Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who
Authors Note: Heya, this is the first time I'm writing a fanfiction, it's nothing special but I have been sleeping on it for months now, what better time than the beginning of a new year to post, eh? I did get inspired by a few other fanfics that follow the same idea, so I decided to do my own take on it. If you find any grammatical mistakes please do message me! I hope you enjoy it.
And I was replaced by a shiny version of me.
(Meraki - 10 words prompts)
It was a sunny and calm morning in Leadworth, the birds were chirping, the sky was clear and Katie was late. Again.
Running down the steps of her porch while putting her coat on with an apple on her mouth Katie ran past her neighbour with a muffed "Good morning Mrs. Angelo!"
It's been two years since Katie found herself lost in Leadworth. She woke up at the side of the road with no memory on how she got there or anything really. A police man found her wandering down the road and decided to take her to the police station to see if they could find any information on her. They checked their system but couldn't find anything; no name, no pictures, no family, no address just nothing.
They asked her what she would like to do now, they said if she decided to stay there were people who would help her build a new life in the small town. It's not like I have much of a choice.
Time went on, she got a small apartment and a job as a babysitter, the payment wasn't much but it was enough for her to get by. She was fond of all of the kids she babysat, it wasn't a difficult job and on her free days she would go to the small library, but there was one kid that got her attention the most and it was a small ginger girl from Scotland that lived with her aunt, she was called Amelia Pond. When she first met Amelia the little girl didn't speak much, she had moved not that long ago from Scotland to England and she probably wasn't happy about that.
To win her over Katie asked Sharon, Amelia's aunt, what was Amelia's favourite sweet.
"Uh, she told me she ate rock candy during a trip to Barry Island she made with her dad." Sharon told her. Katie looked everywhere for the sweet, it took a lot of time and work but it was all worth it when she saw the look on the little girl's face.
After that day Amelia started to open up to Katie, after a while the girl started to call Katie a friend, which made her extremely happy. One day she was babysitting Amelia and two of her friends. A boy called Rory and a girl called Mels. She decided to take them to the park and bought ice cream for everyone.
"Katie, you have a really orange hair, like Amelia's." Mels said after they found a spot to sit.
"Yes it is very orange, do you think it suits me?" Katie said picking a few strands up and making a fake moustache with it making the kids laugh.
"I find it pretty." Rory taking a glance at Amelia but quickly diverting his eyes to the melting ice cream on his hand. Amelia was oblivious to what happened but Katie and Mels noticed.
"Do you fancy Katie?" Amelia asked without looking away from her ice cream trying to not let the melted sweet fall on her clothes. Rory turned a shade darker than his strawberry ice cream and started stuttering while Katie and Mels laughed.
After that day she would regularly take care of those three on the weekends and after school, sometimes she would have to go to the school to get Mels or Amelia when they were called to the head teacher room for being in trouble. It was now the holidays, more specifically easter, so they didn't have class and Sharon called Katie to stay with the kids for the day.
When she finally reached the front door of the Ponds residence she saw Sharon waiting for her with her arms crossed and the front door open.
She took the apple out of her mouth and gave the older woman a strained smile. "Hello ma'am."
"Katie, late again." Sharon said leaving a gap for the girl to walk in.
"Sorry, my alarm didn't ring." The older woman snorted at the girls excuse. Katie was always late for something be it morning, evening or night. "So… Are Rory and Mels here already?"
"Yes they are, probably upstairs in Amelia's room. I'll return later tonight, Mels and Rory are supposed to leave around five so I don't think there will be much trouble for you today." Sharon said while picking up her purse and making her way to the door, Katie nodded at that, before closing the door behind her she screamed over her shoulder "And stop calling me ma'am!"
Katie raised her hand to her forehead in a salute while the older woman closed the door. She looked around, the living room seemed to be clean, there was no mess in the kitchen and it was a little too quiet upstairs. She tried her best to not make any sound while going to Amelia's room, when she reached it the door was open and the girls were reading comics while Rory did his homework.
"Hey kiddoes, what are you up to?" She said sitting on the bed trying to see which comic they were reading. "Shouldn't you two be doing your homework as well?"
Both girls looked at Katie with guilty expressions. "We were waiting for you to help us Katie!" Amelia said closing the comic but not before marking the page she was reading. Katie raised an eyebrow.
"I am sure you were." She looked at Rory who still had his nose inside the school book. "What about Rory?"
Mels shrugged. "He is smart, he doesn't need help. Did you know he wants to be a doctor?" Katie looked at her from the corner of her eye while Mels gave her an innocent look.
"Right, well good thing I'm here, let's take a look on your school work, shall we?"
The day went on without any problems, Katie helped them with their homework, they had lunch and then decided to watch the telly till Rory and Mels had to leave. Amelia decided to watch a random movie while Katie picked a book to read. A yawn broke her concentration, she looked at Amelia and saw the girl trying to hold back a second yawn. Katie lightly nudged the girl with her elbow.
"C'mon Amelia, I think it's time for bed."
Said girl started to blink and turned to Katie. " 'm not tired yet." That made the older girl chuckle.
"Sure you are not, now let's go, you need a shower and then bed." Katie stood up from the couch and looked down at Amelia who was looking to the ground, Katie frowned and kneeled next to her. "What's wrong Amelia?" The little girl murmured something she couldn't hear. "What was that?"
"A crack on my wall…" By now Amelia looked uncomfortable but kept talking. "There is a crack on my wall, I told aunt Sharon and she said it's just a normal crack but I can hear voices coming from it."
Katie stared at the girl for a few seconds, she heard it's normal for kids to be scared of harmless things but a crack on a wall? That was new. "Well, it is quite late now, we can see if we can find someone to take a look at it tomorrow, alright?" Amelia looked more awake now, she nodded and ran upstairs straight to the bathroom, not even five minutes later Katie could hear the water running.
With a few minutes to spare she decided to go take a look at said crack, she couldn't say she payed enough attention to Amelia's room to notice it but now that she stood in front of it she understood the girls fear. It was quite a large crack almost taking the entire wall and right next to her bed.
She said she heard voices coming from it. Katie recalled so she put her ear right on top of it and held her breath and waited. When she was about to give up she heard some faint words but couldn't make out what they were, scared she jumped away from it.
"Great, I think I'm the one who needs some sleep." Shaking her head she headed to the hallway where she saw Amelia ready for bed. "All set?" Amelia nodded. "Well then, let's get you to bed."
"Wait, I don't need you to put me to bed." Amelia said. "I'm not a kid." Katie chuckled at that.
"Alright then, goodnight Amelia." Katie said petting the girl's head.
"Goodnight Katie."
While Amelia went to bed Katie decided to tide up the mess the kids made during the day, she was in the bathroom when she heard this weird wheezing noise outside followed by a crash and right when the crash happened her head started to hurt. Everything around her started to spin and she sat on the ground taking deep breaths, but it kept getting worse to the point she thought she was going to pass out.
She didn't notice Amelia run downstairs heading to the front garden with a lantern on her hand. She doesn't know how long she was in the bathroom but when she came back to it she heard voices coming from the kitchen, still a bit dizzy she used the sink to pull herself up. With a hand on her temple trying to rub away some of the pounding and the other on the wall for support she made her way down the stairs.
"Funny."
"Good, funny is good. What's your name?" Who is that?
"Amelia Pond." Who is she talking to? When did someone walk in? Amelia you don't just let strangers into your house, God Sharon will kill me.
"That's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond, like a name in a fairy tale. Are we in Scotland Amelia?'
"No, had to move to England. It's rubbish."
"So what about you mum and dad then? Are they upstairs? Would've woken up now" Katie tried to hurry but when she reached the stairs she looked down and everything started to spin again. Well this is going to be fun.
"Don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt."
Silence.
"I don't even have an aunt."
"You are lucky."
"I know." By then Katie reached the last step, taking a deep breath she hurried to the kitchen, her vision was a bit blurry but she could see Amelia with a red cardigan at the table and sitting in front of her a man in scruffy clothes eating— Are those fish fingers and a bowl of custard?
"So your aunt, where is she?"
"She's out." Amelia answered taking a scoop off of the ice cream pot in front of her.
"And she left you all alone?"
"For the record she isn't alone, who the bloody hell are you?" Her sudden entrance made the man jump on his seat, he turned around and just stared at her with an open mouth for a few seconds.
"Were you there the entire time?" He asked looking around, which made Katie snort.
"Wouldn't you like to know." She squinted her eyes at him, the pain was still there but it started to dim the closer she got to this weird man. "You still didn't answer my question."
"I'm the Doctor!"
"Doctor?"
"Yup." He nodded while dipping his finger in the bowl.
"Doctor who?"
He let a small laugh out. "That's the thing, you said the thing!"
Katie stared at him while he laughed to himself. "Are you mad?"
He waved a hand at her. "No, just new."
"Right…"
Amelia scolded "I'm not scared!" He quickly turned his attention back to the little girl in front of him.
"Of course not, you are not scared of anything! Box falls off the sky, man falls out of a box, man eats fish custard—" He took a bite off of the fish finger. "And look at you, just sitting there." Well isn't he weird— wait box? 'Box falls off the sky'?
Katie held her hand up. "Hold it chinny. What do you mean 'box falls off the sky'?" He furrowed his brows.
"Chinny?"
"It's a blue police box, when he came out of it he told me he was in a pool and that the pool is inside the library!" Amelia said excited, Katie stared at her with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open, she slowly turned to him who was smiling at her and nipping at a fish finger.
Katie walked towards him, grabbed on his shirt and dragging him outside with her. "You are coming with me chin boy."
"Ow, hey, why are you taking me with you?"
She scoffed. "You honestly think I'll leave you alone with her inside the house?"
"Wait, who are you?" He looked her over, ginger, green eyes with freckles all around her face. Maybe her sister?
"I'm her babysitter thank you very…. Much…" The woman was stunned looking at a blue police box that was toppled over the, now destroyed, small shed. "What… How is this possible?"
"Told ya." Amelia says crossing her arms, Katie stepped closer to it while the Doctor looked over his shoulder winking at Amelia, Katie raised a hand to touch the box. Looks like it's made out of wood. When her hand made contact with it it felt like she was touching the top of a hot stove.
Both the Doctor and Amelia rushed next to Katie when they heard her scream, she was holding her hand close to her chest and groaning. "It burned me! I thought it was wood, it looks like wood but it burned me, how is that possible?" She asked him, he took her hand on his and it wasn't burned it was just glowing. "Bloody hell, what's going on?"
He took this weird looking stick with a blue light at the tip and turned it towards her hand.
"What is that?" Katie asked while he buzzed her hand.
"It's a screwdriver but sonic." He answered quietly, he felt her tense up, he gave her a gentle smile. "I'm just checking something up, nothing to worry about." That made her relax some.
After a while he let her hand go and looked at the sonic screwdriver, the more he looked at it the wider his eyes got.
"What is it?" She murmured getting tense again. He looked up at her and then back at the screwdriver at least three times before asking for her name. "It's Katie, now what made you look so shocked? How do you even see whatever-it-is that you did on it?" He gave a faint laugh and put the sonic in his pocket.
"Never mind it now." He clapped once and turned towards Amelia. "You know what I think?"
"What?" The little girl asked.
"It must be a hell of scary crack on your wall."
Back in Amelia's bedroom said girl was standing by the door with an apple in her hands, Katie was sitting on the edge of the bed while the Doctor followed the crack with the tip of his fingers. "You've got some cowboys in here. Not actual cowboys… But that can happen."
"I used to hate apples." Both Katie and the Doctor turned to her. "So my mum put faces on them." Katie smiled sadly towards the girl while she walked towards the Doctor and handed him an apple with a smile face on it.
"She sounds good, your mum." He tossed the apple up with a smile. "I'll keep it for later." He said before putting it in his pocket and went back on inspecting the wall. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's the thing, where is the draught coming from?" He whipped out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the wall with it. "Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey. You know what that crack is?" The Doctor asked both of them.
"What?" Amelia asked.
"It's a crack."
"Never would have guessed." Katie scoffed making Amelia smile.
She noticed the Doctor trying to not smile at her comment but he didn't address it either. "But I'll tell you something funny, if you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put 'cause the crack isn't in the wall."
"Where is it then?" Amelia asked.
"Everywhere."
"Pardon?" Katie said standing up and going next to Amelia.
"In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have been touched, pressed right here in the wall of your bedroom. Sometimes can you hear…" He said putting his ear against the crack.
"A voice. Yes." Amelia answered making Katie tense up. He rushed to the nightstand and took a glass that had water in it, he threw the water over his shoulder and went back to the crack, he pressed the glass between his ear and the crack.
Prisoner Zero has escaped. He heard loud and clear through the glass. "Prisoner Zero…"
"Prisoner Zero has escaped." Amelia said interrupting the Doctor. "That's what I heard."
Katie snatched the glass from his hand and tried to hear it herself. Prisoner Zero has escaped.
"Have you heard anything coming from this crack before Katie?" He asked her when she saw her expression. She stepped away from the crack putting the glass on the table before turning to him.
"I… I'm not sure. I mean, I heard it loud and clear now but I never payed much attention to this crack until Amelia told me about it." She stared at the wall oblivious to the look he was giving her, she wasn't human that he was sure of, but just who is she and where does this woman fit in all of this?
"What does it mean?" Amelia said breaking his line of thought.
"It means that on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner." He turned towards Amelia. "You know what that means?"
"What?"
"You need a better wall." He pulled Katie away from the wall and moved the desk out of the way. "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…" He trailed off.
"What?" Amelia quietly asked. He looked at her and hesitated.
"Or what?" Katie asked frowning and pulling Amelia closer after her shock washed away.
"You know when grow ups tell you everything's going to be fine, and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?" He said looking at Amelia trying his best to ignore the glare Katie was sending him.
"Yeah."
"Everything is going to be fine."
"Blimey." Katie muttered.
He rushed next to Amelia and held her hand while on the other side of the girl Katie did the same, he pointed the screwdriver at the wall, they watched as the crack slowly opened and they starred into the darkness in it.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped." A deep and loud voice said making Katie's grip on Amelia's hand tighter.
The Doctor took a step closer to it. "Hello?" Out of nowhere a giant eyeball showed up and starred at them making Katie hold her breath.
"What's that?" The little girl quietly asked. A small light made it's way outside of the crack towards the Doctor making him fall backwards on the bed while the crack snapped closed with a bright light.
"There, you see. Told you it would close. Good as new." He said to them while sitting on the bed.
"What was that thing? Was that Prisoner Zero?" Amelia asked him while still holding Katie's hand, the older girl squeezed her hand when she heard the fear in Amelia's voice.
"What was that light that hit you?" He smiled at Katie.
"No. I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard." The Doctor explained to the kid and turned towards the babysitter. "Well, whatever it was, it sent me a message." He pulled a black wallet up, Katie looked at it and the paper was just blank.
"Psychic Paper, takes a lovely little message." He muttered looking down at it.
"But it's blank. It's just a blank piece of paper." That got his attention. Just who is she?
"'Prisoner Zero has escaped.' But why tell us? Unless…" He tensed up. As if Katie could read his mind she let out a straightened breath.
"Unless what?" Amelia asked looking back and forth the two of them.
"He escaped through the crack." She looked around warily.
"But he couldn't have. We'd know." He said quietly before running out of the room with Amelia and Katie after him.
"Hold up. You are telling us that an alien, that was in prison might you, escaped through a crack in her bedroom?" Katie said stopping by the stairs while he looked around.
"It's difficult. Brand new me, nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing…" He stayed still. "In the corner…" He slowly started to turn his head towards the end of the hallway. "…of my eye."
Before anyone could say anything the sound of bell echoed from outside making the Doctor's eye widen while Katie felt a small pounding at the back of her head.
"No! No, no, no, no, no, no!" He shouted while running down stairs. "I've got to go back in there! The engines are phasing, it's going to burn!" He said while running towards the police box.
"But… is just a box. How can a box have engines?" Amelia asked while he unhooked the grappling hook he threw earlier. Katie leaned on a tree as her headache got worse.
"It's not a box. It's a time machine!" He said gathering the rope.
"What, a real one?" Amelia asked skeptical. "You've got a real time machine?"
"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilised. Five minute hop into the future should do it."
"Can we come?" Amelia asked hopefully.
"Not safe in here, not yet. Five minutes, give me five minutes and I'll be right back." He climbed up the side of the box ready to jump in.
"People always say that." The girl muttered sadly making the Doctor hesitate.
The Doctor jumped back to the ground and knelt in front of the girl. "Am I people? Do I even look like people?" He smiled at her. "Trust me, I'm the Doctor."
Amelia smiled at him. He climbed the box again, none of them noticed Katie taking deep breaths trying to ease the pain that got worse by the minute.
"Geronimo!" The Doctor shouted as he jumped right into the pool. Amelia smiled when the doors slammed shut and the box started to disappear. Once the box was completely gone she ran inside the house to gather her things forgetting about Katie.
"Amelia…" Katie groaned. The moment she took a step forward to follow the girl she felt herself falling, but before her body could hit the grass she disappeared in a cloud of gold dust.
