The Eleventh Hour
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Me: there's the smallest bit of Amy Bashing in this chapter but it'll stop soon I promise. I'm just trying to show that Tory wouldn't like the way Amy comes off when concerning Rory, y'know? I just always see her as using him and until they actually get married I still think that Amy 'likes' the Doctor as more than friends and it's only after losing Rory that she really realises that she loves him more than life its self. But that's just my opinion. So please forgive the tiny amount of Amy bashing! *puppy eyes*
Tory: Also please forgive the slightly below our average writing, this chapter has been ready for a very long time and so is not as well written as my usual work. Ta!
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Tory watched in silence. She was always silent these days. Tory hadn't spoken since the first day Rory arrived on her doorstep and nursed her back to health after the loss of the Doctor and her Meridian Particles. She had explained what had happened. What the Doctor had done. He had taken away her Meridian Particles with an injection of nanobots, the love of her lives had betrayed her…he wanted nothing to do with her. Even the other versions of the Doctor had stopped visiting; the ones she thought would stay with her forever. But she had a theory about that, it was possible that the various Doctors tracked her using her Meridian Particles and now that they were blocked off it was impossible for them to find her.
Rory was finishing his last day of U.N.I.T. training, the training he needed to take over Jordan's job as Tory's 'handler', he was already a fully qualified nurse thanks to U.N.I.T. so there was nothing in his way, even his budding relationship with one Amy Pond. Rory walked out of the door, shutting it behind him, in normal civilian clothes and an official looking piece of paper held in one hand.
Tory walked forwards to meet him. He handed the paper to her wordlessly. Tory took it apprehensively before opening and reading it. She grinned at him; Rory was now her U.N.I.T. handler, Jordan would have been happy that her efforts paid off.
Rory laughed in giddy relief.
Tory clapped him on the arm and led the way out of the building, eager to escape a place that held so many memories of Jordan.
The pair walked to Rory's small yellow mini and drove away back to Leadworth.
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They walked into the large flat that they were sharing; Tory was paying all of the rent until Rory finished paying his medical school fees with his U.N.I.T. pay-check.
As Tory closed the door behind them Rory walked straight over to the massive deep red sofa and flopped down.
"Can we tell Amy?" he asked, wanting to tell the girl he'd been in love with for as long as he could remember the truth and not have to lie to her.
Rory knew that he wasn't going to get a verbal answer but he couldn't stand the unnatural silence; Tory had screamed herself mute the day the Doctor abandoned her and she lost her Meridian Particles, the pain of the separation, the idea that her mate didn't want her and had lied to her for years as well as the loss of something that was such a vital part of her as her Meridian Particles had just exploded out of her in one long blast of sound. With her Meridian Particles gone so was her advanced healing capabilities; Tory wouldn't be able to speak normally again until the nanobots the Doctor had used to supress her Meridian Particles wore off or she healed naturally and they didn't know when that would be or if it would even happen at all; six months had already passed.
Tory grimaced at the mention of the ginger; she hated Amy, well not Amy herself, just the way she treated Rory, she took him for granted and seemed to be fixated on some 'Raggedy Man' that everyone told her wasn't real but she stubbornly said was. Tory honestly didn't care what this 'Raggedy Man' was, maybe if she'd paid more attention she would have seen the warning signs of a newly regenerated Doctor landing in a little girls' back garden. If she had she would have taken Rory and run. But she didn't pay attention. So meeting the Doctor again was really her own fault.
Tory suddenly remembered that Rory had asked a question and shook her head in a negative answer.
"I thought you'd say that." He joked.
Tory shot him a quick smile.
"S…..sorry." she croaked.
"It's fine." He waved her off, ignoring his excitement at her actually talking, hoping to taunt her into continuing like he did when they were children.
Tory remained stubbornly silent; she was expecting Rory to go into nurse mode and scold her for using her voice when it still wasn't healed properly. When he didn't she smiled happily and continued.
"I just…." She coughed, sounding like a chain smoker, and worrying Rory slightly, "don't want to risk her." It was only partial lie but it was enough to make Tory feel guilty. Thankfully if Rory caught it he didn't mention it. He just nodded absentmindedly, his focus already moving on to whatever else was on his mind.
"I've got a date tonight." Rory announced after a short silence where Tory had just leaned on the wall and waited for him to process his thoughts. At his words she walked over and sat beside him on the sofa; this was always their way, whenever Rory had a date Tory would stay with him until he went to get ready providing support and comfort for the nervous man.
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When Rory and Amy left on their date Tory dropped the fake smile that always seem to be on her face around Amy and dropped into her seat from before. She closed her eyes tiredly; content to wait for Rory to return before going to bed, it wasn't like she had work in the morning after all, only paperwork. With her eyes closed she missed the single silver spark that danced around her fingers.
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1 month later
Rory and Amy were now 'going steady'. Tory avoided spending too much time with Amy and her best friend Melody, Amy avoided Tory and Rory tried to spend equal amounts of time with both of them. It wasn't working out very well.
"Tory." Rory tried to reason.
"No!" Tory snapped, her voice was weak and quiet but it had lost the chain smoker tone, "I want to go."
The pair of them where standing outside of their flat building, Tory standing beside a large, sleek, black motorbike while Rory stood beside her on the pavement trying to convince Tory not to drive off on said bike.
"You have a U.N.I.T. phone now," Tory continued more calmly than before, gesturing to an object Rory had gripped tightly in his hand, "you can contact me if you need me." She turned away from him and swung her leg over the bike, she resettled the 9th Doctor's jacket over her body, pushed the bottoms of her skinny jeans into her combat boots and readjusted her collar so it covered more of her neck and the chain that hung around it. That chain held the only physical reminder of Jordan she owned, the Time Lord ring that she had once gifted Jordan and Tory's engagement ring. She's thought about throwing it away for months but every time she tried she could never get her fingers to let it go. She made sure the chain and its burden were safely hidden under her shirt and got ready to leave. Tory paused and grasped the two rings in her hand for a moment before shaking her head and reaching for her helmet.
Rory was standing next to her now the helmet held in his hands.
"Stay safe." He ordered as he handed it to her and watched her put it on.
"You too." She answered before revving the bike and driving off.
"I'm more concerned about you." Rory muttered, watching the bike vanish before turning and going back into the flat.
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2 Months Later
Rory followed Doctor Ramsden as she stormed up the corridor to the coma ward of Leadworth hospital. He had fetched her after all the patients called out. Ramsden slammed the doors open and stalked to one of the beds, she picked up the chart while Rory looked over the patient; he was completely still, all signs of life gone. The patient was male, bald, and had pictures of a dog on his bedside table.
"So." Ramsden spoke, "They all called out 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."
"Yes, Doctor Ramsden." Rory answered; why hadn't he just called Tory?!
"Then why are you wasting my time?" Ramsden snapped.
Rory paused for a moment, debating how to answer before settling on the truth.
"Because they called for you."
"Me?" Ramsden asked.
Rory nodded at her. They stared at each other, Ramsden in surprise and Rory trying to show how serious he was, but were interrupted as the patient they were standing next to started to speak.
"Doc... tor..." he moaned. Rory and Ramsden turned to face him. "Doctor."
"Doctor." A female across the ward called out this time. They turned to face her, "Doctor."
One by one each of the patients joined in the chant, all still in their comas, no movements, no other words, just 'Doctor'.
Ramsden moved from bed to bed while Rory just stood in the centre of the room, pleased with himself; maybe he wouldn't have to call Tory after all; she deserved all the happiness she could get.
The chanting had stopped a short while ago. Ramsden was bent over the first patient, the male with the dog pictures, and checking his eyes.
"Don't think they were even conscious." Ramsden muttered in amazement.
"Doctor Ramsden," Rory decided to push his luck, "there is another, sort of, um, funny... thing."
"Yes, I know." she gave him a stern look, "Doctor Carver told me about your conversation. We've been very patient with you, Rory. You're a good enough nurse, but for goodness' sake."
"I've seen them!" Rory insisted.
"These patients are under twenty-four-hour supervision, we know if their blood pressure changes!" she snapped, "There is no possibility that you could've seen them wandering around the village..." Rory pulled out his personal phone and held it out to her, "why are you giving me your phone?!"
"It's a camera, too." He explained.
Ramsden slowly reached out to take it from him only to be interrupted by her pager.
"You need to take some time off, Rory." she told him, "A lot of time off." Rory tried to protest, "Start now! Now!"
Rory turned and walked away; there was nothing more he could do here.
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With nothing else to do, and still trying to work up the need to disturb Tory, he drove into town and walked into the park. He was standing in the centre of the field, near the duck pond that didn't have any ducks, when the sky started to go dark. He jerked his head upwards and watched as something flew in front of the sun. The object passed but the sun was different, it looked like he was looking at it through water. He pulled out his personal phone, forget not bothering Tory; this was serious!
He was distracted when he noticed the male coma patient standing at the side of the field, staring up at the sun. He slowly lifted his phone and snapped a picture while everyone was distracted by the sun. He glanced around shiftily, saving the picture and sending it, with the others, to his work phone so he would have an extra copy and so he could send them to U.N.I.T and to Tory.
Suddenly a man with a long brown fringe, a prominent chin and wearing a too tight, tattered, brown pin-stripe suit ran passed him, grabbing his phone out of his hand in the process. The man peered at the phone before spinning and turning to face Rory again.
"The Sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog, why?" the man demanded, handing Rory back his phone. Rory sighed in relief as Amy stopped next to him, wearing her police uniform kissogram outfit.
"Amy!" he cried happily.
"Hi!" she greeted happily before turning back to the man, "Oh, uh, this is Rory, he's a... friend."
"Boyfriend." Rory corrected.
"Kind of. Boyfriend."
"Amy!" Rory cried, annoyed that she didn't seem to want to be honest about their relationship.
"Man and a dog." The man snapped, "Why?" Rory stared at him; he looked so familiar.
"Oh, my god. It's him." Rory was ever so tempted to punch the Doctor; didn't he know what he'd done to Tory?!
"Just, answer his question, please." Amy ordered.
"It's him though!" Rory snapped, surprising Amy with his anger, "The Doctor, the Raggedy Doctor!" there was scorn in his tone now.
"Yeah! He, he came back." Amy tried to explain.
To the wrong person! Rory snapped mentally.
"But he was a story, he was a game." I should have realised they were the same person! I should have warned Tory! He panicked slightly as thoughts of an unsuspecting Tory coming home and seeing the Doctor ran through his mind, he was wrenched from his thoughts by the Doctor grabbing him by the front of his shirt.
"Man and a dog! Why! Tell me! Now!" he demanded.
"Sorry!" Rory started to answer, his shock at the handling overriding his anger, "Because - he can't be there - because, he's..."
"In a hospital, in a coma." The Doctor and Rory said together.
"Yeah." Rory agreed.
"Knew it." The Doctor exclaimed happily, "Multiform, you see?" he let go of Rory and brushed him down, "Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a lifefeed, a psychic link, with a living, but dormant," he poked Rory in the forehead. "mind."
Rory was about to snap at him when they were interrupted by the sound of a dog barking. They spun to face the coma patient. It was him. He and his dog were barking.
The Doctor stepped forwards, keeping to two humans behind him.
"Prisoner Zero." The Doctor stated.
"What?" Rory sighed, resigned now, "There's a Prisoner Zero too?"
"Yes." Amy answered shortly, more concerned with watching the Doctor and Prisoner Zero face off then listening to Rory.
The sky rumbled as an alien craft flew over the village. It stopped beside the church; it looked like a giant snowflake with a single eyeball in the centre. A light shone from the eye as it scanned the area.
"See," the Doctor was talking again, "that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology." he pulled a sonic screwdriver from one of his pockets, "And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver!" he, gleefully, pressed down on the button and raised the sonic into the air. Streetlamps exploded, car alarms went off, some poor old person's mobility scooter developed a mind of its own and drove off and a parked fire engine started moving down the road, its firemen following behind as they tried to catch the runaway vehicle. The ship was still scanning but in the wrong direction.
"I think someone's gonna notice," the Doctor taunted, "don't you?"
Both the current faces of Prisoner Zero growled in answer.
The Doctor turned and aimed his sonic towards a phone box, it exploded. The Doctor grinned triumphantly.
Suddenly the sonic itself exploded.
The Doctor dropped in to the ground with a startled cry and tried to fix the charred pieces. "No, no no!" he yelled, "Don't DO that!"
The ship stopped its scanning, turned and left.
The Doctor spun around and stood, shouting after it:
"It's going! No, come back! He's here! Come back! He's here, Prisoner Zero is here!" behind him Prisoner Zero gave a smug smirk before glowing orange and melting down the drain at his feet, "Come back! He's here, Prisoner Zero is... here..."
"Doctor!" Amy yelled, moving to his side, "The drain, it just... sort of, melted and went down the drain."
"Well, of course it did." The Doctor told her, slightly snappish; why did humans always state the obvious?!
"What do we do now?!" Amy demanded.
"It's hiding in human form." The Doctor explained, wishing she would be quiet and let him think uninterrupted for a moment, "We need to drive it into the open. No TARDIS, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes, come on... Think. Think!"
Rory walked slightly away from the Doctor and Amy and pulled out his second phone, dialling the only number inside.
"Tory," he whispered, "The Doctor's here."
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Rory, Amy and the Doctor all stood around the drain that Prisoner Zero disappeared down.
"So that thing." Amy started, "That hid in my house for twelve years?"
"Multiforms can live for millennia." The Doctor explained, "Twelve years is a pitstop."
"So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute?" Amy demanded.
"They're looking for him, but they followed me. They saw me through the crack, got a fix, they're only late 'cause I am." He spun to face Rory, "Who did you call?" the Doctor demanded.
"What's he on about?" Rory tried to evade; he couldn't answer ANY questions until Tory got there.
"You called someone; I wanna know who!"
"Me." A woman spoke up, "He called me."
The Doctor whirled around.
"T….Tory?" he stuttered.
Rory smiled while Amy rolled her eyes, Tory looked almost exactly the same as when he'd last seen her; her long black hair was pulled behind her head in a pony-tail; too large leather jacket hanging from one hand, where they rested at her sides; combat boots on her feet; black cotton polo, collar open and unbuttoned showing off just enough of her chest to gain interest but not enough to show anything and her skin-tight black jeans, but there was a bit more colour in her face and her cheeks were fuller, she looked healthier. A short distance away down the road her motorbike was parked.
"Doctor." She answered in a neutral tone, her voice finally back to normal.
"Tory!" Rory darted forwards and gave her a quick hug before pulling back, "You have no idea how relieved I am to see you!" Tory gave him a small smile.
"I have an idea."
"Tory!" the Doctor cried happily, "You have no idea how good it is to see you!"
Tory just gave him a blank look.
"Then why did you leave me?"
"I…."
"It doesn't matter," Tory turned away from him, "what are we dealing with then Rory?"
"Hang on!" the Doctor stepped between them, "How do you know nurse boy?" he wasn't jealous! Not at all, or at least that's what he told himself.
Tory bit her lip in her efforts to ignore the Doctor and was about to repeat her question to Rory when Amy spoke up.
"Tory is Rory's adoptive cousin." Amy explained.
"What?" the Doctor tried to reach out to take Tory's hand but she stepped back from him quickly.
"After you left me," the Doctor flinched at her tone, "I went back to U.N.I.T. they had already started training my new handler," she gestured to Rory, "at Jordan's recommendation, of course." Rory reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a comforting squeeze before letting go.
"Nurse boy, gimme your phone." The Doctor ordered, desperate to avoid explaining why he had done what he did and clicked his fingers in Rory's face to hurry him up. Tory backed up a few steps, pulled on her jacket and a set of leather fingerless gloves from her pocket; they wouldn't be the best protection against the Doctor trying to open the Bond but it was the best she could do at short notice. She wasn't about to let him have access to her mind. He didn't deserve it.
"So why'd you leave her?" Rory asked the Doctor, ignoring his orders.
"Phone!" the Doctor demanded, "Now! Gimme!"
Rory handed him the phone; it was his normal one not his U.N.I.T. one which was safely tucked in his pocket.
"You gonna answer me?" Rory taunted.
"These photos," the Doctor ignored him again, flicking through the pictures on the phone, "they're all the coma patients."
"Yep." Rory confirmed.
"No." the Doctor corrected, happy to get one over on Rory, "They're all the multiform. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."
"He had a dog, though," Amy pointed out, "there's a dog in a coma?"
"No." Tory snorted, "One of the coma patients must have a dog and's dreaming about it." She rolled her eyes behind Rory's back as Amy sneered at her.
"Laptop!" the Doctor exclaimed suddenly as he looked up from Rory's phone, "Your friend, what was his name, not him," he pointed at Rory, "the good-looking one!"
"Thanks." Rory muttered.
"Jeff." Amy answered without hesitation.
"Ohhh, thanks." Rory told her sarcastically.
"He had a laptop in his bag, a laptop. Big bag, biiig laptop! I need Jeff's laptop!" the Doctor announced, "You two," he pointed at Amy and Rory, "get to the hospital. Get everyone out of that ward, clear the floor, phone me when you're done! Tory I could use your help!" he turned and ran off.
Tory rolled her eyes.
"He wants me, that makes a nice change." She muttered.
"Your car, come on." Amy ordered, grabbing Rory's arm and trying to pull him away.
"Shouldn't we call U.N.I.T?" Rory asked Tory, shaking off Amy's grip.
Tory looked up at the sky.
"Can they be here in less than twenty minutes?" she asked.
"Errr no." Rory answered.
"Then don't bother; that's all the time we've got." Tory squeezed his hand before turning and sprinting after the Doctor.
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The Doctor ran forwards back through the village/town was it really large enough to be called a town? He asked himself before shaking his head to get his thoughts back to the point: twenty minutes to save the planet then a life time to make up what he did to Tory.
Saving the Earth was starting to look like the easy option.
He ran up the front path of the house that Jeff and his grandma lived in, he ran through the door and up the stairs, bursting in on Jeff who was sitting on his bed laptop on his lap.
"Hello! Laptop. Gimme." He crossed the room and tried to pull the laptop to him, Jeff tried to cover the screen and keep it in his hands at the same time.
Tory entered the room to the sound of Jeff's protests and the Doctor's reassurances.
"No no no no no..." Jeff tried to pull the laptop back
"No. It's. Fine. Give. It. Here!"
"Hang on!" Jeff yelled as the laptop was snatched from his hands.
The Doctor sat down on the edge of the bed as Tory walked over, she stood in front of him and bent her head over the laptop screen. She pulled back quickly, her eye brows high on her face as she looked at Jeff speculatively.
"...Blimey!" the Doctor muttered after a long pause, "Get a girlfriend, Jeff."
Tory stepped even further back from the Doctor as Mrs Angelo, Jeff's grandmother, entered just as the Doctor started typing frantically.
"Gran!" Jeff cried, overwhelmed and embarrassed.
"What are you doing?" Mrs Angelo asked interestedly, "Oh," she noticed Tory, "hello dear, I didn't know you were back from your trip."
"Just arrived today." Tory gave her a small smile. It was the truth; she'd only just arrived in town when she got Rory's call and drove over to the park to find him, she was hoping to convince him to go on a trip to Cardiff with her to find Jack and Torchwood.
"Sun's gone wibbly," the Doctor started to explain, "so right now, somewhere out there, there's gonna be a big old video conference call. All the experts in the world, panicking at once, and d'you know what they need? Me. Ah, and here they all are. All the big boys. NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore." On the screen images appeared of the people he was talking about.
"Oh!" Mrs Angelo exclaimed, "I like Patrick Moore!"
"I'll get you his number, but watch him, he's a devil." The Doctor warned.
"You can't just hack in on a call like that!" Jeff exclaimed.
"Can't I?" the Doctor asked, his typing slowed, "No I can't," he realised as he hit a block he couldn't get around, "Tory!" he turned to her and held up the laptop.
"What do you expect me to do?" Tory demanded harshly.
"Silver light thing-y." he explained, bewildered by her hostility.
"My Meridian Particles?" Tory scoffed, "You disabled them!" he winced at the reminder.
"I can fix that!" he reassured her.
"What? So now I'm useful you can 'risk me following you through time and space like some lost love sick puppy'?" she quoted his own words back at him, enjoying his flinch.
"Tory!" he tried to get her to calm down and listen to him, "Twenty minutes!"
"What part of disabled don't you get?!" Tory snapped, "I can't do anything!"
"It was meant to wear off!" he insisted, forgetting the others in the room, placing the laptop in the bed and standing; the Earth could wait a few moments surely? The woman he loved was suffering. Yes, he did love her, no matter what his last regeneration had said after kicking her out of the TARDIS, he loved Tory and had wanted to keep her safe and he had thought that by leaving her on Earth she would be safe from whatever was going to cause his regeneration, his last-self had been given so many warnings about his death and he had wanted to keep his Lifemate safe from the danger so he'd left her and stopped her from following him.
"So you said." Tory muttered.
"I wouldn't just leave you like that!" he insisted.
Tory stared at him blankly.
"I couldn't…." he stepped towards her, trying to touch her and let her feel his sincerity and remorse. Tory held up her hands and placed them on his chest to keep him away from her.
"Don't touch me!" she hissed; the last time he'd touched her he'd put those nanobots inside of her and then left, no one could blame her for not wanting him anywhere near her.
He backed off a few paces and just stared at her from under his fringe with begging eyes.
"Twenty minutes," he whispered as Tory met his gaze, "just trust me for twenty minutes."
Tory hesitated.
The Doctor reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a syringe.
Tory felt her Meridian Particles shudder in their cage.
"The antidote?" Tory whispered, her eyes darting from the syringe to the Doctor in confusion.
"I've carried it with me ever since that day." He explained taking a small step forwards.
Tory watched him suspiciously but slowly shrugged off her leather jacket.
The Doctor smiled at the show of trust and closed the rest of the distance between them, grabbed the sleeve of her shirt, to show that he respected her boundaries, and injected her.
Tory shuddered as the antidote entered her system and backed away from the Doctor; she wasn't taking any chances.
"You still wear my old jacket." he pointed out with a smile.
Tory pulled her jacket back on and gave the Doctor a blank look.
"I don't wear it for you."
The Doctor flinched again.
Tory felt a sense of victory at the flinch; let him feel just a fraction of her pain.
She stepped around his frozen form and grabbed the laptop, ignoring Jeff and Mrs Angelo. She could feel her Meridian Particles flowing through her body again and it was amazing. The laptop was showing six screens each holding a different face from some government organisation. She placed her hand over the keyboard, leaving about an inch of space, what she was about to do was something Jordan had insisted she master as soon as they had realised her TARDIS hacking abilities, her Meridian Particles flowed out her hand and slammed into the keyboard they made their way into the system and forced the six secure servers to recognise Jeff's laptop on the connection.
The Doctor moved to her side and sat back down on the edge of the bed. Tory placed the laptop on his knees and stepped back against the wall once more.
Who are you? A voice demanded.
This is a secure call, what are you doing? Another cried.
"Hello." The Doctor greeted them," Yeah, I know, you should switch me off, but before you do, watch this." He started typing rapidly, the screen filled with information and sent it off to the six others.
It's him!
I know, I'm getting...
"Fermat's Theorem," the Doctor explained as his typing continued, "the proof, and I mean the real one, never been seen before, poor Fermat got killed in a duel before he could write it down. My fault." He paused for a moment, "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." He stopped typing, "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."
Tory had to admit to being a little impressed by this new version of the Doctor, to be able to do so much after coming straight from a difficult looking regeneration was impressive.
She let her attention wonder as the Doctor explained what he needed the six to do. He'd given her the antidote, but what would he want in return? Did he still love her? Tory snorted in her mind, doubtful, after what he'd said when he left her Tory had felt so wrecked, she almost wanted to regenerate just so she could start over. The Pain in her chest had been extreme, enough for Rory to notice and ask about, she told him and he had not been happy, the Pain was gone now though but Tory knew from past experience that it would only come back and be even worse than before when the Doctor got bored of her again and left.
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Me: this Tory has a few self-confidence issues thanks to the Doctor abandoning her so 'young' (for lack of a better term) in her regeneration. She's managed to convince herself that the 10th Doctor never loved her at all and just used her. She doesn't mind the other 'younger' Doctors though and would be willing to see them all again; She wears 9's jacket as a way to remember him and the ones that came before him. 11 is on shaky ground because he came after the one that made the decision and so is a valid place to put blame.
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The Doctor was sitting on the bed, the laptop beside him, as he typed into Rory's phone.
Sir! What are you doing?!
"I am writing a computer virus," the Doctor answered, "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?"
Who was your lady friend? One of the men asked.
"Patrick, behave." The Doctor told him, trying to be stern and coming across as playful.
What does this virus do?
"Oh, it's a reset command, that's all, it resets counters, it gets in the wi-fi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time." He suddenly became serious, "But yeah, I could be lying, why should you trust me? I'll let my best man explain."
A long pause.
Jeff stared curiously over the Doctor's shoulder at the screen while Tory stood behind them on the other side of the bed.
The Doctor waited for another moment before slowly turning to Jeff.
"Jeff." He whispered, "You're my best man."
"You what?" Jeff demanded loudly.
The Doctor slammed the laptop screen down and turned to face Jeff properly. "
Jeff was struck dumb. He turned to Tory. She gave him a soft smile and walked around the bed to stand in front of him, carefully avoiding contact with the Doctor as she did so. Tory reached out and squeezed his shoulder supportively; she missed the flash of possessive jealousy in the Doctor's eyes as she did so.
"Why me?" Jeff finally asked.
"It's your bedroom." The Doctor answered happily, completely ruining the serious air he had managed to fill the room with, "Now, go, go, go." He shot to his feet and darted out of the door, "Come on Tory!"
Tory rolled her eyes, patted Jeff on the shoulder once more and turned for the door.
Jeff picked up the laptop and opened the screen.
"Okay guys." He spoke, "Let's do this."
The bedroom door shot open suddenly as the Doctor charged back in, passing Tory in the corridor.
"Oh. And. Delete your internet history." The Doctor ordered, shaking a finger at Jeff, before running back out the room again and down the stairs after Tory.
Tory was waiting at the bottom of the garden path. The Doctor slid to a stop beside her and looked up and down the road for something before darting off again.
Tory sighed and followed. )0(
Amy and Rory had just arrived at the hospital, Rory moved off towards the doors mingling into the crowds already gathered around them while Amy hung back at the car. She pulled out her phone and dialled a number. She held the device to her ear but whoever she was calling didn't pick up. She snapped the phone shut with a sound of disgust just as Rory re-joined her.
"Uh, something's happened up there," he said, "we can't get through."
"Yes, but what's happened?" Amy demanded.
"No one knows." He pulled out his U.N.I.T. badge and was about to explain that he could use it to get in when Amy held up her hand, narrowly missing hitting him in the face as she kept her eyes on her phone.
"Phoning him." she announced, lifting the phone to her ear again. The call connected. "Doctor? We're at the hospital, but we can't get through." she paused as the Doctor said something. "Oh."
"What did he say?" Rory questioned.
"Look in the mirror." they glanced to the side and at a window. "Ha ha! Uniform!" she handed the phone to Rory who held it to her ear as she pulled her hair into a professional looking bun. "Are you on your way? You're gonna need a car."
)0(
"Don't worry!" the Doctor grinned madly, "I've commandeered a vehicle."
He and Tory were speeding towards the hospital in a fire engine. He hung up the phone and flipped on the siren.
Tory rolled her eyes but stayed silent, letting her frowning face protest for her rather than voicing it herself, even if she thought it was almost cute.
)0(
Amy and Rory rushed out of the lift at the end of yet another abandoned ward. The place was a mess.
An older woman and her two daughters rounded the corner and walked straight into Amy and Rory's path.
"Officer!" the woman cried.
"What happened?" Amy questioned, professionally.
"There was a man." the woman explained. "A man with a dog. I think Doctor Ramsden's dead, and the nurses."
"Are you in?!" demanded the voice on the other end of the call.
"Yep. But so's Prisoner Zero."
"You need to get out of there." the Doctor warned.
"He was so angry," the woman continued, "he kept shouting, and shouting, and that dog. The size of that dog." Amy lowered the phone slowly, staring at the woman and her daughters as the woman's voice continued but it was the child's mouth that was moving. "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." Rory and Amy tried to backway but the creature noticed. It's voice moving back to the woman. "Oh, I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I? I'm always doing that. So many mouths." All three of them opened their mouths wide showing long, sharp, dagger like teeth.
The two humans started running.
"Amy? Amy, what's happening?" the Doctor demanded, his voice tinny as it came through the phone's speaker.
The two humans reached the coma ward, slamming the doors behind them and sliding a broom between the handles to keep it closed. They backed away down the ward as the doors shook under Prisoner Zero's assault.
"Amy!" the Doctor yelled. "Talk to me!"
"We're in the coma ward, but it's here, it's getting in."
"Which window are you?"
"What, sorry?" Amy hadn't heard over the sound of the banging and rattling doors.
"Which window?!" the Doctor demanded.
"Uhh," she counted quickly. "first floor on the left, fourth from the end."
The broom broke. The doors were flung open, Prisoner Zero standing between them. The teeth receded as it stepped into the room, still in the appearance of the woman and her two children.
"Oh dear, little Amelia Pond." It gloated. "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." Its teeth were bared once more.
Amy's phone chimed and she threw herself and Rory to the floor. A loud siren came from outside and the window shattered as a ladder forced its way through the glass.
The Doctor climbed the ladder, Tory on his heels, and dropped into the room moving towards Amy and Rory and letting his hands rest on their shoulders comfortingly.
"Right!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Hello! Am I late?" he looked at the clock on the wall behind Prisoner Zero. "No! Three minutes to go. There's still time." Tory climbed in through the window and jumped to the floor, moving to Rory's side and checking him over for any sign of injury while he did the same for her.
"Time for what, Time Lord?" Prisoner Zero taunted.
The Doctor stepped forwards.
"Take the disguise off, they'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies." He ordered.
"The Atraxi will kill me this time." Prisoner Zero talked like they were commenting on the weather, "If I am to die, let there be fire."
Tory rolled her eyes.
"What is it with megalomaniacs and the whole 'let the world burn with me' thing? I mean really? Can't you at least be a little bit original?" she asked in an interested tone as she stepped up beside the Doctor. Rory snorted in supressed laughter behind the pair.
"You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again." The Doctor suggested, "Just leave."
"...I did not open the crack."
"Somebody did." The Doctor argued.
"The cracks in the skin of the universe - don't you know where they came from?" Zero questioned. Tory and the Doctor both had blank looks on their faces, "You don't, do you?" the voice changed to that of a little girl even though it was still coming from the mother, "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know. Doesn't know, doesn't know!" the voice changed back to the mother, "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."
A clicking noise came from behind Zero. The Doctor's eyes flickered over to it, his expression lightened and his stance relaxing.
"Aaaand, we're off. Look at that. Look, at that." He pointed over Zero's shoulder to the flipping clock on the wall, the noise they had heard was it resetting itself, it read 0:00. "Yeah, I know, just a clock, whatever, but d'you know what's happening right now?" Zero turned back to face him, scowl on its face, "In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And, d'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?" Amy and Rory stared at the Doctor, captivated by his speech, "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 to track a simple old computer virus to its source in...what, under a minute? The source, by the way... is right here." He pulled Rory's phone out of his pocket. There was a pause and then suddenly a bright white light came through one of the windows behind Zero.
"Looks like they've found us." Tory pointed out idly, sounding completely disinterested and unimpressed.
Rory and Amy had rushed to one of the windows and leant out to see one of the eye-ships hovering over the hospital, the white light scanning the building before resting on the coma ward.
"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." Zero pointed out confidently.
"Yeah!" the Doctor agreed, "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. Oh, and, being uploaded, about... now. And the final score is, no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare... Who da man?!" he turned, flinging his arms out to the sides impressively.
Everyone just stared at him, unimpressed.
"Oh. Well." The Doctor muttered, "I'm just, never saying that again. Fine."
"Then I shall take a new form." Zero gloated.
"Oh, stop it, you know you can't. Takes months to form that kind of psychic link." The Doctor pointed out.
"And I've had years." Zero glowed orange.
The Doctor stared, unsettled and unnerved, before becoming distracted as Amy hit the floor behind them. He turned and ran over to her. Tory only glanced back to make sure Rory was unhurt before turning back to watch Prisoner Zero transform.
"No! Amy!" the Doctor cried, putting his hands on her face, "You've gotta hold on! Amy! Don't sleep! You've gotta stay awake, please!"
"Doctor!" Rory grabbed his attention, pointing over his shoulder at Zero.
Zero had taken the Doctor's form.
The Doctor sat back beside Rory looking bemused.
"Well that's rubbish." He commented, "Who's that supposed to be?"
"It's you." Rory pointed out.
"Me?" the Doctor asked, "Is that what I look like?"
"You don't know?" Rory stared in shock.
"Busy day." The Doctor answered before standing and moving to sat beside Tory once more, "Why me, though? You're linked with her! Why are you copying me?"
"I'm not." Zero answered in a young girl's voice, a voice carrying a Scottish accent. A young ginger girl walked around from behind Zero, holding his hand and showing the room that she was also part of the creature. "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."
There was a long pause.
Tory snorted.
"You think you're disappointed, brat?!" Tory snapped, "Try my life on for size!"
The Doctor winced.
"No, she's dreaming about me 'cause she can hear me." He realised, darting back to Amy.
Tory just kept glaring at Zero. Zero glared back.
"Amy. Don't just hear me, listen." The Doctor told her, "Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see. Remember you went inside, I tried to stop you but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Amy...dream about what you saw."
"No." Zero yelled, "No. No!" it started glowing orange again and transformed once more.
Tory grinned smugly at the snake-like creature with long fangs for teeth.
Zero roared like a lion at the Doctor as he moved to stand beside Tory once more.
"Well done, Prisoner Zero." He congratulated it, "A perfect impersonation of: yourself."
The white light intensified on Zero. It started hissing and thrashing around.
Prisoner Zero is located. The Atraxi boomed, Prisoner Zero is restrained.
"Silence," Zero hissed as it faded away, "Doctor. Silence will fall."
Outside the Atraxi ship, mission complete, turned and flew back into the sky. The Doctor stuck his head out the window to check and once he pulled it back inside he yanked Rory's phone out of his pocket and started typing again.
"The... the Sun, is back to normal, right?" Rory asked, slightly hesitant, "That's... That's good, yeah? That means it's over."
Tory shot him a soft smile and made as if to leave, only to be stopped by the Doctor grabbing her sleeve and keeping her in place with one hand while the other continued typing. Tory glared at him and tried to wrench her arm free, he just tightened his grip.
"Amy?" Rory asked as the ginger started to wake up, "Are you okay? Are you with us?"
"What happened?" she asked as she pushed herself up onto her elbows.
"He did it." Rory started to explain, "The Doctor did it."
"No I didn't." the Doctor argued.
"What are you doing?" Rory asked, finally noticing the Doctor working on his phone and the grip he had on Tory.
"Tracking the signal back." The Doctor explained, "Sorry, in advance."
"About what?" Rory asked.
"The bill."
"Awww-" Rory's protests were cut off as the Doctor started speaking into the phone.
"Oi! I didn't say you could go! Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level five planet. And you were gonna burn it? What? Did you think no one was watching? You lot. Back here, now." Tory raised a reluctantly impressed eyebrow as the Doctor ended the call and tossed the phone back to Rory. "Okay. Now I've done it."
He started to walk towards the doors, Tory following him willingly rather than by the grip he still had on her sleeve.
"Uh, did he just bring them back?" Rory asked as Amy shot to her feet and darted after the two Time Lords, "Did he just save the world from aliens, and then bring all the aliens back again?!"
Tory looked over her shoulder at him and gave him a cheeky wink. Rory rolled his eyes and got to his feet to follow them.
The Doctor slammed open the ward doors impressively, he was not trying to impress Tory! He was NOT! Okay, he so was, but he wasn't about to admit it. He strode down the corridor, Amy jogging until she was at his side while Tory and Rory walked side-by-side behind them.
"Where are you going?" Amy asked curiously.
"The roof! No. Hang on." He ducked suddenly into a side room. The other three followed him inside and around the benches as the Doctor moved up and down the rows grabbing items of clothing and either holding onto them or tossing them over his shoulder where Rory was trying to pick up after him.
"What's in here?" Amy asked, confused about why they were stopping.
"I'm saving the world, I need a decent shirt!" the Doctor answered, "To hell with the raggedy! Time to put on a show!" he spun around with a coat before just dropping it on the floor and moving on.
Tory picked up the coat with a sigh and handed it to Rory who put it back on the bench.
"You've just summoned aliens back to Earth!" Rory tried to reprimand him, "Actual aliens! Deadly aliens! Aliens... of death, and... now you're... taking your clothes off." The Doctor had moved into a corner and was stripping off the ragged remains of his suit before trying on the clothes he'd taken from various places around the room, "Amy, he's taking his clothes off." Rory pointed out, rather needlessly as Amy was staring at the Doctor unblinkingly.
"Turn your back if it embarrasses you." The Doctor told him. I am not going to turn around and look to see if Tory's watching me, I am not! I hope she likes my new body, its more muscle-y than the last one…does Tory like muscle-y? Is that even a word? Muscle-y? The Doctor was brought out of his mental ramblings by Rory speaking again.
"Are you stealing clothes now?" Rory asked, his back was turned to the Doctor and he was speaking over his shoulder, "Those clothes belong to people... you know!"
The Doctor didn't answer, just took off his trousers and boxers. Rory turned his head away fully and looked at Amy; she was still staring at the Doctor.
"Are you not gonna turn your back?" he asked her.
"Nope." Amy answered, sounding somewhat smug.
Tory made a disgusted sound from her place at the doorway, where she had moved so as to avoid any more clothes the Doctor decided to throw around, at Amy's blatant disregard for Rory's feelings.
Amy turned and glared at her.
Rory wasn't sure if he was thankful that Amy had stopped watching the Doctor or annoyed that the only reason she had stopped was so she could glare at Tory rather than because he asked her to.
)0(
The Doctor stepped out onto the rooftop first, wearing dark trousers with red suspenders that were just hanging around his legs, dark coloured shoes, a red-pink shirt and about five different ties around his neck. Amy was second, following the Doctor's footsteps almost exactly, like a good companion, while Rory and Tory followed behind, Rory carrying a selection of jackets that the Doctor had yet to choose from.
An Atraxi ship was waiting for them.
"So, this was a good idea, was it?" Amy yelled to the Doctor as she and Rory stopped walking just outside the door and the Doctor continued further out onto the roof, "They were leaving!"
"Leaving is good." The Doctor agreed, "Never coming back is better." He paused before yelling: "Come oooooon then! The Doctor will see you now!"
The eye at the centre of the Atraxi ship was released suddenly, flying down and hovering over the roof faster than one would have expected. It rested right in front of the Doctor and let out a blue light, scanning him.
The Doctor waited for it to finish before pulling up his suspenders.
You are not of this world.
"No, but I've put a lot of work into it." He fiddled with his many ties, trying to work out which one he wanted to wear, "Umm... uhh... I dunno." He held one up, a dark blue one, next to his face, "What do you think?"
Is this world important? The Atraxi asked.
"Important?!" the Doctor repeated, sounding offended, "What does that mean, important?" he tossed the rejected tie over his shoulder that managed to hit Rory in the face, "Six billion people live here, is that important?" another tie went, landing on Amy's shoulder where she picked it off and placed it in Rory's arms, "Here's a better question: is this world a threat to the Atraxi? Come on, you're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?"
The blue light left the eye again but this time it acted as a projector showing an image of the globe before changing to show different images from Earth's history; nuclear explosions, wars, armies and religions, praying, caring.
No.
"Are the people of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?" the Doctor asked.
The projector flicked through more images; carnivals, crowds, costumes.
No.
"Okay! One more, just one." The Doctor paused, "Is this world protected?"
More images; Cybermen, Daleks, the Empress of the Racnoss, Sycorax, Sontarans, Silurians, Reapers. The Doctor spoke over the flow of images.
"Cause you're not the first lot to have come here." He explained, "Oh, there have been SO many. And what you've got to ask is... what happened to them?"
The globe flicked through more images, Tory almost cried out as she saw herself and Jordan standing together, Jack appeared, followed by Tory and Rory, Sarah Jane and then the Doctors one by one. The last Doctor appeared and the projector froze. The new Doctor stepped through the image, distorting it, a small smile on his face, now wearing a bow-tie and tweed jacket.
"Hello. I'm the Doctor." He paused and gave a small breath of laughter, "Basically." He paused again, "Run."
The eye widened, completely terrified. It shot back to its ship and vanished into the sky as fast as it could.
Amy laughed happily.
Tory had a gentle, proud, smile on her face as she looked at the Doctor, when she realised what she was doing she turned away from him hurriedly and looked out over the hospital grounds.
"Is that it?" Amy asked, "Is that them gone for good?" she paused, "Who were they?"
No-one answered. Amy and Rory turned back to face the roof. The Doctor was gone. Tory turned back at the silence.
Tory shook her head and snorted angrily.
"Typical." She muttered, turning and striding from the roof; she had places to be.
)0(
Me: Okay, this is the point where you should go and read the One-shots written about Tory's time traveling. In order they are The Last of Us, Day One, Meeting Sarah Jane, The Five Doctors and Jordan. All of them will be uploaded soon! The Last of Us is chronologically first but will be uploaded last as it still needs some work! But in short, (SPOILERS FOR ANYONE ABOUT TO READ THE ONE-SHOTS!) she travelled around for nearly 100 years, met her final regeneration, met up with Jack in Cardiff, met up with Sarah Jane, got dragged into the mess the fifth Doctor got into with his past-selves. Jordan is different than the others as it is set far into the future after the Doctor and Tory make up and Tory regenerates again.
)0(
2 years later
Tory sighed, two years, two whole years after the Doctor had returned and released her Meridian Particles and he was still nowhere to be found. Though that was two years Earth-time, it had been over a hundred for Tory herself. She walked up to Amy's house slowly, Rory had asked her to go and try and 'make up' as a wedding present to him. Tory had sighed and agreed, leaving Rory's bachelor party and walking as slowly as she could back through the town to Amy's house.
Tory let herself in the house with the spare key Rory had given her, in case of alien related emergencies, and heard the rumbling of voices coming from upstairs. Tory frowned.
Who could that be?
Tory walked up the stairs silently, using all her stealth training to go unheard, and peered around the slightly open bedroom door.
The Doctor and Amy were sitting side-by-side on the bed, their backs to the door and so Tory, as they stared at Amy's wedding dress hanging on the wardrobe. The TARDIS was sitting innocently in the corner of the room right next to the door and Tory.
"Well!" the Doctor seemed to be at a loss for words.
"Yeah!" Amy agreed.
"Blimey!" he muttered.
"I know." Amy agreed, "This is the same night we left, yeah?"
The Doctor checked his watch.
"We've been gone five minutes." He answered.
Tory's knuckles went white as she clenched her fists.
Amy picked up her ring-box from her bedside and opened it.
"I'm getting married in the morning." She announced.
The Doctor took the box and looked down at the ring.
"Why did you leave it here?" he asked.
"Why did I leave my engagement ring when I ran away with a strange man the night before my wedding?" Amy asked sarcastically.
"Yeah."
"You really are an alien, aren't you?" she shook her head.
"Who's the lucky fella?" he questioned.
"You met him." Amy answered.
"Ah, the good looking one or the other one?" he mimed a large nose.
"The other one. Tory's cousin." She emphasised the last part.
"Well, he was good too." He was quick to reassure.
"Thanks." She paused, "So, do you comfort a lot of people on the night before their wedding?"
"Why would you need comforting?" the Doctor asked.
"I nearly died." Amy answered quickly, "I was alone in the dark and I nearly died. And it made me think."
"Well, yes, natural." The Doctor agreed, "I think sometimes. Well, lots of times..."
Don't strain yourself. Tory scoffed.
"About what I want. About who I want." She paused, "You know what I mean?"
You better mean Rory. Tory gritted her teeth in anger, already seeing where this conversation was going.
"Yeah... No." the Doctor shook his head.
"About who...I want." She repeated.
"Oh, right, yeah... No, still not getting it."
"Doctor," Amy sighed, "in a word, in one very simple word even you can understand..." she climbed into his lap.
Tory started to growl.
The Doctor pushed Amy off him and onto the bed before climbing over the end of said bed and backing into the TARDIS doors nervously.
"Uh...! You're getting married in the morning!" he exclaimed.
Amy stood and walked around the bed.
"The morning's a long time away." She pushed him back against the TARDIS, "What are we going to do about that?" she started to pull at his clothes, pushing his suspenders off.
The Doctor pulled them back up.
Tory was frozen in place, her mind torn in two directions. One side desperately wanted to defend her mate. The other wanted to rip Amy a new one about what she was about to do to Rory.
"Listen to me. I'm 907 years old. Do you understand what that means?" he asked her franticly as he pushed her away.
"It's been awhile?" Amy suggested as she pressed herself against him again.
"No. no. no! I'm 907, and look at me. I don't get older, I just change. You get older. I don't, and this can't ever work." He pushed her away again. "I'm already married!"
"Oh, you are sweet, Doctor. But I really wasn't suggesting anything quite so...long term." She kissed him.
Tory lost it. She shot to her feet and slammed the door open hard enough that it bounced off the wall with a bang.
The Doctor shoved Amy away from him.
"This isn't what it looks like!" he tried to defend himself.
Tory just stared at him. She couldn't deal with this. She turned her anger on Amy.
"You're marrying my cousin in the morning," she spat, "he's at his bachelor party right now calling you because he loves you enough that even though he's drunk you're the only thing on his mind and you're here kissing the Doctor?! Well, let me tell ya love," Tory sneered, "the Doctor isn't worth it." She turned and stalked out of the house, ignoring the Doctor shouting after her.
/\/\/\/\/\
Timmy: poor Tory….
Legend-Wait-For-It-Dary: just a reminder that there is a poll on Madd Madds's page about what crossovers you, the readers might like to see in the future! Please vote for something!