Disclaimer: I'm afraid my give a crap is broken. I just don't care if you think you own the rights to the Doctor. Try back on a day not ending in y.

Ch. 2:

The TARDIS flew out of control over London.

Inside, the central console sparked and the room was in flames.

Outside, the Doctor held on to the threshold, the sonic screwdriver in his mouth.

He began to pull himself back in, but he heard the sound of a bell and saw that he is about to hit Big Ben. He pointed the sonic screwdriver at the controls. The resulting correction caused him to slip out again, narrowly missing the top of the tower.

He finally managed to pull himself inside before closing the doors and fell against them with a sigh.

The TARDIS lurched and spun out of control.


A young girl with bright red hair kneeled next to her bed, her hands clasped and her eyes shut tight.

"Dear Santa," she said. "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's an emergency. There's a crack in my wall."

She turned to look at the crack behind her before returning to the prayer.

"Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack, but…" she hesitated. "I know it's not, because, at night, there's voices. So please, please, could you send someone to fix it? Or a policeman. Or…"

There was the sound of a crash and glass breaking. She turned her head to the window.

"Back in a moment." She said before getting up and grabbing a flashlight.

She ran to the window and looked down at the blue box laying on its side where her shed used to be, with smoke rising from it.

"Thank you, Santa." She said.


The girl stepped out wearing a red jacket and matching boots over her night gown. She made her way over to the box, her flashlight lighting the way.

The doors suddenly opened at the top and a rope with grappling hook attached to it came flying out.

A hand grabbed the edge followed by the other, and the Doctor's head came over the side.

"Can I have an apple?" he asked. "All I can think about-apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new-never had craving before."

He climbed up and straddled the edge, looking back down.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed. "Look at that! Oh, Lily's going to kill me."

"Are you okay?" the girl asked him.

He turned so both legs were on the outside.

"Just had a fall." He told her. "All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

"You're soaking wet." She informed him.

"I was in the swimming pool." He replied.

"You said you were in the library." She shot back.

"So was the swimming pool." He told her. "Along with my mate's piano, which is why I'm a dead man."

"Are you a policeman?" she asked.

"Why?" he asked. "Did you call a policeman?"

"Did you come about the crack in my wall?" she demanded.

"What cra-?"

He fell off the TARDIS to the ground, convulsing.

"Are you all right, mister?" the girl asked, worried.

"No, I'm fine, it's okay." He said, moving to his knees. "This is all perfectly norm…"

His mouth opened and gold energy poured out.

"Who are you?" she asked him.

"I don't know yet." The Doctor replied, holding up his hands, which were glowing. "I'm still cooking. Does it scare you?"

"No, it just looks a bit weird." She replied.

"No, no, no." he told her. "The crack in your wall. Does it scare you?"

"Yes." She told him.

"Well, then, no time to lose." He said, jumping up. "I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off."

He walked off and right into a tree, knocking him onto his back.

"You all right?" the girl asked him.

"Early days." He replied, laying on the ground. "Steering's a bit off. I'm really glad Lily's not here."


The Doctor stood in the kitchen looking around.

"If you're a doctor, why does your box say 'Police'?" the girl asked, handing him an apple.

The Doctor took a bite and spit it out.

"That's disgusting." He told her. "What is that?"

"An apple." She replied.

"Apples are rubbish." He told her. "I hate apples."

"You said you loved them." She shot back.

"No, no, I love yoghurt." He said. "Yoghurt's my favorite. Give me yoghurt."

The girl ran to the fridge and got him yoghurt. The Doctor opened it, pouring it into his mouth, before spitting it out.

"I hate yoghurt." He said. "It's just stuff with bits in it."

"You said it was your favorite!" the girl told him.

"New mouth, new rules." He told her, wiping the back of hand across his mouth. "It's like eating after cleaning your teeth, everything tastes wron-agh!"

He stumbled back in pain.

"What is it?" she asked. "What's wrong with you?"

"Wrong with me?" he shot back. "It's not my fault. Why can't you give me decent food? You're Scottish-fry something."

The Doctor dried off his head with a towel as the girl fried bacon in a pan.

"Ah!" he exclaimed. "Bacon!"

The Doctor sat down and she put the plate in front of him. He took one bite and spit it out.

"Bacon." He said. "That's bacon. Are you trying to poison me?"

The girl went back to the stove and began preparing something else as the Doctor watched.

"Ah, you see, beans." He said.

She put the plate on the table, and, once more, the Doctor took a bite before spitting them out in the skink.

"Beans are evil." He told her. "Bad, bad, beans."

The girl got a slice of bread and put butter on it.

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

The Doctor opened the front door and threw the whole plate out.

"And stay out!" he yelled, shutting the door.

The girl looked in the fridge as the Doctor paced.

"We've got some carrots." She told him.

"Carrots?" he replied. "Are you insane? No, wait, hang on. I know what I need. I need…I need…I need…"

He looked in both the fridge and the freezer.

"Fish fingers and custard." He announced, taking both items.

Later, the girl sat across from the Doctor as he dipped the fish in a giant bowl of custard as she ate out of a container of ice cream. Finally, he picked up the bowl and drank the custard straight, and when he lowered it, a mustache of custard was left behind, which he wiped away with his hand.

"You're funny." The girl told him.

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

"Amelia Pond." She told him.

"Ah, that's a brilliant name." he said. "Amelia Pond, like a name in a fairy tale. You'd fit well with my mate. Her name's the Phoenix, but I call her Lily."

"Is she in your box?" Amelia asked him.

The Doctor looked down.

"No." he answered quietly. "She's somewhere safer."

He shook himself before looking back at her.

"Are we in Scotland, Amelia?" he asked her.

"No." she said crossly. "We had to move to England. It's rubbish."

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

"I don't have a mum and dad." Amelia told him. "Just an aunt."

"I don't even have an aunt." He told her.

"You're lucky." She said.

"I know." He replied, smiling. "So, your aunt. Where is she?"

"She out." Amelia replied.

"And she left you all alone?" the Doctor asked, surprised.

"I'm not scared." She told him defensively.

"'Course you're not." He replied. "You're not scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of the box, man eats fish custard, and look at you, just sitting there! So, you know what I think?"

"What?" she asked.

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall." He replied.


"You've had some cowboys in here." the Doctor said, examining the crack in Amelia's wall. "Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."

Amelia stood the door way, looking at an apple in her hand.

"I used to hate apples," she told him as he walked over to her, "so my mum put faces on them."

She handed the Doctor the apple with a face carved in it.

"She sounds good, your mum." he told her.

He tossed the apple in air and caught it.

"I'll keep it for later." He told her, returning to the crack. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing-where's the draught coming from?"

He ran the sonic screwdriver along the crack before checking the readings.

"Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey." He murmured before wincing, as if expecting a blow. "Geez, she's got be trained, hasn't she?"

"Who?" Amelia asked, confused.

"Never mind." He replied. "You know what the crack is?"

"What?" she asked.

"It's a crack." He told her, running his fingers along it. "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?" she asked.

"Everywhere." He answered. "In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together…right here in the wall of your bedroom."

He pressed his ear against the wall.

"Sometimes, can you hear…"

"A voice?" she finished. "Yes."

He took a water glass from the nightstand and poured out the water before pressing it against the wall and putting his ear against it.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped." A voice said.

"Prisoner Zero?" the Doctor repeated.

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

"Prisoner Zero has escaped." The voice repeated.

"It means that," the Doctor said, stepping away from the wall, "on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner. Do you know what that means?"

"What?" Amelia asked.

"You need a better wall." He replied.

The Doctor moved her desk out of the way.

"The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way." He told her. "The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or…"

"What?" she asked.

"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?" he asked her.

"Yes." She replied.

"Everything's going to fine." He told her.

The Doctor held out his hand and Amelia took it. With his other hand, The Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at the crack. Amelia peered around him as a bright light shined through the crack and it widened to take up the whole wall.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped." The voice said.

The Doctor stepped closer to the crack.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped." The voice repeated.

"Hello?" the Doctor called. "Hello?"

A giant blue eye appeared.

"What's that?" Amelia asked, afraid.

A small ball of light shot out of the crack and struck the Doctor, making him fall against the bed. The crack then sealed once more.

"There." The Doctor said. "You see, told you it would close. Good as new. Although, you have to promise that if you ever meet Lily, you won't mention this."

"Why?" Amelia asked.

"Because she has a tendency to blow things up that try to hurt me." The Doctor replied.

"But what was that thing?" Amelia asked. "Was that Prisoner Zero?"

"No." the Doctor told her. "I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent me a message. Psychic paper, takes a lovely little message. 'Prisoner Zero has escaped'. But why tell us? Unless…"

He stood up.

"Unless what?" Amelia asked.

The Doctor looked around.

"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here." he said. "But he couldn't have. We'd know."

He ran out of the room and stood in the hallway, looking around, confused.

"It's difficult." He said. "Brand-new me, nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing…in the corner…"

He turned to face a door at the end of the hall.

"…of my eye." He finished.

There was an echoing sound of machinery along with the sound of the Cloister Bell.

"No!" the Doctor shouted, running down the stairs. "No, no, no, no, no, no!"

Amelia followed him.

"I've got to get back in there!" he yelled, running outside. "The engines are phasing, it's going to burn!"

"But…it's just a box!" she told him. "How can a box have engines?"

"It's not a box." The Doctor told her, grabbing the robe and hook. "It's a time machine."

"What, a real one?" Amelia asked, disbelieving. "You've got a real time machine?"

"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilized." He replied. "Five-minute hop into the future should do it."

He looped the rope through the door handles.

"Can I come?" she asked him.

"Not safe in here, not yet." He told her. "Five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back."

He hopped onto the edge and prepared to drop down.

"People always say that." Amelia told him with a bitterness beyond her years.

The Doctor turned back and jumped down to look her in the face.

"Am I people?" he asked her. "Do I even look like people? Trust me, I'm the Doctor."

She smiled and the Doctor climb back onto the TARDIS. With one last look at Amelia, he jumped.

"GERONIMO!" he yelled.

The TARDIS doors slammed shut and Amelia watched as the box disappeared. When it was gone, she ran back inside.

She ran straight to her room and pulled out a small suitcase from under her bed and began to pack.

As she ran across the hall, she didn't notice that one of the doors was now open.

She headed downstairs, and out the door. She sat down on her suitcase and waited.

11:30…

10:20


The TARDIS materialized in the garden and the door opened to reveal billowing smoke and the Doctor emerged with a cloth over his nose and mouth.

"Amelia!" he yelled, running towards the house. "Amelia! I worked out what it was. I know what I was missing! You've got to get out of there!"

He used the sonic screwdriver on the door, and after a few tries, it opened and he ran in.

"Amelia?" he called, running up the stairs. "Amelia, are you all right? Are you there?"

He immediately went to the door that caught his attention earlier and began trying to open it.

"Prisoner Zero is here!" he yelled. "Prisoner Zero is here! Prisoner Zero is here! Do you understand me? Prisoner Zero is-"

He turned around and was hit in the head with a cricket bat.

A/N: Okay, so next chapter will be Lily in Torchwood. I'm going to be covering the six months between when The End of Time takes place and when The Eleventh Hour takes place in the chapters dealing with her. So when they finally get back together, the Doctor will have been away from her for roughly a week, but for her it will have been six months. Knowing Lily as we do, how many of you think she's going to handle that well?
I know it's not much different, but let me know what you think.

Abbey