It was silent for a little longer than Amy liked. Everything was making noises around her, but none of them were processing in her head. She kept her eyes glued on the Doctor, waiting for any sign of life to appear.
But it never came, he stayed motionless and pale on the ground. Amy lifted her eyes and looked around, watching as people passed by without a single glance in their direction. Then he was back, the man in the strange coat. He bounced up to Amy and knelt down, grinning from ear to ear.
"Listen, I've gotten some help, but we need to get the Doctor back to the TARDIS." He began checking for a pulse again, which Amy had done at least a hundred times in the past ten minutes.
She shook her head, "We can't. The TARDIS locked us out,"
He sighed and swiped a hand over his face, then nodded. "Right, okay, then we stay here." The man sighed again and shifted his weight from foot to foot. "He won't be happy with me,"
Amy raised an eyebrow, looking back down at the Doctor and pushing strands of hair from his eyes. "Why would he be?"
"Um, well, the help I got… it's from someone just like him, but I'm not sure who will be coming with him."
"Just like him? Like another Time Lord?" She asked, running her fingers through the Doctor's hair again. It was getting messy from her doing that so often, but she couldn't seem to stop. He looked so fragile.
The man laughed and tugged at the sides of his coat, "Not exactly, but he'll be here soon…" He looked around and as if on cue, another man appeared beside him.
The new man sneezed and shook his head, sliding a hand through his gelled up hair. "I hate those things." He muttered, throwing a vortex manipulator to the ground. "Rubbish way to travel," he shook his head again and looked down at them. "Jack!" He grinned and pulled the man up, pulling him into a quick hug. "Ah, Captain Jack!"
The man known as Jack smiled, "Do you still go by 'Doctor'?"
Amy frowned and looked back down at her Doctor, beginning the long task of fixing his messy hair. The man named Jack called this new man in the red converse and tan trench coat the Doctor. Or that if he still went by that name. Either way, it wasn't right.
"Ah, nope, I go by John. Much easier for Rose and such," he responded, popping the "p" in nope. He stuffed his hands into his coat pockets and smirked, then looked down at Amy. "And you are?"
She dragged her eyes away from the Doctor and up to John. "Amy Pond," she turned her gaze back to the Doctor, another sigh escaping from her. "And that's the Doctor."
John nodded and bent down, "Okay, what exactly happened here? Besides the whole time unraveling and deleting thing. What happened to the Doctor?"
"We were going to see the Titanic leave Southampton and he looked ill… then he was fine and we came out here… and he collapsed."
"Oh, well I'm guessing he had to basically give himself a shot, which would only be a temporal healing. The liquid that was fired into his system wouldn't be able to last long with his timeline slowly disappearing. Or it could be that that part of his timeline was already deleted, meaning he never gave himself the shot at all. Which also means his timeline has almost caught up with him." John frowned and ran a hand through his hair again.
Amy bit her lip, "What will happen when it does?"
"I don't know exactly, a lot of things could happen. You could just blink out, you could be completely erased, or you could be completely fine…" He shrugged and scratched the back of his head, "It might be different for everyone."
It grew silent again as they all watched the Doctor, the silence finally growing uneasy. Jack cleared his throat and got up, "Face of Boe, remember that." He pointed at Amy and picked up the vortex manipulator. "Come on, John." He began typing away, then grabbed John's arm and flashed out.
"No!" Amy yelled at the air and began to shake the Doctor. "Wake up! Wake up!" Her voice rose, until she was practically screaming. "Wake up!" More tears streamed down her face, landing softly in the Doctor's hair. "Just wake up," she whispered, wiping her face. She rubbed her eyes and patted his hair down.
She lifted her head, looking around at the crowds and the people finally noticing them. She let her thoughts drift as the groups stared at the Doctor sprawled out across the ground. It didn't matter, they probably were just wondering if he was alive.
A loud gasp brought everyone back to their own heads besides Amy. She kept her gaze locked on the people, who all leaned forward at the gasp. Their whispers were beginning to annoy her.
"Amy." A hoarse voice said and Amy looked down.
"Welcome back," she smiled weakly, watching as his eyes started to become clearer, the glassy look disappearing.
He grunted and sat up, immediately regretting it and falling back into Amy. "Head rush," he explained and sat up slower than before. "Right, yes. Back and welcomed. Good," he struggled to get to his feet, his knees shaking. "Universe breaking down into atoms and I'm taking a nap on your lap." The Doctor pushed his thumbs into his temples and tried to balance himself.
Amy got to her feet and placed her hands on his arms, "You were unconscious, not taking a nap." She laughed softly and let go of his arms, "What is the Face of Boe?"
The Doctor's head snapped up, his eyes wide. "Where'd you hear that?"
She shrugged, "A man… he told me to tell you the Face of Boe and that he'll be back. But they were also calling him Jack."
"They?" He crossed his arms, his forehead crinkling as his eyebrows pushed together.
"Yeah, there was another man in red trainers… called John, I think." But the Doctor wasn't listening; he was staring at something in the distance. "Doctor?" Amy snapped in front of his face, trying to get his attention.
He blinked and looked back at her, "What?"
"What are you looking at?" She asked, her own eyebrows raised, "Who's John and who's Jack?" But Amy had already lost his attention, he was beginning to walk, his legs still wobbly as he started to run. He was running towards a group of people, all of them with their eyes locked on him. "Doctor!" Amy began to run after him, pushing passed the people he had gracefully dodged.
The Doctor stopped short of the group, his eyes searching for something. "She's not here," he said under his breath and watched as someone approached him. "Martha."
The woman looked confused, her eyes practically scanning him. "Yeah," she said curtly, "Who are you?"
He couldn't help but smile, "I've changed a bit, but I'm him. I'm the Doctor," he held his smile as Martha gasped.
"Doctor," she grinned and touched his cheek, "You've changed everything." She pulled her hand back and cleared her throat, then looked back at the group behind her. "We found him." She said cheerfully and rushed over to a man standing between a redhead and a blonde. "Mickey, we found him." Martha hugged the man and laughed.
The Doctor stepped forward and looked at them all. "Mickey!" He smiled again and patted the man's shoulder, then turned his attention to the redhead. "Donna, you remember? Of course you'd remember, nothing is the same here. The barriers separating universes are collapsing, people are remembering odd things, and I've got a pounding in my bloody head!" He smacked his forehead and sighed.
"Doctor?" The blonde said cautiously, stepping forward.
"Not now, Jackie!" He smacked his forehead again, a red mark appearing in the middle, "How could I be so thick? The pounding in my head! And the universe is dying because of time! When time ends, all ends! You can't just go on without time! And who would be focused on only the time? The key to kill all?" He was rambling now, ignoring everyone trying to stop him or interrupt, "A clever man! A very, very clever man! If you erase the timelines first, then you have a clean slate. A completely empty universe."
"What do you mean empty? Doctor, I thought everything would just blink out." Amy interrupted, grabbing his arm.
He shook his head, pulling his arm away from her. "No, not if you end the process and shut the Rift's energy down before that. They'd wait until every timeline of every species is deleted, then you stop it… and if you're the only one left in the universe, then there's so many ways to go about things! You can create your own species by just thinking it up! One idea and its there. The laws of the universe and the laws of time would belong to you."
"But who would do that?" Mickey asked, gripping Martha's hand.
The Doctor rubbed his chin and then began to wring his wrists around themselves. "You could take anything back. Anything lost could return, no consequences." He looked up at Martha and frowned, "It's the Master."