"Hide!" he said quietly, dragging Amy with him, getting ready to duck into another isle, when suddenly, there was something that sounded very much like a sonic screwdriver coming from behind the door. And voices. More voices. The Doctor did a double take at the high pitched sonic sound, running back and looking very confusedly at the door.
"No... That can't be..." he mumbled to himself, eyes wide.
"Was that a...?" Amy started, when the door unlocked with a click, and opened. And behind the door stood a tall thin man in a blue suit and a full figured woman with ginger hair.
"Ah," the man said to the woman next to him. "You see, Donna? Nothin' to worry about! There's nobody here at all. And no security..." The man raised a lone eyebrow at this, letting out an annoyed sigh. He took his hand and ran it through the mussed pile of brown hair he had atop his head
"Um, in MY defense," the woman retorted back, crossing her arms, "we're breaking into a museum! Not the sort of thing a regular person does!"
"Donna, look at me. Do I LOOK like a regular person?"
"Yeah," the woman who was named Donna replied, leaning against one of the display cases.
"Oh... Yeah. I guess you're right," the brown haired stranger muttered in realization. "Correction! Do I ACT like a regular person?"
"No, no, not at all."
The two continued with their banter, seeming not to notice the time traveling pair standing alert right in front of them. Quite possibly only a foot and a half in front of them in the circumstances.
"Doctor!" Amy whispered. "Doctor, they're not noticing us! WHY are they not noticing us?"
"I don't know..." was the only reply the Doctor gave, giving a grave look at the pair as they continued to talk amongst themselves, slowly making their way to an isle way of display cases. The tall man and the ginger woman even walked right in front of the Doctor and Amy, and they didn't even turn their heads.
"Listen, Donna," the man told the woman, by this time frankly annoyed with her. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm not taking anything I don't need... The only reason we're actually HERE is to find my watch!"
At this comment, though it was not very revealing at all, Amy made a connection. The Doctor was looking for a watch, and FOUND the watch. This fellow was looking for a watch too...
"You're looking for a watch too?" she asked them, surprised.
The man in the suit and Donna did a double take, turning around and looking directly at her and the Doctor for the first time since they had broken in. Donna stared, eyes wide, pointing a finger at them like they had just appeared from thin air. Meanwhile, the man just squinted, his brown eyes glancing calculatingly at the pair.
"Wait a minute..." he muttered to himself. "I don't think...-"
"Did... did you see that?" Donna interrupted, yanking on the man's sleeve. "They just appeared! Out of blinkin' nowhere! There was NO ONE there before, I saw NOTHING, and then I heard something, and I turned around, and now there's people there, and I just don't-"
"Donna, shush!" the man interrupted, putting his hands up to signal silence. "Take a rest! Deeeeeep breath!"
Donna took in a breath deep in her lungs as she calmed down, and then they began their banter again. It was like they suddenly didn't even notice the Doctor and Amy standing only a few feet away.
"I'm telling you, though," she continued, "you can't just keep stealing things that aren't yours! The TARDIS is bad enough..."
Amy glared at them. They had ONCE AGAIN taken to ignoring them, and she was sick of it. She had been ignored by adults thousands of times in her passing childhood, especially while taking about her imaginary friend, and she wouldn't take to being ignored any more. But this was a bit different. It was almost as if they had forgotten about them, quite literally.
"Doctor, I'm gonna get their attention again," she whispered to her friend. "They're ignoring us again, and I don't know why! I'm getting sick of it!"
"Amy, just... don't, it's really best if we just-"
Amy ignored him, walking right in front of the other ginger-haired woman and crossing her arms. The Doctor shook his head. Two feisty women from different points in his time stream meeting each other... This ought to be interesting. He prayed to Rassilon that he would be able to drag Amy out of here really quickly, otherwise a huge problem would occur. Things were already bad enough, too, saying as he didn't even remember seeing this place, OR these happenings with Donna... Luckily, though, Amy kept her temper.
"Hey," she said to the other red-haired woman. "You're Donna, right? Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation..." Once again, Donna's eyes grew large, as she noticed Amy.
"Where the hell did you come from?" she asked urgently, and then turned to the man standing next to her, who was now squinting in confusion again. "Doctor, did you see that? She appeared from THIN AIR!"
"Yes, Donna, I'm perfectly capable of seeing things, thank you!" came the man's reply. Then he looked really carefully at her, examining her from top to bottom. Amy rolled her eyes as she listened to him begin to drone on, talking technobabble. "Though it is weird... It's rare there's anything capable of this! It almost seems like a perception filter, but it's not! It seems almost... Natural. And definitely not Earth technology. Not from anywhere I've been. Tell me, where are you from? Who are you?" he asked, tilting his head in curiosity. Amy was about to reply, when the full extent of what Donna said to the man hit Amy in the head... Doctor?
"Doctor?" she asked warily. "She called you Doctor...?"
"Yeah, I'm the Doctor..." he muttered, looking just a tad bit confused and curious at her hesitancy. Amy's head began to spin.
Amy gave (the Doctor?) a look that made him think that he had dribbled on his blue suit. In the current circumstances, he honestly wouldn't of been surprised if he actually HAD. This was one of those more confudling moments, though in his long life, he had experienced much worse. He had a killer headache after all that multi-Doctor business when he was but a few hundred years old.
"There's two of you...!" she cried out, eyes as wide now as Donna's had been. "Oh, my GOD there's two of you!"
"Okay, Amy!" came the voice of Amy's Doctor, finally taking it into himself to enter the conversation. "I think it's time for an explanation!" The second Doctor and Donna did a double take as he entered the conversation, they must have not seen him either.
"There's two of you, Doctor..." Amy said blankly, mouth hanging open, still staring at the blue suit Doctor. She hadn't really taken time to look at him before, but now that she did, she took a moment to check him out. If he was really THE Doctor... which very well could be possible, as River had explained regeneration to Rory and her after they had watched the 1103 year-old Doctor die on the beach... Then oh, my goodness, he was HOT. Oh, that blue suit... it fit perfectly on his tall, thin frame. And the hair! All gorgeous and ruffled... What she would do to sink her hands deep into that pile of brown hair... She smiled dreamily at that thought. Amy then gave herself a mental slap. Don't think that, she told herself, even if he is the Doctor, he's not YOUR Doctor!
"Yes, Pond, I think I'm aware of that..." came the Doctor's swift reply, completely breaking Amy's train of thought. Amy could almost feel the smirk he gave that was directed at her, and she wasn't even looking at him. The Doctor then stepped towards the other Doctor, glancing up from his feet to look him in the eye.
"Doctor," he acknowledged, giving him a nod. "Good to see you again."
"Likewise," replied the other Doctor, hands stuffed in pockets, nodding back. "Well, more like nice to meet you for the first time, for me... Though I assume that all too soon I'll be seeing you every day."
"How did you know I just wasn't another person called the Doctor? How did you accept all this so quickly?" Amy's Doctor suddenly asked, eyes narrowing at his past incarnation. Usually, it took practically forever to prove the relatively easy truth to his past incarnations. Back when HE was the skinny bloke in the suit, he met his fifth incarnation once, the one with the cricket balls and celery, just after Martha left. At first, he accused the Doctor of being a fan. And it wasn't until trouble came that he finally realized...
"Time Lord," the blue suit Doctor shrugged, smirking as if this could explain everything. "I could of smelt you a mile away. And who else could it be, I thought. Though to be honest, it's getting pretty rare lately, meeting another incarnation of yourself. I'm not quite sure if that's good or bad, but..."
The most current Doctor shrugged. "Ah, well. I'd say it's more of a good thing than a bad thing. That's of course, when you're not about to blow a hole in the universe. Almost happened to me once. And it wasn't exactly my fault, either..." He slowly turned his head towards Amy, giving her a stern glare. "It was a certain Pond who made the whole situation unbearable... Nearly killed us all... And I can personally tell you, holes in the universe are NOT a fun time! And then there's cracks, which are even worse..." He stopped, thinking about this last statement. "Oops... Spoilers."
"'Spoilers'?" replied Donna's Doctor, raising an eyebrow. "I would of never imagined me using that word before. Now, mind me asking, but... how did I manage to die this time?"
The eldest Doctor glanced over to Amy, raising an eyebrow. She shook her head no. He then crossed his arms, swiveling back to his last incarnation.
"Spoilers..." he said again, smirking apologetically.
"Mm. Figures. I wasn't really expecting anything to come out of that, but it never hurts to try."
"Doctor," interrupted Donna, who was standing over in the corner with Amy, previously silent as she listened to the Doctor's banter. "Can you explain, in SIMPLE people terms, what exactly is going on here?"
Both Doctors stopped their friendly conversation, turning and looking at their redhead companions.
"From what I got out of it," Amy said, "they're the same person. They're both the Doctor. Yours came first, and then came mine."
"Exactly, Amy!" exclaimed the tweed-wearing Doctor happily. "At least someone sorta gets what's going on here... Before I was, well... me, I was him."
Donna slowly made her way towards this new Doctor. "You're really him...?" she asked, searching deep into his green eyes, for any such trace of her Doctor.
"Yes, Donna."
"But how can that be? You're completely different!"
At this point, the Doctor wearing the blue suit took over with explanations. "Donna, I'm sorry, I haven't explained this to you yet... But I think it's time you knew the truth about me."
All pairs of eyes locked on the younger Doctor, waiting for his long-wanted explanation. He took a deep breath, trying to figure out where to start.
"Time Lords have this... little trick. When we get mortally injured, our bodies regenerate themselves, and every single one of our cells gets repaired. It's often been spoken of as a way of cheating death. The only problem with this is the consequence. Regeneration results in change. It not only heals, but rewrites your entire biology. Appearance, little details in personality... The memories stay the same; it's still essentially the same person, just a different body."
"So you're saying that when you die, you just change your face?"
"Yep," he said, popping the 'p'. "Pretty much."
"Oh my GOD," Donna exclaimed, "what ELSE can you aliens do?"
Both Doctors just looked at each other, a mischievous glint in their eyes. Amy's Doctor seemed like he was about to say something, but shook his head, deciding against it. An awkward silence filled the air at this point, and it was then that Amy was reminded where they actually were. They were standing in the middle of a museum filled with war artifacts. In the middle of the night. Not where your average conversation is held.
"Doctor," Amy asked, breaking the silence, and both Doctors whipped their heads around to face her. "What are we supposed to do when there's two of you?"
"What?" both Doctors said simultaneously. Amy smirked, shaking her head, and clarified herself a bit.
"Exactly what I'm trying to point out. If we call for the Doctor, then both of you are gonna answer. And that's just confusing! Especially for us two girls over here! So..."
The Time Lords looked at each other, both trying to solve this rather minuscule problem. It was the older Doctor who came up with something first.
"Okay, this is going to sound daft," he asked his younger self, "but what incarnation are you, again? Sorry, very forgetful, I even forgot which one I am..."
"Um..." the younger Doctor replied, straining his eyeballs towards the ceiling as if he could look inside his brain for information. "I'm the... I'm tenth, if I remember correctly."
"That's perfect, then! We'll just refer to each other by our incarnation numbers, no more confusion! I'll be Eleven, since I'm right after in line, and you'll be Ten!"
"Um, excuse me," Donna came in, "but don't you think that's a little moral crushing, calling you two spacemen numbers?"
"Don't you think," Ten mumbled quietly, leaning up against a nearby display case, "that it's a little moral crushing, calling us two a spaceman?"
Amy cackled at this, whereas Donna shot a glare at Ten. Man... If looks could kill... The younger Time Lord then made the smart idea of moving away from Donna, who WAS right beside him, and closer to his future self, who was standing at the front of the small group of time travelers. He gave not so much as a passing glance to Eleven before taking control and speaking up once more.
"Right then! Not that we've got that settled... The watch. Where's the watch? You said you've already found it?"
"Yeah, it's right over there," Amy replied, pointing over to the display case with the Doctor's fob watch contained. "But why do you two want to find it?"
"No reason," Ten said, shrugging. "It's just special. That's all." He glanced sadly at the ground for a moment, probably in his memories.
"You know, don't you?"
"Know what?" replied the Doctor's past incarnation, looking up at his future one.
"That you can't take the watch."
"Yeah, I figured that out a few minutes ago..."
"Why can't you take the watch, Doctor?" Donna asked suddenly. Both Doctors whipped their heads around suddenly, so Donna rolled her eyes and corrected herself. "I'm talking to Ten!"
"Well, it's because..."
"Because if he had taken it, then I would already have it," interrupted Eleven, who was leaning up against the case holding the watch. He looked down at it. "I would of had no reason then to still come to this museum, which leads me to the real problem, which I've been trying to ignore for a few. To see if it would work itself out."
The other three time travelers listened carefully, Ten standing a few feet from Eleven by the wall, and Amy and Donna standing next to each other a little bit over trying to understand the vast amount of "Doctor speak" that was going on lately. They all stood there, waiting for the elder Doctor to continue.
"You see, if this was supposed to happen, then I would remember it. But Donna never saw all this!"
"Time can be rewritten..." Ten reminded him.
"Yes, I know that... If that were so, then I would be getting new memories right now from all this. But I'm not. There's nothing. This is an impossible meeting..."
"So what do we do?"
Eleven simply smiled and shrugged. "I don't know!" he exclaimed. "How 'bout we find out? Come to my TARDIS?"
Amy leaned over to him, and whispered in his ear. "Will that be safe? I mean, we're already not supposed to be here, neither of us! Won't this make things worse?"
"Oh, Pond," he replied, his warm hands resting on her shoulders, "I think things are screwed up enough as it is! Come along, everyone!" he shouted to the rest of the group. "My TARDIS is this way!" As he started to walk off, Ten came up behind Amy and Donna.
"Well then," he said, the hint of a smirk on his face. "I guess we're going! Off to see future me's TARDIS... Ladies?"
"Oh, no, I'm fine," Donna replied, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "You go front, I'll follow behind you. You with me, Amy?"
"Yeah, I'm here," came Amy's voice, catching up with everyone else. "I'll go with you. We can talk about how crazy the Doctor is!"
"Aye, sounds like a plan then! Now we better hurry, or we'll loose him! Come on!"
"If it makes you feel any better, then I know where he parked it," Amy whispered in Donna's ear, as they walked out the museum doors and outside into the cold night, Ten walking a ways in front of them. The eldest Time Lord was probably already at the TARDIS.
Amy did know that there was a big problem of course, but at that particular moment; she was having fun talking with another person who actually felt the same she did about the Doctor. And even with the ominous feeling that she had noticed in the air earlier, that she now had words to describe, she honestly didn't get how things could be bad. Oh, but they were... This was only the beginnings of their problems...
AN- This is very much a rough draft. I'll be constantly editing this as I write. I now have the entire plot thought out and even split up into chapters, and I do say that it will be a thrilling ride. It may take a bit to get up to speed, but I feel as if the story will be worth it. And yes, it is confirmed. Sorry, but there will be a character death. Maybe a tad bit of whump besides that, but not a considerable amount.
And for those certain friends of mine who have a huge curiosity, NO. YOU WILL NOT GET A FULL EXPLANATION OF THE PLOT. Sorry. But I keep my plot ideas confidential until I post. If you want to read it, my crazy friend, then you will have to read it on here like a normal person. xD
Allons-y!
~x Savannah x~