The Doctor whipped around, squinting over the water where the morning sun was reflected. Sure enough, the statue had disappeared.
"Oh no," the Doctor mumbled under his breath. "This wasn't supposed to happen."
"Well duh! Of course this wasn't supposed to happen. I mean, how often does a giant statue just get up and walk away?" Donna countered.
"Whenever no one is looking at it," the Doctor replied seriously, running a hand through his hair.
"Excuse me?" Donna said, a hand on her hip.
"Donna," the Doctor said, turning sharply to face her. "You need to listen very closely to what I am about to say."
"Oh no you don't! Last time you said that you teleported me to the TARDIS, which may I remind you, did NOT turn out very well, so—"
"Donna! Listen to me! I'm not trying to trick you! The Statue of Liberty is not actually a statue!" the Doctor said loudly to cover up Donna's ramblings.
"-What?" Donna said, stopping to give the Doctor a confused look.
"There are these creatures, these beings known as Weeping Angels. They take on the appearance of a statue only when you are looking at it. If you blink, if you look away, if you turn your back for just one second, Donna…that's when they can move. They move faster than lightning. One touch, and they will zap you into the past, and all of the energy you would have used for the rest of your life is what they feed off of. And the Statue of Liberty is one of these. It was the best of its kind long ago, and it needed to be dealt with. So I placed it here on Liberty Island where eyes would be on it at every single moment and it could never move again. But now, everyone is looking the other way at the twin towers, and it is free again."
The Doctor and Donna stared at each other in silence as the sound of the first tower crashing down to the ground filled the air.
"Well isn't that wizard," Donna whispered. "So what are we going to do?"
The Doctor smiled widely at her determined response before taking off toward the shoreline. Donna struggled to keep up with his ridiculously fast pace. His trench coat blew in the wind, making it easy for Donna to keep an eye on where he was. But by the time she caught up, the Doctor was already standing at a large booth where people could rent boats for sailing.
"Excuse me, miss, I need to borrow one of your boats to get to Liberty Island as quickly as possible," the Doctor was saying as Donna leaned against the booth to catch her breath.
"Um, sir? If you haven't noticed, the World Trade Centers are—"
At that moment, the second tower fell.
"Oh my God! Grace! The second one just fell!" the woman shouted. She was a tall, thin woman in her twenties with short black hair and brilliant green eyes. Donna resisted the urge to laugh at her resemblance to Harry Potter.
Another woman, clearly Grace, stood from a chair in the corner of the room. She had blonde cropped hair and was also thin and in her twenties. She crossed over to the window to see that the twin towers were no longer standing.
"I knew something like this would happen. Our government is so inefficient," Grace said, shaking her head sadly.
"I—I think I dreamt this," the woman with the black hair said slowly. "Yeah…I dreamt this last night! Oh my gosh."
Silence.
"Anyway, not to interrupt you two, but I need to get to Liberty Island right away," the Doctor said.
"Why the hell do you want to go to Liberty Island?" Grace asked.
"Well, if you haven't noticed, the Statue of Liberty is missing," the Doctor said calmly.
Grace and Angela looked at each other before running out of the booth to look out over the water.
"Holy shit!" Grace exclaimed, staring at the empty space where the statue once stood.
"So if you don't mind, I need a boat," the Doctor said again.
"Why? What are you expecting to find there? The statue is gone," Grace argued.
The Doctor sighed. "It's a long and complicated story. I just need you to lend me a boat."
"What's your name?" Angela asked, speaking for the first time since she had seen the lack of statue.
"He's the Doctor. I am Donna," Donna said.
"Doctor who?" Grace asked, looking skeptical.
"Just the Doctor," he responded.
"Oh my gosh…" Angela said, her eyes widening as she stared at the Doctor.
"What?" Donna said, looking at the two of them.
"It's you," she whispered.
"I'm sorry?" the Doctor said.
"You! You're the Doctor!" Angela exclaimed. "Don't you remember? You came here with your companion, Martha, in 1930! You defeated the Daleks at the Empire State Building!"
"How does she know about Daleks?" Donna muttered to the Doctor.
"How do you know all this, Angela?" the Doctor asked quietly.
"You were at Hooverville. You met my grandfather, Frank."
A look of pure realization struck the Doctor's face.
"He spoke so highly of you. You saved his life," Angela continued. "He told me about the Dalek's secret plan, how you stopped them. You risked your life for the sake of mankind! You climbed out onto the top of the Empire State Building during that thunderstorm! Frank thought you had gotten killed when they found you lying up there.
"He spoke to Martha at one point about who you are. You travel the Universe, through time and space, to places I can't even imagine. And you're a hero," she finished, unable to keep the sense of awe from her voice. The she blushed slightly. "You were my bedtime story."
Silence fell upon the foursome.
"Anyway," Angela piped up again. "To sum this all up, I trust you, Doctor. Call it family tradition if you must. Although I was the only one who ever believed Frank. But the point is if you need a boat to get to Liberty Island, I will provide the best." She turned and began walking with long strides onto the dock. The Doctor and Donna followed closely, Grace trailing behind, looking stunned at the turn of events.
Angela began preparing one of the boats.
"Angela," the Doctor said quietly, standing close to her so no one would overhear. "How many details did your grandfather put into the story?"
Angela grinned. "Every single one." Her grin turned mischievous. "Including your promise to let him kiss you for coming to rescue him."
The Doctor stumbled on the dock, Donna catching him before he could fall. He cleared his throat. "He told you all that, did he?"
"Yup." Angela turned to the boat she had been standing in front of. "She's our fastest," Angela said proudly. "I call her 'the Rose.' "
The Doctor stopped short, all thoughts of Frank forgotten.
"Doctor?" Donna said, putting a hand on his shoulder. The Doctor nodded and continued, stepping onto the Rose without further hesitation.
Once the four of them were on board, Angela and Grace crewed the boat and they set sail toward Liberty Island. The Doctor and Donna took their seats at the very front of the boat.
"Doctor, what just happened? Who is Frank?" Donna asked.
"I was here once with Martha, a companion from the past. We landed in 1930 during the Great Depression. Frank was living in Hooverville when we arrived. Some people in Hooverville had been disappearing, so we went to find out why. It turns out Daleks were behind it. They were using the humans building the Empire State Building to secretly begin creating their own species. They were the last four Daleks in the Universe. The Cult of Skaro, they called themselves. They took Dalek DNA and put it into human bodies. But I got in the way. My Time Lord DNA got mixed up inside them, and they began to fight back. They destroyed three of the four Daleks, leaving only one, who escaped. And Frank helped myself and Martha. He was a good kid."
"And she's his granddaughter?" Donna asked.
"Oh yeah. I can see it in her eyes," the Doctor answered.
"You look that closely to people's eyes?" Donna joked.
"Oh of course!," the Doctor said excitedly. "Eyes can tell you a lot about a person. You can tell if they are telling the truth or if they are lying to you. You can—"
"Alright, alright, Doctor! I was only joking!" The Doctor gave her a look.
"We're almost there," Grace called. The Doctor and Donna turned to see Liberty Island, the base of the Statue of Liberty looking rather lonely in the morning sun.
As they parked the boat, the Doctor leapt out and began running toward the base. Everyone had been evacuated off the island, which meant someone had noticed the lack of statue.
"Does he always run like this?" Angela asked Donna as they ran after the Doctor.
"Oh yeah," Donna said, shaking her head.
Angela smiled before picking up the pace and catching up to the Doctor. They soon found themselves standing on the base of the Statue of Liberty. Donna and Grace joined them soon thereafter.
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and knelt to the floor of the foundation. He crawled along to different spots, keeping his ear close to the ground as the three ladies watched him.
"He's got a nice arse," Grace said nonchalantly.
"Oi!" exclaimed the Doctor, Donna, and Angela at the same time, Angela taking the time to punch Grace softly on the arm. Grace faked being hurt until the Doctor spoke again.
"Aha! I've got it!" he half shouted.
"Got what, Doctor?" Donna said, hurrying up beside him.
"I've got the signal," he said, holding his sonic screwdriver steadily in one direction. He looked up. "Uh oh."
"What?" Donna said, looking in the direction the Doctor was. It was all water.
"It went out over the ocean."