into its depths. "Whoa. Look at that."

"Are you okay?" She gave him a concerned look, a crease forming between her eyebrows.

"Just has a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

Her face turned incredulous, "You're soaking wet."

"I was in the swimming pool."

"You said you were in the library."

A grin spread across this strange man's face, "So was the swimming pool."

"Are you a policeman?" Her Scottish accent got slightly thicker with the excitement at the thought of help having come.

The Doctor's brows grew a bit closer at that statement. "Why? Did you call a policeman?"

"Did you come about the crack in my wall?" Her voice had grown quite hopeful.

"What crack? Argh!" His body suddenly seized, tensing, causing him to fall forward off of the blue box and onto the damp grass.

Amelia surged forward a few steps, alarmed. "Are you all right, mister?"

"No, I'm fine. It's okay. This is all perfectly norm-" his body made and almost retch like motion and his mouth dropped open. Out drifted a curling, golden energy. It floated off into the night. Who IS this man? She decided she was going to ask him just that.

"Who are you?" Her eyes flicked over him, examining him. Trying to figure him out. So young and yet so much intelligence behind those eyes. It intrigued The Doctor to see the fire and smarts swirling within this young redhead.

He grinned mischievously. "I don't know yet I'm still cooking. Does it scare you?"

Her face contorted into an almost offended look at the question. How dare this man think she scare so easily? She may be young but that doesn't mean she's a scaredy cat. She fills her voice with sass as she responds, "No. It just looks a bit weird."

He quickly realizes the misunderstanding happening between them. "No, no, no. The crack in your wall. Does it scare you?"

Her voice grew meeker. "Yes."

The Doctor slapped his knees and stood up. "Well then, no time to lose. I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off." He strode off confidently and purposefully, right up until he walked straight into a tree.

Amelia bent over slightly trying to get a look at his face, "Are you alright?"

"Early days. Steering's a bit off."

The Doctor stands there, looking at an apple while Amelia stared at him inquisitively. "If you're a doctor, why does your box say police?" The Doctor took a large bite of the apple before wrinkling his face in disgust and spitting the chink onto the floor. Amelia stared at him in shock and slight horror as he dragged the back of his hand across his mouth.

"That's disgusting. What is that?"

Amelia watched him incredulously, "An apple."

"Apples are rubbish. I hate apples."

She stared at him blankly. "You said you loved them."

He's sentence spills from his lips rapidly and erratically, "No, no, no. I like yoghurt. Yoghurt's my favourite. Give me yoghurt." Amelia walked over to the fridge and grabbed a pot of yoghurt before tosses it to him. He rips the lid off and pours the yoghurt into his mouth, and then proceeds to spit it onto the floor in a similar fashion to the apple. "I hate yoghurt. It's just stuff with bits in it."

"You SAID its your favourite." At this point she was exasperated.

"New mouth, new rules. It's like eating after cleaning your teeth. Everything tastes wrong. Argh!" He proceeds to twitch quickly yet violently.

Amelia looked on concerned, "What is it? What's wrong with you?"

"Wrong with me? It's not my fault. Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish. Fry something." At his request she pulled a frying pan out of the cupboard and placed it on the stove, placing bacon in it. As she was moving about the kitchen preparing to fry this strange man some food, The Doctor stood off to the side drying his mop of hair with a towel. Amelia placed the plate of greasy food in front of him on the table. "Ah. Bacon." He aggressively spat the bacon onto the floor, making this the third tried, tested, and failed food. "Bacon, that's bacon." He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. "Are you trying to poison me?" She rolled her eyes and moved on to the next food they were trying. Once the beans were properly heated up, she slid them across the table to him. "Ah, you see? Beans." He shoved the beans into his mouth as if he hadn't eaten into weeks. He opened his mouth and allowed the beans to fall back on the plate with a disgusted look on his face. "Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans."

The next plate placed in front of him had plain bread and butter on it. He shot her a dopey grin

"Bread and butter. Now you're talking."

The front door was thrown open and revealing the Doctor. He threw the plate of bread and butter in a frisbee like motion, causing a cat to yowl. "And stay out!"

When he returned Amelia was rustling through the fridge. "We've got some carrots?"

"Carrots? Are you insane? No. Wait. Hang on. I know what I need. I need, I need, I need," the Doctor pulled the freezer open and pulled out a box of frozen fish fingers and custard, "fish fingers and custard!" Once this strange man was contentedly eating the equally strange combination, Amelia felt it was okay to change the topic a bit.

"Funny."

"Am I? Good. Funny's good. What's your name?"

"Amelia Pond."

The Doctor grinned. "Oh, that's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond. Like a name from a fairy tale. Are we in Scotland, Amelia?"

Her face seemed to drop. "No. We had to move to England. It's rubbish."

"So what about your mum and dad, then? Are they upstairs? Thought we'd have woken them by

now. "

Her face grew even darker. "I don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt"

The Doctor gave a minuscule shrug, "I don't even have an aunt."

"You're lucky."

"I know." The tone of his voice disagreed with his words, "So your aunt, where is she?"

"She's out."

"And she left you all alone?"

The tone of his voice tipped Amelia off to what he was actually wondering and brought her Scottish fire into her voice. "I'm not scared."

The fire and attitude put into her response caused a smile to form on the Time Lord's face. "Course you're not. You're not scared of anything. Box falls out of sky, man falls out of box, man eats fish custard, and look at you! Just sitting there. So you know what I think?"

"What?"

The Doctor had grown serious, "Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."

The Doctor and little Amelia Pond stood in her bedroom staring at the jagged crack in the wall. It was between four and five feet long and was slightly similar to the shape of a W. The Doctor broke the silence first. "You've had some cowboys in here. Not actual cowboys, though that can happen." Amelia smiled as she looked down at whatever she had curled her hands around.

"I used to hate apples, so my mum put faces on them." She outstretched her hand and revealed a light red apple with a smiley face carved into it. Causing the Doctor to grin.

"She sounds good, your mum. I'll keep it for later." He paused and returned to examining the crack. " this wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's the thing... where's the draft coming from?" The Time Lord whipped out a silver, metal cylinder with what appeared to be a blue light on top. He began to follow the jagged line with this tube as it emitted a strange buzzing sound. "Wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey. You know what the crack is?" He looked down at the small ginger.

"What?"

"It's a crack. But I"love tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, because the crack isn't in the wall."

Amelia had no idea what this mad man was going on about. That made no sense. If the crack wasn't in the wall then where was it? "Where is it then?"

"Everywhere. In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world." He began running his finger along the crack. "Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together right here in the wall of your bedroom. Sometimes, you can hear-?"

"A voice. Yes." A vague growling seemed to echo from the crack, causing the doctor to empty Amelia's nighttime glass of water and hold it against the wall, and press his ear against the glass.

A loud, deep, nearly booming voice, "Prisoner Zero has escaped."

"Prisoner Zero...?"

"Prisoner Zero has escaped. That's what I heard. What does it mean?"

"It means that on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner. And you know what that means?"

"What?"

"You need a better wall. The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way. The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or..."

Her voice became slightly exasperated at another pause, "What?"

The Doctor bent over to get eye level with Amelia, "You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"

She rolled her eyes in a way only kids can when it comes to adults, "Yes."

"Everything is going to be fine." The Doctor takes her hand and straightens up before aiming his sonic screwdriver at the crack. It whirred for a second and then the crack widened, flooding the bedroom with light and a booming voice.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped. Prisoner Zero has escaped."

The Doctor was the one to respond, "Hello? Hello?" A large blue eyeball seemed to almost appear out of nowhere. It almost focused on everything and nothing all at once, looking around the room before concentrating on the Doctor. A bolt of light shot out of the crack and hits the Doctor, causing him to double over as if it were a physical blow. And then the crack snapped closed. "There, you see? Told you it would close. Good as new." He grinned at her as if a giant eyeball hadn't just been visible through the crack or he wasn't just hunched over after being struck by strange, mysterious lightning.

"What was that thing? Was that Prisoner Zero?"

"No. I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent me a message. Psychic paper. Takes a lovely little message." He pulled a black leather wallet from his pocket and flipped it open,

'Prisoner Zero has escaped.' But why tell us? Unless..."

Amelia looked up at him, quirking her eyebrow, "Unless what?"

"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here. But he couldn't have. We'd know." He looked down at her with a slightly nervous look and then moved towards the corridor. Looking around he noticed a set of stairs going up and one going down on the other side of the hall. But something was off. Five doors and yet, something was just off. "It's difficult. Brand new me. Nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing. In the corner of my eye." But as he turning to look just there the TARDIS cloister bells started ringing. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" The Doctor dashed down the stairs and out into the garden. "I've got to get back in there. The engines are phasing. It's going to burn!"

Amelia was chasing after him, incredibly confused. "But it's just a box! How can a box have engines?"

"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilized. Five minute hop into the future should do it." He began collecting the rope he had used climbing out and dropped it back into the blue box.

"Can I come?" Her voice was full of hope.

"Not safe in here. Not yet five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back. "

Amelia's shoulders dropped. "People always say that."

The Doctor lost some of his manic energy at that. He turned away from his burning time ship and gave little Amelia his undivided attention. "Am I people? Do I even look like people? Trust me I'm the Doctor." He grinned before stepping onto the edge of his TARDIS, "GERONIMO." A splash alerted Amelia that he had landed right back where he was when he first landed in her back garden, the swimming pool. The doors close of their own accord and a wheezing, groan filled the air as the box slowly vanished. She turned and sprinted back into her house, up the stairs, and into her bedroom. She knelt by her bed and pulled a suitcase out from under it. She rapidly packed, and pulled on a duffel coat and wooly hat. She lugged her suitcase all the back down the stairs and into the garden, a few feet away from where the TARDIS had been laying previously. And she sat on it. And waited. And waited. And waited.

When that wheezing finally filled the back garden again, it was no longer night and there was no little Amelia Pond sitting on her suitcase waiting for him. The Doctor stumbled out from the steaming blue box almost frantically. "Amelia! Amelia, I worked out what it was. I know what I was missing! You've got to get out of there!" The Doctor ran into the house and and up towards the little girl's bedroom, "Amelia? Amelia, are you all right? Are you there?" He leaned against her bedroom door, "Prisoner Zero's here. Prisoner Zero is here! Prisoner Zero is here! Do you understand me? Prisoner Zero is-" a floorboard creaked, causing the Doctor to whip around, only to receive a cricket bat to the face.

The doors were flung open as a female doctor and male nurse quickly strode into the ward. The doctor looked at the nurse reproachfully as they walked, annoyed he'd try to pull this. " So. They all called out at once, that's what you're saying? All of them all the coma patients. You do understand that these people are all comatose, don't you? They can't speak." Her stare was unwavering and unnerving.

"Yes, Doctor Ramsden."

She sighed, frustrated. "Then why are you wasting my time?"

Rory shifted nervously, "Because they called for you."

"Me."

The patient they were standing before backed up Rory's story. "Doctor." As well as the patient behind them. And the woman across the room. Soon the ward was filled with coma patients eerily calling out. Doctor Ramsden did a 360, thoroughly spooked. "What...the...fuck."

The world spun fuzzily as The Doctor pried his eyes open. His head pounded something dreadful and his mind scrambled to put together what had happened through the pain and the panic for Amelia's safety. Off to the side a tall, fair woman with her hair tucked into her police cap spoke over the radio, her English accent contradicting what he expected to find in this house. "White male, mid twenties, breaking and entering. Send me some back-up. I've got him restrained. Oi! You, sit still"

"Cricket bat, I'm getting... cricket bat?" The Doctor narrowed his eyes at her in confusion before trying to lurch up and continue his search for little Amelia. Cold, hard, metal looped around his wrist yanked him back to the ground bruising his wrist and arse in the process.

The ginger narrowed her eyes at him, "You were breaking and entering."

The floppy haired man shook his head, trying to rid of the ache pounding through his skull, though he would admit his train of thought seemed much clearer and less scattered. "Well, that's much better. Brand new me. Whack on the head, just what I needed." He shot the long legged policewoman a grin but she only scowled further in response.

"Do you want to shut up now? I've got back up on the way. "

"Hang on, no, wait. You're a policewoman." He ran an analytical gaze over her tense form. Something was off but he was struggling to determine what it was. Perhaps the micro skirt? But it's not exactly like he keeps up with English police uniform regulations.

Her eyebrow quirked and her arm swept around the area, "And you're breaking and entering. You see how this works? " The Doctor was quickly growing tired of this. Amelia was in danger and he was handcuffed to a radiator.

He allowed this annoyance to colour his voice. "But what are you doing here? Where's Amelia?" The policewoman hesitated, her body tensed and conflict flitted across her face. Her voice seemed to be a mix of stern and timid, a contradiction that baffled the time lord.

"Amelia Pond?" The tone of her voice set The Doctor on edge and he grew near frantic.

"Yeah, Amelia. Little Scottish girl. Where is she? I promised her five minutes but the engines were phasing. I suppose I must have gone a bit far. Has something happened to her?" He tried once more to stand up, only to be yanked back to the floor. The Doctor resorted to rattling the handcuffs to express his displeasure. The policewoman seemed to grow even more uncomfortable, if that were possible. Unease radiated from her lithe form. She must've realised this because she straightened up and her chin raised in defiance.

"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time. " Shock flooded his system. No. No that couldn't have been. He promised her. He'd promised. Anger joined the horror and shock that contorted his face.

"How long?" The demand that sprung from his mouth sounded so desperate that it took him aback. She looked him over, seemingly analysing his response and thinking over her response. "Six months."

"No. No. No. No, I can't be six months late. I said five minutes. I promised. What happened to her? What happened to Amelia Pond?" As the words poured from his mouth, the straining against his handcuffs became more frantic. He'd left her alone and now she was gone. He'd left her alone with Prisoner Zero and now something had happened to her. The Doctor's mind was scrambling to keep up with the heavy implication of the copper's words. She took in his horrified expression as she pulled the radio up to her lips and spoke into it,

" Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up. This guy knows something about Amelia Pond."

Doctor Ramsden sighed impatiently as she tried to maintain a calm tone of voice with the nurse that was getting on her last damn nerve. "I don't think they were even conscious." Rory shifted uncomfortably, hearing the annoyance that the doctor was struggling to cover up. He knew that it was only going to get worse when he attempted to bring up the pictures of the wandering coma patients.

"Doctor Ramsden, there is another sort of er, funny thing. " The nurse's tentative statement was quickly followed by an exasperated groan from Doctor Ramsden,

"Yes, I know. Doctor Carver told me about your conversation. We've been very patient with you, Rory. You're a good enough nurse, but for God's sake-"

Rory quickly cut her off with a rushed, "I've seen them."

This only proved to make Ramsden more irate. "These patients are under twenty four hour supervision. We know if their blood pressure changes. There is no possibility that you could have seen them wandering about the village. Why are you giving me your phone? " Her voice grew more angry and frustrated with each word until the final word basically exploded from her mouth. Rory, though thoroughly intimidated, refused to back down. He knew what he saw and refused to be made out to be delusional.

"It's a camera too." His grip on the phone tightened as his anxiety grew. His shoulders were hunched and his eyes darted around the room, anywhere but the annoyed eyes of the doctor. She sighed as her pager rang.

"You need to take some time off, Rory. A lot of time off. Start now." Her gaze pinned him in place, the threat clear. Her tone was strict, leaving no room for argument, "Now." Rory looked down dejectedly. "Fuck."

The Doctor's energy had escalated to mania, "I need to speak to whoever lives in this house right now."

The policewoman looked at him incredulously, "I live here." The Doctor stared at her for a moment, trying to grasp the concept that this policewoman happened to live here.

"But you're the police."

Her face scrunched in offence and her voice grew slightly angry. "Yes, and this is where I live. Have you got a problem with that?" Okay, fine. She lived there. But he had to get out of these bonds and find out what happened to Amelia. Quickest way to do that? Show her that this house is not all that it seems.

"How many rooms?" His voice had grown intense and his gaze heated. She shifted nervously, her brow furrowed in confusion. What the hell? This guy goes from extreme concern for little Amelia Pond to wanting to know the layout of her home?

"I'm sorry, what"

"On this floor. How many rooms on this floor? Count them for me now. "

"Why?"

His voice and eyes maintained the same level of penetrating intensity, "Because it will change your life."

"Five." Her thin, manicured finger pointed to each door individually as she counted. "One, two, three, four, five." Her arms immediately returned to their folded position across her chest, her eyes pushing him to explain himself.

He responded with a simple, "Six." It took everything in her to not respond sarcastically or rudely. What kind of sick game was this? Instead she simply quirked a brow.

"Six?"

"Look."

She was growing tired of his one word responses, "Look where?"

"Exactly where you don't want to look. Where you never want to look. The corner of your eye. Look behind you. " The seriousness and intensity of The Doctor's voice sent shivers down the home owners spine. Her body slowly twisted as she fought every instinct that was telling her to not look. To chop this all up to some psycho intruder playing messed up games and dart. Her body was screaming at her to just leg it down the stairs, but she pushed through it and looked. In the corner of her eye, where her mind had never allowed her to look out of some self preservation instinct.

A breath was pushed out of her lungs in a whoosh of frantic air. "That's... that is not possible. How's that possible?" A sixth door was looming at the end of the hallway, one that she had never seen before. She'd been living in this house for over 12 years and yet there, right in front of her, was an entire room she had never seen before.

The Doctor was oblivious to the intense emotions raging through the woman standing in front of him as his mind raced, attempting to formulate an escape plan from his bonds, find out what could have happened to Amelia and if she were still alive, how to keep this policewoman safe, and return Prisoner Zero to his captors. "There's a perception filter all round the door. Sensed it the last time I was here. Should've seen it. "

The green eyed woman couldn't understand how this man could be so nonchalant about all of this. She tried to make him understand, "How the hell... but that's a whole room. That's a whole room I've never even noticed."

The Doctor's teeth were on edge, every nerve in his body was screaming at him that they were in danger, that this was bad. A whole boatload of bad with a suitcase of terrible thrown in. "The filter stops you noticing. Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding, and you need to uncuff me now." He was trying desperately to convey through words and body language the desperation of the situation, the danger that this young woman was in. She slowly started walking towards the room, curiosity overpowering the feeling of hesitance.

Her voice came softly due to her intense focus on the new room, but still strongly English, "I don't have the key. I lost it."

The Doctor's vibrant green eyes blew wide and he spluttered in shock, "H- how can you have lost it? Stay away from that door! Do not touch that door!" She ignored his pleas and continued her slow procession towards the door, "Listen to me, do not open that. Why does no-one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to?" his voice was grew more and more exasperated with every ignored word. Amy finally pulled the door open and hesitantly stepped into the dank room, and glanced around. The Doctor glared after her and mumbled an angry, "Again." Before leaning up forward as if to follow her into the room and calling after her, "My screwdriver, where is it?" The policewoman stared inquisitively around the room, taking in the boarded up windows and stacked packing boxes. "Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?" She was still looking around confused, and didn't quite process his question.

"There's nothing here." The Doctor groaned in exasperation.

"Whatever's there stopped you seeing the whole room, what makes you think you could see it." His voice dripped with annoyance and patronising before turning concerned, "Now please, just get out." Rather than listen to the Doctor's advice, her attention was caught by a flash of light as metal was hit by sun rays that were shining through the wooden slats.

"Silver, blue at the end? "

He snapped to attention at that description and grew slightly excited "My screwdriver, yeah. "

"It's here."

The Doctor leaned to the right, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of the feisty copper and his sonic screwdriver. "Must have rolled under the door." The skepticism was apparent in his voice.

"Yeah...Must have. And then it must have jumped up on the table?" The Doctor grew frantic, his eyes darkening with fear.

"Get out of there." His voice was borderline yelling, lilting with intensity and concern. Anyone else would have spun on their heel and made a break for it, and yet the stubborn woman remained where she was. The longer she stayed in that room, the more the panic welled up in his chest, causing him to feel as if he were about to burst. "Get out of there! Get out!" His wrist was starting to bruise from the abuse it was being put through. The freckled woman bent over and attempted to pry the sonic screwdriver from the table in the center of the room. Slime coated the sonic thickly, causing her to grimace. Down the hall, The Doctor was still hollering for her to, "Get out of there!" She tensed as she felt a presence behind her, and long snake like creature was hovering directly behind her, long, sharp teeth on full display. The Doctor noticed the shift in the atmosphere, "What is it? What are you doing?"

She hesitated before responding, unable to explain the feeling that permeated her body. "There's nothing her but..."

"Corner of your eye." His voice was a near whisper. She was finally starting to feel an appropriate amount of fear as her eyes widened and her body became stiff as a board.

"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."

Never one to follow directions, she whipped around, her face nearly collided with that of the snake-like alien. She hesitated for a second before a sharp scream ripped from her throat. "Get out!" Finally listening to him, she legged it out of the room and straight to The Doctor, holding the sonic screwdriver out to him. "Give me that." He snapped, and snatched it from her hand. He aimed it at the door, locking it, before he attempted to free himself. "Come on. What's the bad alien done to you?" The glare he shot the woman was clearly indicative of the fact that he was calling her the bad alien, not Prisoner Zero.

"Will that door hold it?" Her gaze hadn't left the door since handing the time lord his sonic. The Doctor resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her question and his response was brimming with sarcasm, "Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. It's an interdimensional multiform from outer space. They're all terrified of wood." A bright light shown from under the door confusing Amy.

"What's that? What's it doing?"

"I don't know. Getting dressed? Run. Just go. Your back up's coming. I'll be fine"

"There is no back up." Her voice was tense.

His head snapped up to look at her, "I heard you on the radio. You called for back up."

She continued to avoid looking at him, hating the awkward turn the conversation had taken, "I was pretending. It's a pretend radio." Somehow The Doctor, genius that he is, still didn't understand what the hell this woman was talking about.

"You're a police woman!" The words were high pitched and fast, confusion apparent. She spun around to face him, eyes blazing. She could NOT believe she was in this situation. A supposed escaped alien prisoner was glowing in the sixth, unknown room on this floor, while a man that was strikingly similar to her imaginary childhood friend was handcuffed to her radiator sand would not stop jabbering about her radio!

"I'm a kissogram!" She reached up a tore the hat from her head, vibrant copper hair tumbling down around her shoulders. The Doctor felt his mouth dry up. The copper made her fair skin seem to glow and brought out golden flecks in her eyes. She was almost ethereal. And yet so so familiar. His eyes followed every curve and angle of her form. Her legs were miles long and made even more alluring by her tights and the short, tight, uniform skirt. The bedroom door flung open and out stepped a man in a blue, jumpsuit uniform, walking a Rottweiler on a leash. The anger dissipated from her face, confusion taking its place. "But its just...?"

The Doctor shook his head, "No, it isn't. Look at the faces." The man snarled, baring his teeth in an animalistic growl, and yet the dog's face remained impassive as the man let out two, sharp barks.

The ginger's head started to shake back and forth in confusion. "What? I'm sorry, but what?"

The Doctor went into a lecture mindset as the explanation tumbled from his mouth, "It's all one creature. One creature disguised as two. Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though. 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?" The alien impersonating a coma patient stretched his mouth open, revealing the long, needle like teeth that the snakelike creature had threatened the redhead with earlier. The Doctor tensed, leaning forward at the obvious threat, "Stay, boy! Her and me, we're safe. Want to know why? She sent for back up." He tilted his head towards the exasperated woman.

"I didn't send for backup!"

It took everything in him not to face palm. "I know. That was a clever lie to save our lives. Okay, yeah, no back up. And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had back up, you'd have to kill us."

An echoing voice reverberated throughout the house, one that used to haunt the ginger's nightmares. "Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded." The Doctor almost groaned aloud, was this a fucking joke?

"What's that?"

The Doctor released an annoyed breath. "Well, that would be back up. Okay, one more time. We do have back up and that's definitely why we're safe."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

At this point the time lord was torn between laughing and crying, well this was just bloody brilliant.

"Well, safe apart from, you know, incineration."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated." The Doctor began desperately fiddling with his sonic screwdriver. When that didn't work he began angrily banging the bottom of it on the ground.

"Come on, work, work, work, come on."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

The Doctor almost hissed out a yes when it began working and he freed himself from the handcuffs. "Run! Run!" He grabbed her hand and took off, dragging her down the stairs and out into the garden as the announcement rung out again-

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

The Doctor slowed as the TARDIS came into view. "Kissogram?"

"Yes, a kissogram. Work through it." She was already tired of this conversation.

"Why'd you pretend to be a policewoman?"

"You broke into my house. It was this or a French maid. What's going on? Tell me. Tell me!" Her glare was penetrating, as if she could literally force the truth from him with her gaze alone.

"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. Any questions?"

She scoffed, "Yes!"

"Me too. No, no, no, no! Don't do that, not now! She's still rebuilding. Not letting us in." He was banging on the doors angrily and trying pry them open, pleading telepathically with her to please, please please open the doors. The command for Prisoner Zero to vacate the house filled the air once more, adding to the stress of the situation. As he leaned his head against the TARDIS doors, trying to take a moment to think, a wooden shed in the corner of his eye caught his attention. "No, wait, hang on. Wait, wait, wait, wait. The shed. I destroyed that shed last time I was here. Smashed it to pieces." He leapt over a group of shrubs and a rock, and dashed over to the structure.

"So there's a new one. Let's go." Her voice was desperate, tipping The Doctor off that he was right to be asking questions.

"Yeah, but the new one's got old. It's ten years old at least." He licked the shed, to her disgust. "Twelve years. I'm not six months late, I'm twelve years late." He spun around and stalked up to the kissogram, getting in her personal space. Her eyes darted anywhere but his face and yet, she could still feel the intensity of his gaze.

"He's coming."

"You said six months. Why did you say six months?" His voice had grown even more fervent.

"We've got to go." She cursed that damn shed and desperately tried to get his attention back on their alien problem.

"This matters. This is important. Why did you say six months?" His tall form was towering over her with intensity.

"Why did you say five minutes!" Her voice had lost all trace of an English accent and was now full and brash and most definitely Scottish. Her eyes were wild and angry and her mouth was twisted into a scowl. The Doctor's face dropped as his eyes darted across Amelia Pond's befreckled face. She was most definitely not the little girl he'd seen five minutes ago. She had grown into a gorgeous, scorned woman.

"What?"

"Come on!" He didn't move.

"What?"

Come! On!"

"What?!"

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Amelia took off at a brisk pace into town, trying desperately to escape the unwanted topic of conversation the shellshocked man was desperate to talk about, as the prison warden's voice called out once more.

The Doctor's long strides kept up easily with Amelia's angry ones. "You're Amelia." He was still in shock.

Her response was sharp and full of impatience. "And you're late."

"Amelia Pond. You're... you're the little girl." His expression soured at that thought. This woman he'd been looking at in an appreciative manner was the same little girl that, five minutes ago, had been gripping his hand in fear of a crack in her wall. Though albeit the crack was in the fabric of space-time and led to a great big alien prison but...still.

"I'm Amelia and you're late." If he didn't shut the hell up and move on she thought she might throttle him.

Her anger at the world surprised him. He didn't understand how the fairy tale little girl that let a quirky stranger into her home that she'd met five minutes ago could be so closed off. "What happened?"

His question pissed her off How could he not know? "Twelve years." What else could have happened?

"You hit me with a cricket bat."

Her voice grew near hysterical, "Twelve years!"

"A cricket bat."

"Twelve years and four psychiatrists."

His eyebrows crinkled, "Four?"

Amelia grew almost bashful as she explained with a defensive undertone to her words, "I kept biting them."

"Why?"

"They kept saying you weren't real." Their attention was drawn to an ice cream van parked over to the side as their radio played a repetition of the guards calling for Prisoner Zero. "No, no, no, come on. What? We're being staked out by an ice-cream van." The Doctor and Amelia took off towards the van, his long legs causing The Doctor to get there before her.

"What's that? Why are you playing that?", The demanding tone of his voice seemed to throw the vendor off a bit.

He looked put off and just as confused as the time lord, looking at the radio quizzically. "It's supposed to be Claire De Lune." The Doctor and Amelia spun around, observing the various pedestrians staring at their devices, all playing the same message over and over.

"Doctor, what's happening?"

An elderly woman was angrily jabbing at a remote. Trying to get her T.V to cooperate and stop playing that horrendous message about incineration. Her favourite programme was meant to be on. The Doctor sped in, going straight to the old woman. "Hello! Sorry to burst in. We're doing a special on television faults in this area." He spun around as Amelia came up behind him, taking in her outfit. "Also crimes. Let's have a look."

"I was just about to phone. It's on every channel. Oh, hello, Amy dear. Are you a policewoman now?"

"Well, sometimes." Amelia shifted uncomfortably under the scrutinising gaze of the elderly woman.

"I thought you were a nurse."

"I can be a nurse." Her smile was strained.

"Or actually a nun?"

Amelia giggled nervously, shifting in place. "I dabble."

Her gaze returned to The Doctor, "Amy, who is your friend?"

His head shot up, eyes wide and glaring, "Who's Amy? You were Amelia."

"Yeah? Now I'm Amy."

"Amelia Pond. That was a great name."

"Bit fairy tale."

The elderly woman finally spoke up after a few minutes of watching the strange man standing in her living room, "I know you, don't I? I've seen you somewhere before."

"Not me. Brand new face. First time on." He stretched out his mouth to make his point before turning his focus back to Amy. "And what sort of job's a kissogram?"

"I go to parties and I kiss people. With outfits. It's a laugh." She folded her arms over her chest defensively.

"You were a little girl five minutes ago." He didn't know whether he was saying this for her benefit or his, trying to convince himself that this was not someone he could find so appelaing. That this was little Amelia Pond.

She rolled her eyes, annoyed. this was a conversation she'd had many times, though that sentence wasn't usually meant to be so literal. "You're worse than my aunt."

At this point he'd turned to face the homeowner rather than Amy, "I'm the Doctor. I'm worse than everybody's aunt. And that is not how I'm introducing myself." he began fiddling with the remote, flipping through every channel.

"Repetez. Le Prisonnier. Zero wird der menschliche."

"Okay, so it's everywhere, in every language. They're broadcasting to the whole world." The Doctor sped over to the window and leaned out, craning his neck to the sky as if he could see something no one else could.

Amy watched him, confused, as he did so, "What's up there? What are you looking for?"

He ignored her and continued jabbering on to himself, "Okay. Planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core? They're going to need a forty percent fission blast." A young man entered the room looking around at the strange situation. The Doctor pulled his head back into the room and walked over to the newcomer getting in his personal space, seeming to size him up as he spoke, "But they'll have to power up first, won't they? So assuming a medium sized starship, that's 20 minutes. What do you think, twenty minutes? Yeah, twenty minutes. We've got twenty minutes."

Amy was getting fed up with being ignored. "Twenty minutes to what?"

The young man had been watching The Doctor intently and decided to ask the him what he'd been thinking since he'd come into the room. "Are you the Doctor?"

The grandmother grew excited as she realized that THAT's where she knew this man from "He is, isn't he? He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor. All those cartoons you did when you were little. The Raggedy Doctor. It's him."

Amy snapped her snapped her head in their direction, mentally begging them to stop talking. "Shut up."

A smug smirk grew across The Doctor's face, "Cartoons?"

The handsome young man turned to his grandmother and began talking excitedly, "Gran, it's him, isn't it? It's really him!"

Amy's voice grew short to match her temper. Now really wasn't the time for them to be so hellbent on embarrassing her. "Jeff, shut up. Twenty minutes to what?"

"The human residence will be incinerated. The human residence will be incinerated."

The Doctor went back into the familiar lecture mindset where he spoke a thousand kilometres a minute, "The human residence. They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet. Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship, and it's going to incinerate the planet." He paused as the T.V repeated itself a couple more times. "Twenty minutes to the end of the world."

Amy and The Doctor were walking at a brisk pace through town as he tried to figure out a plan, "What is this place? Where am I?"

Amy's copper hair bounced energetically around her shoulders due to the brisk pace The Doctor had set, "Leadworth."

"Where's the rest of it?" Amy almost scoffed at the question.

"This is it."

"Is there an airport?"

"No."

"A nuclear power station?"

"No."

"Not even a little one?"

"No."

"Nearest city?"

"Gloucester. Half an hour by car." Amy had long legs, its something everyone had always complimented her on, but she was struggling to keep up. The Doctor's loping gait was at a near run and her micro skirt, while sexy as hell, was becoming a hinderance at this point.

"We don't have half an hour. Do we have a car?"

"No."

"Well, that's good. Fantastic, that is. Twenty minutes to save the world and I've got a post office. And it's shut. What is that?" The Doctor sped off towards a small pool of water with a confused look on his face.

"It's a duck pond."

"Why aren't there any ducks?"

"I don't know. There's never any ducks."

"Then how do you know its a duck pond?"

She was going to smack him. She was. "It just is. Is it important, the duck pond?"

A pained noise escaped The Doctor as he clutched his chest. "I don't know. Why would I know? This is too soon. I'm not ready, I'm not done yet." The blue sky slowly started to turn a strange, unnatural grey , as a black disc eclipsed the sun.

Amy craned her neck and took a stelp back, confused. "What's happening? Why's it going dark? What's wrong with the sun?"

"Nothing. You're looking at it through a forcefield. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere. Now they're getting ready to boil the planet. Oh, and here they come. The human race. The end comes, as it was always going to, down on video phone." The Doctor shook his head, frustrated, but not at all surprised, by the response of the humans.

"This isn't real, is it? This is some kind of big wind up." Her eyes were wide with fear and disbelief, her face seemed paler than her normal fair colour.

"Why would I wind you up?" He was concerned for her at this point, her hair was disheveled and her breathing was getting heavier.

"You told me you had a time machine."

"And you believed me."

"Then I grew up."

"Oh, you never want to do that. No. Hang on. Shut up. Wait. I missed it. I saw it and I missed it. What did I see? I saw. What did I see? I saw, I saw, I saw..." people were standing all over the streets and grass taking photographs and videos of the sun, except for one man who was taking photos of a very familiar man and his dog. "Twenty minutes. I can do it. Twenty minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help me." Amy squared her shoulders.

"No."

"I'm sorry?"

"No."

"Amy, no, no, what are you doing?" She had grabbed him by the tie, yanking him down to her level, causing his shoulders to hunch, and dragged him over to a nearby car that had just pulled up. She slammed his tie in the door and snatched the keys from the owner, locking it. "Are you out of your mind?" His question was almost a snarl.

"Who are you?"

"You know who I am." His eyes were boring into hers, begging her to accept the truth.

But she refused, unable to accept that this was actually her imaginary friend. "No, really. Who are you?"

"Look at the sky. End of the world, twenty minutes." He needed her to accept him. To accept the situation they were in. And the best way to do that was by pointing out the evidence.

"Well, better talk quickly, then."

The elderly car owner had been darting his eyes back forth between them as if watching a tennis match. "Amy, I am going to need my car back."

She didn't even glance at him, refusing to break eye contact with the green eyed man she had trapped. "Yes, in a bit. Now go and have coffee."

"Right, yes." Neither paid him any mind as he does as Amy said.

"Catch." The Doctor's wrist flicked out and she catches a small, fresh apple with a face carved into it. "I'm the Doctor. I'm a time traveller. Everything I told you twelve years ago is true. I'm real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let me go right now, everything you've ever known is over."

She finally looked at him after a minute of staring at the apple, her eyes still wide with denial. "I don't believe you."

"Just twenty minutes. Just believe me for twenty minutes. Look at it. Fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you know it's the same one. Amy, believe for twenty minutes."

After a couple of seconds of hesitation, her red polished thumb pressed the unlock button. "What do we do?"

The Doctor sent her a near wicked grin, "Stop that nurse." His long stride had him on the village green in under five seconds, snatching the phone out of Rory's hand. "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?"

Rory immediately focused on the redhead, "Amy."

Amy gave him a quick hug before pulling away. "Hi! This is Rory. He's a friend." Rory seemed to frown at the word 'friend', shooting Amy a side glance.

"Yeah...friend." He grimaced.

The Doctor was fed up at this point. Humans' ability to gum it up in times of peril never failed to amaze him. "Man and dog. Why?"

Rory's eye grew wide, "Oh my God, it's him."

Amy thought she was going to scream. "Just answer his question, please."

Rory turned his entire body to face her, unable to understand how she could dismiss this so quickly. "It's him, though. The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor."

"Yeah, he came back."

"But he was a story. He was a game."

The Doctor, who was known for his ability to talk for hours on end, was so annoyed that his sentences grew short, "Man and dog. Why? Tell me now."

"Sorry. Because he can't be there. Because he's-"

"In a hospital, in a coma." The Doctor and Rory spoke in sync.

Rory nodded, "Yeah."

The Doctor's face broke into a wide grin, "Knew it. Multiform, you see? Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a life feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind." Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the impossible coma patient barking at them angrily. The time lord nearly threw the mobile phone back at the nurse and then spun on the balls of his feet to face the barking man and his silent dog. "Prisoner Zero."

Rory almost choked on his own spit. "What? There's a Prisoner Zero too?"

"Yes."

A ginormous eyeball in a spaceship zoomed down into the lower atmosphere and The Doctor nodded in its direction, "See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." he raised the silver tube above his head, flicking the switch, hoping against hope that it worked. The street lights burst into showers of sparks, car alarms started going off all down the street, and a poor old lady's mobility cart flew past at its top speed with the woman screaming on top of it, and to top it all off a fire truck screeched down the road, blaring its two tone siren while its brigade ran after it, hollering for it to stop. Amy's eyes roved over him appreciatively, taking in his broad shoulders and trim waist as he exuded confidence The Doctor's eyes sparkled mischievously and his grin was crooked. "I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" And just as suddenly it began, it ended. A red telephone booth exploded in sparks, shortly followed by The Doctor's sonic screwdriver. "No, no! No, don't do that!" His stance went from cocky and relaxed to tense and erratic as he dropped the sonic to keep it from burning his fingers.

"Look," Rory pointed after the retreating spaceship, "its going."

The Doctor turned around to look where Rory was pointing and started calling after it as if they could hear him, "No, come back. He's here! Come back! He's here. Prisoner Zero is here. Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is-" he cut himself off as the spaceship disappeared from sight completely, while Amy and Rory watched as Prisoner Zero melted and quickly went down the street drain.

Amy, completely aware that he wasn't paying any attention, tapped him vigorously on the shoulder, "Doctor! The drain. It just sort of melted and went down the drain."

His shoulders sagged in resignation, "Well, of course it did. "

Noticing the way his body language had changed, Amy tried to get him back on track. "What do we do now?"

"It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open. No Tardis, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes. Come on, think. Think!"

Doctor Ramsden watched on in concern as the actual coma patient that Prisoner Zero was impersonating shook. "Barney? Barney? Barney? Can you hear me, Barney? Barney? Barney?"

Unbeknownst to the doctor, the multiform slid through the vents above their heads.

Still standing on the green, Amy's head was brimming with questions. "So that thing, that hid in my house for twelve years?"

"Multiforms can live for millennia. Twelve years is a pit-stop."

"So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute!"

The Doctor moved slightly closer to Amy, much to Rory's chagrin, "They're looking for him, but they followed me. They saw me through the crack, got a fix, they're only late because I am."

Rory moved closer as well, feeling a tad left out. And turned a bewildered gaze on Amy. "What's he on about?"

The Doctor finally turned his full attention on Rory for the first time since snatching his mobile, "Nurse boy, give me your phone."

Rory totally ignored the time lord's demand and continued to focus on his lifelong best friend, "How can he be real? He was never real."

The Doctor shifted, getting between Rory and Amy, attempting to force the nurse to focus on him. "Phone. Now. Give me."

Rory handed him his phone to simply get him off his back and, despite The Doctor's attempts to intercept the conversation, Rory somehow managed to speak around him. "He was just a game. We were kids. You made me dress up as him." The Doctor ignored the human's conversation, flicking through Rory's photos, which contained various shots of people around town.

"These photos, they're are all coma patients?"

"Yeah"

The Doctor shook his head, "No, they're all the multiform. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."

Amy tilted her head in confusion, "He had a dog, though. There's a dog in a coma?"

"Well, the coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog. Laptop! Your friend, what was his name? Not him, the good-looking one. "

Rory groaned, scowling. "Thanks," he snapped sarcastically.

Amy didn't even hesitate, "Jeff."

Rory took a step back, as if she'd physically struck him, "Oh, thanks," he groaned, somehow making it sound even more sarcastic than the last time.

"He had a laptop in his bag. A laptop. Big bag, big laptop. I need Jeff's laptop. You two, get to the hospital. Get everyone out of that ward. Clear the whole floor. Phone me when you're done." The Doctor took off at a sprint to Jeff's house, leaving Amy and Rory together.

She watched The Doctor for a few moments before turning to Rory, "Your car. Come on." She took off at a brisk jog to the Mini Cooper parked down the street with Rory trailing behind.

"But how can he be here? How can the Doctor be here?"

The Doctor entered Jeff's bedroom to find him lounging on the bed, using his laptop. "Hello. Laptop. Give me." He reached out, trying to pull the laptop out of the young man's hands, only to be met by an unexpected amount of resistance from Jeff.

"No, no, no, no, wait!" He desperately struggled to hold on to the laptop, silently freaking out over the thought of The Doctor seeing what exactly he'd been looking at.

"It's fine. Give it here."

"Hang on!" Jeff's attempts at hanging on to his computer were in vain, as The Doctor's lanky build was deceptive regarding his strength. As soon as he saw why Jeff was struggling so hard he averted his eyes and shuddered.

"Blimey. Get a girlfriend, Jeff." He quickly closed out of Jeff's tabs and set about hacking as Jeff's gran entered the room.

"What are you doing?" Her gaze was questioning, but light, as if she were merely curious about her grandson's friend and not what a strange man was doing on her grandson's laptop while the sky was strangely dark for mid-afternoon.

The Doctor typed inhumanly fast while looking at Jeff's Gran and explaining, "The sun's gone wibbly, so right now, somewhere out there, there's going to be a big old video conference call. All the experts in the world panicking at once, and do you know what they need? Me. Ah, and here they all are. All the big boys. NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore."

Jeff's Gran grinned brightly at The Doctor, leaning over his shoulder along with her grandson to watch what he was doing. "I like Patrick Moore."

The Doctor smirked at her knowingly as he continued typing, "I'll get you his number. But watch him, he's a devil." Jeff didn't go along so easily, his mind whirling and screaming that this most definitely had to be illegal, and it was being done on his laptop.

"You can't just hack in on a call like that."

The Doctor's smirk turned devilish as he shot a "Can't I?" In return. Six different faces popped up on the screen, obviously in the middle of said conference call and The Doctor was quick to whip out his psychic paper as Patrick Moore was the first to speak.

"Who are you?"

Another official started questioning what was going on, an edge to his voice, This is a secure call, what are you doing here?"

The Doctor beamed at the camera, "Hello. Yeah, I know you should switch me off, but before you do, watch this." He began typing frantically as he explained what he was doing, "Fermat's Theorem, the proof. And I mean the real one. Never been seen before. Poor old Fermat, got killed in a duel before he could write it down. My fault. I slept in. Oh, and here's an oldie but a goodie. Why electrons have mass. And a personal favourite of mine, faster than light travel with two diagrams and a joke. Look at your screens. Whoever I am, I'm a genius. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas, pay attention."

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Amy's hair flew behind her in a copper curtain as she sprinted into the hospital, Rory hot on her heels, wheezing.

- — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - - — - — - —

The NASA representative spoke up, asking The Doctor what, exactly, he was doing. "I'm writing a computer virus. Very clever, super fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on. And why am I writing it on a phone? Never mind, you'll find out. Okay, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, radar dish, whatever you've got. Any questions?"

Patrick Moore, completely ignoring the long, complex explanation the time lord had just rattled off, spoke up after a moment of silence, "Who was your lady friend?"

"Patrick, behave."

"What does this virus do?"

"It's a reset command, that's all. It resets counters. It gets in the wifi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time. But yeah, I could be lying, why should you trust me? I'll let my best man explain." There was a heavy pause as everyone sat there awkwardly. The Doctor leaned over to Jeff and stage whispered to him, "Jeff, you're my best man."

"You what?"

The time lord pulled the laptop closer, shielding them from the camera's view. "Listen to me. In ten minutes, you're going to be a legend. In ten minutes, everyone on that screen is going to be offering you any job you want. But first, you have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff, right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today's the day you save the world." Jeff sat there for a moment with an awe-inspired look on his face.

"Why me?"

"It's your bedroom. Now go, go, go." The Doctor jumped off the bed and ran out of the room, before turning around and poking his head back in the room in time to hear Jeff say 'let's do this'. "Oh, and delete your internet history." He grimaced before dashing off again.

Rory and Amy were standing in the lobby of the hospital amongst a crowd of people who were all speaking loudly. It was chaos. "Something's happened up there. We can't get through. "

Amy resisted the urge to respond with a 'no shit sherlock' and looked around, hoping that maybe, just maybe there was a clue as to what had transpired. "Yes, but what's happened?"

"I don't know. No one knows. Phone him."

Amy pulled out her mobile and clicked on Rory's contact. "I'm phoning him. Doctor? We're at the hospital, but we can't get through." Amy's brows furrowed at The Doctor's response and she began heading towards a mirror on a wall nearby, prompting Rory to ask what he'd said. "Look in the mirror. Ha ha! Uniform." She begins gathering her hair up and piling it into a bun. "Are you on your way? You're going to need a car." She let out another laugh as the floppy haired dork told her he'd "commandeered a vehicle" followed by a siren.

Rory and Amy take the stairs two at a time only to be met by a coma ward that's been torn apart. It looked like a battle had broken out. "Oh god." A woman and her two daughters step out from around a corner.

"Officer!" Her voice was full of terror and Amy stepped forward, her words gentle and laced with concern.

"What happened?"

"There was a man. A man with a dog. I think Doctor Ramsden's dead. And the nurses." Amy's eyes grew wide as she pulled out her phone, dialling The Doctor once more.

"Are you in?"

"Yep. But so is Prisoner Zero"

"You need to get out of there!"

The mother's voice coming out of the daughter's mouth distracted Amy from her conversation, "He was so angry. He kept shouting and shouting. And that dog. The size of that dog. I swear it was rabid. And he just went mad, attacking everyone." Rory and Amy began to slowly back away, "Where did he go, did you see? Has he gone? We hid in the ladies." She seemed to notice their fear and the slow retreat they were making. And changed tactics, speaking out of the proper mouth thus time "Oh, I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I? I'm always doing that. So many mouths." The mother smiled but it quickly morphed into the baring of needle like teeth.

Rory shouted, "Oh, my God!"

The Doctor could obviously hear the terror in Rory's voice and he began shouting so loud that Amy could hear him even with the phone down at her side. "Amy? Amy, what's happening?" But Amy was too busy dragging Rory at top into a nearby ward and barring the doors with an old broom that had been tossed haphazaradly to respond. The Doctor's voice grew frantic when Amy didn't respond, "Amy, talk to me!"

Hearing the panic in his voice, Amy put the phone back to her ear. "We're in the coma ward, but it's here. It's getting in." the banging against the door grew louder, as the entire thing shook violently

"Which window are you in?"

"What, sorry?"

"Which window."

"First floor, on the left, fourth from the end." The broom they had used to barricade themselves into the coma ward finally gave into Prisoner Zero's violent assault, and snapped in half.

The door swung open dramatically and in stepped Prisoner Zero, grinning sadistically. "Oh, dear little Amelia Pond. I've watched you grow up. Twelve years, and you never even knew I was there. Little Amelia Pond, waiting for her magic Doctor to return. But not this time, Amelia." It's voice was cruel, taunting, as it took slow steps towards the two humans, who in turn, took matching steps backwards. The phone buzzes in Amy's hand with a text form Rory's phone that reads "Duck!" Amy stares at it for a moment before grabbing Rory by the shirt and yanking him with her to the ground. Glass rains down around them causing Amy's arms to fly above her head, trying to shield her face, as the ladder of a fire engine appeared where the window once was. The Doctor scurried off the ladder and plopped down onto the floor. He moved quickly, bowed legs placing himself between Amelia, and Rory seeing as he was next to her, and Prisoner Zero. His face gave off the appearance that he was relaxed. Confident. But inside he was fuming. This alien had not only threatened, but come after, someone he cared about. And that would be its downfall. His voice betrayed none of the anger bubbling in his chest when he spoke. He managed to sound cheery. Like he was just meeting friends at a cafe, not having a face off with a hostile alien. "Right! Hello. Am I late? No, three minutes to go. So still time."

Prisoner Zero sneered , taking a step closer. "Time for what, Time Lord?"

The Doctor reminded himself that he had to give it a chance as the grin fell from his face. "Take the disguise off. 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."

"Okay. You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave." The Doctor's shoulders were squared in an attempt to block Amy from view, but she took a step out from behind him, refusing to hide. Rory reached after her in a minimal gesture, heating that her Scottish stubbornness was putting her in harms way. The Doctor shifted slightly in response to Amy's movement, putting himself partially in front of her again as Prisoner Zero let out a mix between a scoff and a laugh.

"I did not open the crack."

The time lord's eyes narrowed, "Somebody did."

"The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from? You don't, do you?" It's voice was full of humour before turning childlike, obviously the voice of one of the children holding its hand. "The Doctor in the Tardis doesn't know. Doesn't know. Doesn't know!" The mocking caused The Doctor to grit his teeth. But he couldn't say anything, because he didn't know. It's voice returned to normal as Prisoner Zero finished its mocking and began informing, "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall." The Doctor's face morphed into a grin and he began excitedly pointing at the clock behind Prisoner Zero.

"And we're off! Look at that. Look at that!" Amy smirked at the clock that read 0:00, catching on a tiny bit to his plan. Rory shifted nervously, looking rapidly between The Doctor and Prisoner Zero. "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? The word is Zero. Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd probably take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute? The source, by the way, is right here." The time lord lifted up Rory's phone, waving it tauntingly. The only humans in the room shielded their eyes when an impossibly bright light shone through the window. "Oh! And I think they just found us!" Prisoner Zero didn't look phased.

"The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me."

"Yeah, but this is the good bit. I mean, this is my favourite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here. Ooo, and being uploaded about now. And the final score is, no Tardis, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare. Who da man?" The Doctor threw his arms up in the air, a proud smirk on his face. Until no one responded. There was a few seconds of awkward silence as the humans avoided eye contact with the grinning time lord. "Oh, I'm never saying that again. Fine." His hands dropped back to his side and the smile slid off his face. The impersonation of a mother did look a bit nervous at this point but nearly as much as she should have.

"Then I shall take a new form." The Doctor's eyes narrowed.

"Oh, stop it. You know you can't. It takes months to form that kind of psychic link."

A smirk grew across Prisoner Zero's face making The Doctor shift closer to Amy. "And I've had years." Like it was rehearsed, Amy collapsed, lying prone on the floor, fiery hair pooled around her, eyelashes brushing her cheek gently. The Doctor became frantic rushing over and kneeling next to Amelia and gently shaking her.

"No! Amy? You've got to hold on. Amy? Don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please." Rory was kneeling next to The Doctor but wasn't looking at Amy. He began rapidly taping on the worried man's shoulder.

"Doctor." He turned around to see what Rory was trying to show him. Prisoner Zero had turned into a gangly man with a mop of floppy brown hair and shimmering green eyes. His outfit included ragged pinstripe pants, a blue button up, and a tie.

The Doctor scowled, "Well, that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?" Rory stared at him for a moment, confused.

His voice betrayed his thoughts. How could he not know? "Its you."

"Me? Is that what I look like?" He glanced down at himself, intrigued.

Rory looked at him, wide eyed, "You don't know? "

"Busy day. Why me, though? You're linked with her. Why are you copying me?" From behind The Doctor a young Amelia Pond stepped out. A cocky smirk marred her face.

"I'm not. 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." The time lord help back a wince, the words struck a nerve. He forced himself to focus, to think of a plan. His mind whirled before screeching to a stop.

"No, she's dreaming about me because she can hear me. Amy, don't just hear me, listen. Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see. Remember you went inside. I tried to stop, but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Amy, dream about what you saw." The copied Amelia started screeching out 'NO' over and over as she transformed into the snake like creature that was Prisoner Zero's true form. "Well done, Prisoner Zero. A perfect impersonation of yourself."

The bright light of the Atraxi ship captured the prisoner, "Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained," causing it to writhe and hiss angrily at The Doctor before disappearing.

"Silence, Doctor. Silence will fall."

Rory looked up at The Doctor's standing form, "The sun. It's back to normal, right? That's, that's good, yeah? That means it's over." The Doctor ignored him, still staring where Prisoner Zero had vanished. Amy's eyes fluttered open and she groaned, leaning on her forearms and looking around confusedly. Rory leaned over and put a hand on her shoulder. "Amy. Are you okay? Are you with us?"

"What happened?"

Rory helped her sit up the rest of the way. "He did it. The Doctor did it."

"No, I didn't." The two humans peered curiously at The Doctor as he stood at the window, typing furiously on Rory's phone.

"What are you doing." Rory almost groaned. What could he be doing now?

The time lord didn't even look at him. "Tracking the signal back. Sorry in advance."

The human's eyebrows furrowed, "About what?"

He shot him a wicked grin. "The bill." The Doctor put the phone to his ear and barked out an "Oi! I didn't say you could go! Article fifty seven of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level five planet, and you were going to burn it? What? Did you think no-one was watching? You lot, back here, now. Okay, now I've done it." He hung up the phone and tossed it back to Rory before setting off at a brisk pace out of the coma ward. Rory looked at Amy with a panicked expression on his face.

"Did he just bring them back? Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?" Amy ignored him, following The Doctor down the hallway with Rory scrambling after them

"Where are you going?" She called after him confused as to what in the hell was going on.

"The roof." He stopped for a moment and looked down at his outfit. "Wait a moment." He quickly changed direction and headed into a locker room instead.

"What's in here?" She came to a stop a few feet behind him and peered around the room. This man stopped aliens, phoned the aliens up and called them back, and now was standing in a locker room.

"I'm saving the world - I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show." The Doctor had already unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it away by the time he finished his explanation, resulting in an appreciative look over by Amy and uncomfortable rambling from Rory.

"You just summoned aliens back to Earth. Actual aliens, deadly aliens, aliens of death, and now you're taking your clothes off. Amy, he's taking his clothes off." His voice was high pitched and frantic by the time his spiel was over.

"Turn your back if it embarrasses you." Rory spun around quickly and started rambling once more.

"Are you stealing clothes now? Those clothes belong to people, you know." Rory noticed that Amy hadn't turned around and shifted to face her slightly. "Are you not going to turn your back?" Amy smirked, eyes roving over the time lord's bare form.

"Nope."

The Doctor strutted onto the roof in tight corduroy pants and a new shirt with multiple different ties draped around his neck. His gaze was concentrated on the threat immediately in front of him and keeping himself between it, and the humans behind him.

Amy leaned forward shouting across the roof to the tense Doctor. "So this was a good idea, was it? They were leaving."

"Leaving is good. Never coming back is better. Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now." The end of the sentence was shouted with a dramatic flare at the Atraxi hovering over the roof. It dropped closer, and scanned the Doctor over.

Its voice was deep, a near growl. "You are not of this world."

The Doctor wasn't even looking at the Atraxi, he was comparing ties and appearing casual although his voice had an offended tone to it. "No, but I've put a lot of work into it." He turned partially to face the two humans behind, holding the ties out for opinion. "Oh, hmm, I don't know. What do you think?" The Atraxi interrupted before either of them could respond.

"Is this world important?" The Doctor scoffed, offended that the Atraxi would even dare ask that question.

"Important? What's that mean, important? Six billion people live here. Is that important? Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi? Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?" His tone had developed a sharp edge to it and his eyes had grown cold. A projection beam lit up between the ragtag group and the Atraxi. Various scenes from history flashed by quickly.

"No."

"Is this world a threat to the Atraxi?" More scenes flashed, too fast for Amy to really be able to really distinguish what exactly was being shown.

"No."

"Okay. One more. Just one. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many." Slower than the previous scenes, enemies of the Doctor were shown. "And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?" The incarnations of The Doctor, 1-10, flashed by, ending with the current Doctor stepping through the projection dramatically. He gave the Atraxi a lopsided grin and straightened the bow tie he'd chosen. "Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically, run." The Atraxi zoomed backwards through the sky and out of sight. The same wheezing sound that had caused little Amelia Pond to run out into her garden in her nightie twelve years ago sounded once more and The Doctor started patting himself down, looking for his TARDIS key. He pulled it out of his jacket enthusiastically. Amy, who'd been staring after the Atraxi tried to ask the Doctor a question, not noticing that he'd already run off.

"Is that it? Is that them gone for good? Who were they?" She turned around to see only Rory standing on the roof.

The Doctor stood in front of the TARDIS, rubbing his hands together. "Okay, what have you got for me this time?" He slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside, his breath getting caught in his throat. "Look at you. Oh, you sexy thing! Look at you." The door closes and that familiar wheezing sound fills the air once more. Amy and Rory run up to the blue box just in time to see it fade away.

The darkness envelopes the garden as a wheezing groan sounds, shrouding the TARDIS as it materialised. Amy jerked upright in her bed and sits there, daring herself to believe she was actually hearing the sound that proceeded the Doctor. She ripped the blankets of and leapt off the bed, slipped on her wellies, and took the stairs two at a time. She, quite literally, slid to a stop in front of the blue police box. The door creaked open and the Doctor, still wearing the clothes he snatched from the hospital. "Sorry about running off earlier. 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."

Amy was breathless, "It's you. You came back."

"Course I came back. I always come back. Something wrong with that?"

Her gaze ran down the length of his body and quirked an eyebrow. "And you kept the clothes."

"Well, I just saved the world. The whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge. Yeah, shoot me. I kept the clothes."

Amy sucked air in through her teeth and gave him a look. "Including the bow tie."

The Doctor looked offended as he squared his shoulders and straightened his bow tie. "Yeah, it's cool. Bow ties are cool."

"Are you from another planet?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"So what do you think?"

"Of what?"

The time lord rocked back on his heels. "Other planets. Wanna check some out?"

"What does that mean?"

He hesitated, almost like he was nervous of her response to what he was going to say. "It means. Well, it means come with me."

Amy couldn't process what he was asking. "Where?"

"Wherever you like." He gave her a shy smile.

Her voice was soft, breathy, "All that stuff that happened. The hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero-"

The Doctor cut in, excited with the way her thought process was headed, "Oh, don't worry, that's just the beginning. There's loads more."

"Yeah, but those things, those amazing things, all that stuff." Her voice turned hard, angry, "That was two years ago." The Doctor's jaw dropped and he shifted in place, obviously uncomfortable.

"Oh! Oops." His smile turned bashful.

"Yeah."

"So that's..." He trailed off, feeling guilty and Amy cuts in her voice sharp once more.

"Fourteen years!"

"Fourteen years since fish custard. Amy Pond, the girl who waited, you've waited long enough." He stepped to the side, gesturing towards the closed door.

Amy looked up at him sceptical ."When I was a kid, you said there was a swimming pool and a library, and the swimming pool was in the library."

He chuckled, "Yeah. Not sure where it's got to now. It'll turn up. So, coming?"

Her face turned sour but her eyes told a different story. "No." But she didn't sound sure.

"You wanted to come fourteen years ago."

"I grew up."

"Don't worry. I'll soon fix that." He opens the door and grins at her, already knowing that she would come along. She stepped in, her expression transforming into one of awe and the Doctor stepped in after her.

"Well? Anything you want to say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all."

Amy couldn't believe this. This was impossible. She was standing in an alien space ship that was bigger on the inside and, on the outside, looked like a 1950's police box. And she was in her nightie. Oh shit. She was in her nightie. "I'm in my nightie." The Doctor grinned looking her over. He thought she was adorable in her nightie and wellies.

"Oh, don't worry. Plenty of clothes in the wardrobe. And possibly a swimming pool. So, all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will Where do you want to start?" She smirked and walked over to the side of the console opposite of him, running her finger over it. "You are so sure that I'm coming."

He smirked as well and nodded. "Yeah, I am."

"Why?"

"Cause you're the Scottish girl in the English village, and I know how that feels"

"Oh, do you?" Her tone was surprisingly flirtatious and it made the Doctor grin and respond in kind.

"All these years living here, most of your life, and you've still got that accent. Yeah, you're coming." Amy hesitated, watching him and taking in her surroundings when the TARDIS dinged and a newly styled sonic screwdriver rose from the console. He plucked it out and looked at it appraisingly. "Oh! A new one! Lovely. Thanks, dear." He patted the console endearingly and then proceeded to start typing on a typewriter wired into it.

"Why me?"

"Why not?"

"No, seriously. 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 I have to have a reason?"

"People always have a reason."

"Do I look like people?"

Amy's face tensed. "Yes."

The Doctor looked down, avoiding her eyes. "Been knocking around on my own for a while. My choice, but I've started talking to myself all the time. It's giving me earache."

Amy squinted at him suspiciously. "You're lonely. That's it? Just that?"

"Just that. Promise."

She nodded. "Okay."

"So, are you okay, then? Because this place, sometimes it can make people feel a bit, you know."

"I'm fine. It's just, there's a whole world in here, just like you said. It's all true. I thought. Well," she chuckled awkwardly. "I started to think that maybe you were just like a madman with a box."

"Amy Pond, there's something you'd better understand about me, because it's important, and one day your life may depend on it. I am definitely a madman with a box. Ha ha!" He pulled a lever energetically, setting dematerialisation into motion and spun around the console. He sent Amy a mischievous grin. "Yeah. Goodbye Leadworth, hello everything."