Back to the Doctor

Restart Part 2

"Shit Doc, this is heavy."

"I'm sorry, but just what the hell is going on here?" River demanded.

"You've explained everything to us before, but clearly you've now become part of the time loop. There's no time to go everything again, we only have an hour."

She took this information in with a stoic nod, but both men could see she was clearly troubled by this news. "All right sweetie, so what next?"

"Let's go, there's no time to waste," he gave them both a grin, embracing this chance to do it all over again – right this time and stop the time loop. "Alons-y!"

"This way," River pointed down the right-hand tunnel, grabbing a torch as the three started running towards their destination.

"Yeah, I know," Marty ran next to her. "I also know where the crack is."

"Crack? What crack?" River turned to the Doctor for an explanation.

"The nature of this time loop might be different than I had originally theorized, but I can't know anything until Marty gets us there!"

She turned back to Marty.

"You found where the explosion took place?"

"While you guys were busy chasing robots."

"Well," she huffed, annoyed at the loss of power from losing her memory. She didn't like playing catch-up. "I'm glad you two seem to have a handle on things, but who are you?"

"Marty McFly, pleased to make your acquaintance again."

"Marty McFly?" She looked like she was searching her memory. "Oh right, the boy with the DeLorean."

"It's in the shop at the moment," that or scattered across the Hill Valley rail system, same difference.

"The Doctor's told me all about you. You're much cuter than I imagined. I'm starting to see why he took such a shining to you."

"He's jus trying to help me save my girlfriend."

"How noble," she looked back to the Doctor, the man she clearly felt had all the real answers. "How many loops have I missed?"

"We've only gone through one with you."

"Hm, that makes this my 11th then."

"If someone else entered that loop before we did though, you might have been in there a long time."

"Well, this isn't my first time loop, but let's hope it's my last."

"Be careful what you wish for."

They left the finely carved ruins behind and continued on in the natural cave system. Before they did anything, they were going to find the little boy. Marty was going to make sure brother and sister were reunited by the end of this.

"Help! Help!" A little voice cried out in the dark.

"There he is," River smiled. "I didn't find him until the second time I went through the loop."

"You two go and get him, leave the torch with me," Marty was quick to take charge.

River looked at the Doctor with a bemused expression on her face, then turned back to Marty and handed him her torch.

"Yes, sir."

"And River," Marty held out his free hand. "Your grenade."

"Hm," she wondered just how many of her gadgets he knew about. "I was saving that for an emergency."

"That robot shows up, we'll have an emergency."

River looked to the Doctor, who had already begun scaling down the wall towards the little boy. "Do what he says," he said with a kind voice. "He's gotten the both of us out of a tight situation before."

"All right," she pulled it out and handed it to him. "Be gentle."

River started climbing down after the Doctor, smiling at him all the way down.

"It's like we've done this together before."

"We have," they reached the little boy and the Doctor grabbed the boy under his arms, ready to lift him out like last time.

"I'm stuck," the little boy squirmed.

"Grab his foot," the Doctor ordered, but River was already reaching out to get the boy loose from the rocks.

"We need to get out of here," the boy was crying, he was thin, malnourished, with dark tanned skin and wide brown eyes, they could just make him out in the torchlight as Marty looked down at them from above. "I saw a fire and I can't find my sister."

"The explosion," River nodded.

"Don't you worry, little boy," he nodded at River. "Now."

They pulled him out and once again had to listen to his pained cries until he settled into the Doctor.

"We're going to get you out of here," he patted the boy on the back. "Hold on tight."

They started climbing back up. "What now?"

"The robot's in a series of caves beneath us. It might be prudent to stay quiet. If he can't see us, maybe not being able to hear us will allow us to devoid detection."

They reached the top once more and rejoined Marty.

"I'll take that grenade back now," River held out her hand.

"What, you don't trust me to have a weapon?" Marty held it at his side, grinning slightly.

"A grenade isn't a weapon," she reached out and snatched it away. "It's last resort in a cave."

She started walking away.

"Yeah I know," he rolled his eyes. "I saw what happened the last time you threw it."

"We have to go deeper into the mountain," the Doctor whispered and they all lowered their voices so only the sound of the boy's soft sobbing were louder than their voices.

"To those six tunnels?"

"Yeah, you were close too. We need to go into tunnel number four."

There was a sudden clanging noise behind them, then the scraping of something heavy being dragged across stone.

"Already?" River groaned in slight annoyance.

The three of them turned around and looked back into the black face of the cave until they saw two piercing red eyes.

The Doctor looked troubled – really troubled.

"We're making too much noise, or maybe taking too long," he looked down at the boy briefly.

"The one time I didn't run into that damn robot in this cave was when I didn't stop to save him."

Marty felt uneasy. Were they suggesting that the only way to avoid the robot was to avoid rescuing the boy? What if leaving him alone means he gets killed during the earthquake? If he dies and they fix the time loop, does that mean he stays dead? He couldn't let that happen and he knew the Doctor wouldn't either.

River Song took a step forward and pulled out her gun.

"Come on then," she glared at the robot, "let's finish this."

To Be Continued…

(Writing this episode was a lot trickier than I thought it would be. I was constantly going back and forth to grab dialogue, descriptions and topics they had discussed in order to get everything right, and try to repackage it in a way that wouldn't feel redundant. Hopefully you are enjoying it so far! As I was tirelessly working on this episode I received an interesting e-mail, a fellow FanFiction writer asking me permission to essentially make his own version of this story. I certainly wasn't the first person to have this crossover idea and I knew I wouldn't become the last, but I had never expected to become some sort of authority. So for those who had ever wanted to write a Doctor Who/Back to the Future, you have my blessing to go forth and multiply… as it were.)