Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its creations. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction, now would I? :(
A/N: This chapter, or prologue, whatever you want to call it, takes place sometime in 2007. It is at a point when the Doctor doesn't have a companion at that point in time. Ugh, with this show, timelines are gonna be so difficult to figure out. Oh well. Enjoy! :D
P.S. This girl is Scottish in case you don't catch that. And I don't know if Lennox is a Scottish name. Or the spelling of Meghan. Let's just say her mother was Scottish and her father was British and they decided to have and raise their daughter in Scotland. Also, Meghan is meeting the Tenth incarnation of the Doctor. So, David Tennant. Yeah. :)
P.P.S. I'm aware that this story might be similar to that of Sally Sparrow's adventure in Blink. It's different because there were more angels after Sally and Kathy's brother, whatever his name was, rid the city in England that they lived in. I am saying that the ones that escaped traveled to Scotland. Alright let's get on with the story. I hope you all enjoy. Please give me feedback. It is my oxygen. ;)
Summer, 2007
A brunette, blue-eyed teenage girl sat on a swing in her backyard, looking up at the starry night. It was close to midnight. It was one of those nights.
Her mother and father were arguing. Again. As they stood in the kitchen, yelling at each other and completely oblivious to anything around them, the girl had slipped out the back door, completely unnoticed.
She was an only child and therefore had nobody there to suffer with her. She suffered alone. Maybe if she had had an older brother to protect her, he could have taken her away and they would never have to listen to another loud quirrel again. They would find a new home. A quiet one. One where they could sleep peacefully at night and never worry about—
A door slammed, so loud she had nearly jumped off the swing and landed on the ground. She had been so engrossed in her thoughts, she had failed to notice the complete silence that enveloped her now like a cold blanket. Not even the crickets were chirping, as if they sensed something was wrong.
The girl stood up and looked around. She felt a pair of eyes burning into her but she had no idea of what direction it came from. As if...there was more than one. And they surrounded her. They were invisible to her eyes, probably hiding in the overgrown trees and bushes.
A coldness settled in her stomach and went up her spine, causing her to shiver. But it wasn't just any coldness; it was fear.
She quickly ran to the back door and as soon as she was inside, she leant against the now closed door, breathing a sigh of relief.
Maybe her parents had ended their argument and had gone to bed. She ran upstairs and looked into her parents bedroom. What set off alarms in her head was that the sheets and quilt were just spread on the mattress. Not one person was lying in that bed.
"Mum? Dad?" She called. The fear inside her grew and clenched around her stomach, squeezing it. "Mum? Where are you? Dad?"
She ran down the stairs and to the front door. Her fingers fumbled on the lock until she finally got the door open. She immediately ran into something...more like someone. A man stood before her, a shock of dark spiky hair in completely disarray. He wore a pair of white converse and a trench coat over a brown striped suit.
"Where are they?" He asked frantically, looking around the room.
"Excuse me, but who?" She peered up at his face from the ground. He helped her to her feet, then pushed past her. "Excuse me, sir!"
"Yes?" He turned on her. "Ah, another Scot. What's your name? I'm the Doctor."
"The D—My name's Meghan. Meghan Lennox." She furrowed her brow in confusion.
"Meghan Lennox. That's a lovely name, Miss Lennox."
"Who are you looking for?" She asked him. Why wasn't she questioning the fact that a strange man had just walked right into her home in the middle of the night.
"Not 'who'. 'What'."
"What?"
"Exactly."
"Why would they—whatever they are—" She began but he abruptly cut her off.
"Weeping Angels."
"Sorry? But...what's a...'weeping angel'? Are they here?" Meghan turned in a complete 360 degree angle. She looked out the windows but it was pointless not knowing what they looked like.
"So, you haven't seen them. Well, they're statues, but only when you see them." He said mysteriously. Something seemed really...off about this man. In the way he acted and talked.
"What do you—"
"Just—when you see a statue of an angel, you can't blink,"
"What—?"
"Blink and you're dead. That's all it takes." He looked at her for the first time. He grabbed her hand and pulled her along. "Come with me."
"Wait! My parents!" Meghan pulled the other way to stop him. He abruptly stopped, causing Meghan to bump into him. "They disappeared."
"Oh no. They have them. Come on, we've got to hurry!" He pulled her again and they flew through the house to the back door. He stopped and again she ran into him.
"Wait, what do you mean they have them? Sir, please just—"
"Shh."
"Did you just 'shh' me? I asked you—"
"Shh! We're surrounded. Look."
Meghan peered around the Doctor's shoulder. There were five angel statues, spaced out across the garden. Each one covered their faces with their hands, as if hiding in shame. Their stone wings were very large, protruding from their backs with cracks spidering here and there. The beauty of them was what instilled the fear still residing in her stomach.
"But they're just statues! They can't move."
"Yes, they can. When they are being observed they become "quantum-locked", meaning they freeze on the spot. In this state, they are frozen and indestructible.
"You can't kill a stone." Meghan surmised.
"Exactly." The Doctor responded, his tone grim.
"Have you encountered these...weeping angels before? You sure do seem to know a lot about them."
"I have...once or twice." He said. "You haven't blinked yet have you?"
"No."
"Good. Now, I want you to keep watching them through that window and I'm going to close this door. Alright?" He asked her.
"Yeah."
"Ready? One. Two." He paused a moment. "Three!" Meghan moved over to the window as the Doctor slammed the door shut. There was just one problem.
"Doctor? The backyard is empty." She called.
"What? No, no, no, no, NO! Quick, we have to leave this house." Without another word, the Doctor grabbed Meghan by the hand once more and pulled her out of the house and down the street. They ran a few more blocks until they made it to a quiet alley. They slowed down and Meghan saw a big blue box that read 'Police Public Call Box'.
The Doctor pulled a key out of his pocket and clumsily fit it in the key hole. He turned the lock and walked right in. Meghan just stood there.
"What are we doing in—"
"Come on!" The Doctor impatiently reached outside and yanked her inside, then shut the door behind her. Meghan froze in her tracks.
"Whoa." She walked towards the center and spun around, looking at everything. "H-how is this possible? It's like it's...bigger on the inside." She turned to face him. "How is this possible?"
"Time Lord technology. Long, boring story. You probably don't want to hear it because I certainly don't have the time to tell it. Now," He pulled on levers, twisted knobs, and pushed buttons, then turned towards Meghan, "we have to get out of—"
BOOM!
The ground beneath their feet shook and they tumbled this way and that. The Doctor held onto the railing while Meghan fell to the ground.
"They're here."
"Who, the Weeping Angels? But why?" She asked as she stood up and tripped her way over to the Doctor's side.
"They want the TARDIS." He yelled.
"The what?" She yelled back at him. The Doctor moved around what seemed like some control center for whatever they were in.
"We are in the TARDIS and the angels want the Phone Box." He frantically moved around, pushing, pulling and twisting all of the things that stuck out. "Again! Why do they keep finding me?" He seemed to be talking more to himself than to her. "We have to leave. I'm just going to take us twelve hours into the future—no, make that twenty-four, just to be safe."
He spun a wheel and pulled a lever down, then the TARDIS shook. But it was different from when the angels were shaking it. It felt more like how a plane might feel if it were being piloted by a two-year-old. Suddenly, everything stopped. No shaking of any kind could be felt. The Doctor walked down to the doors and opened them, peeking his head outside.
"All clear. Meghan, see for yourself." He motioned for her to join him at his side. She looked out the door and tripped out falling on her knees in the grass.
"We've moved! How can we have possibly moved?" She smiled and laughed jovially. "This is fantastic!" Then the smile disappeared in a second. "But where have the angels gone? And my parents?"
"Come along. I'll show you." He held his hand out and she took it, standing up off the ground.
They had walked all the way back to the alley where the TARDIS had been parked. In its place, four of the angels stood in a square, their arms outstretched as if trying to wrap their arms around something. Each one happened to be looking at another. The fifth angel stood behind one but it was caught in one of the angels' gaze. They were all frozen.
"The Weeping Angels have the greatest defense mechanism. They turn to stone when being observed by any living being. These angels are statues now and they will be frozen forever. Unless, of course, someone is stupid enough to move them. As long as they watch each other, they can't move."
"That's brilliant." Meghan whispered.
"Now I have just one other thing to show you." The Doctor and Meghan walked off hand-in-hand once more.
They had arrived at a hospital not far from the alley. The Doctor lead Meghan inside and they walked straight to the desk upfront.
"Excuse me, miss. I'd like to visit someone." The Doctor spoke to the young woman at the desk. She looked up from her keyboard.
"Name?" She asked.
"Jane Lennox." He said.
"Family?"
"Yes."
The woman looked at her computer screen and clicked with the mouse a couple times then looked back at the two of them. "Room 110. First floor."
"That's my mum's name." Meghan said as they walked to the nearest elevator. "How do you know my mum's name? And why is she in a hospital? What happened to her?"
They entered the elevator and the Doctor pressed the first floor button. "The Weeping Angels took your mother and father back in time. I'd say around late 1950s." He said sadly.
They had reached the first floor. The Doctor led the way to Room 110 and slowly opened the door. Meghan hesitantly came inside the room. She saw only one bed with a frail, old woman lying on it. "That's not my mum." Meghan said numbly. Her voice was barely above a whisper
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor wrapped an arm around Meghan's shoulder comfortingly.
"Meghan? Is that you?" The old woman, Jane, her mother, spoke up. Her voice sounded so weak.
"Mum? It's me. It's Meg." She whispered as she came closer and stood at her mother's bedside. She was clearly trying to hold back tears and failing miserably.
"Oh, you always look so beautiful. Meghan, darling, take this." She placed an old yellowed envelope in her daughter's shaking hand.
"Where's Dad?" Meghan asked.
"I'm sorry. He died almost five years ago. Heart attack. But at least he died in his sleep. Bless his soul." Jane placed two small, frail hands over her daughter's own. "The angels, they touched us. We ended up in the year 1958. I hadn't a clue how we had gotten there but we have lived our lives from then on. You know, your dad and I, we grew closer. Around the time that we ended up in that year, we stopped arguing because all we had was each other.
"Mum." Meghan finally lost the battle with herself as tears began streaming down her face like a waterfall.
"We never stopped thinking about you, our beautiful girl. My darling Meghan." Meghan leant forward and kissed her mother's forehead.
"I love you, Mum."
"I love you, too." Ninety-year-old mother and sixteen-year-old daughter smiled at each other. "Darling, I feel that it's my time to go."
"No—"
"Sweetheart, I'm going to be with your father. We'll be watching over you. I promise to you." Meghan nodded.
The next few minutes felt like something out of a movie. Jane Lennox closed her eyes one final time and the heart monitor dropped. Meghan stood up and walked out of the room, her actions similar to that of a zombie.
Meghan exited the hospital. She didn't know where she was going, she just kept walking. The Doctor finally caught up with her. He stood in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
"Meghan." He looked into her eyes and she looked up at him. That was all it took to make her composure shatter. She collapsed in his arms and cried on his shoulder. He enveloped her in a hug then wrapping an arm around her, he guided her away from the hospital.
They ended up back at the TARDIS. The Doctor sat Meghan on the ground and sat beside her.
"I have no family left. Mum and Dad are gone. No siblings. Nothing. Where am I gonna go?" Meghan asked. She looked at the Doctor, then she whispered, "Could I come with you?"
"I don't know. It might be too dangerous. I've gotten people killed. I can't stand the thought of causing the death of such a promising child like yourself or anyone really. It's not safe."
"It's clearly not safe here so let me go with you." Meghan insisted. The Doctor appeared to be thinking about it.
"Alright. I just need to go do something real quick. I'll be back in two minutes." He said standing up.
"Promise?" Meghan stood up as well.
"Yeah. 'Course. I'll be back in two minutes." He stepped inside the TARDIS. Suddenly, there was a whooshing, wheezing noise and a small wind that blew her hair about. The TARDIS seemed to fade in and out until it disappeared completely.
Meghan sat down. And she waited. One minute passed. Then two minutes passed. But then two minutes became ten. And ten became fifteen. Meghan waited an hour and a half before the realization hit her. He wasn't coming back for her. The Doctor had left her.
Meghan finally—and begrudgingly— went back to her now empty home. The Doctor was never coming back for her. She was utterly alone.