Coincidences
The next afternoon, Amy was strolling through London going over everything she had learned. She had found out it was the year 2005, which made her pause. A lot of big things were going to happen over the next couple of years and if she was to find Rory or the Doctor again, she may have to live through them. She searched all night but she didn't manage to find a clue that could have led her to Rory.
After the Doctor blew up Henrik's last night, Amy watched mournfully as Wilson's body was dragged out of the wreckage before she had fallen asleep besides a tree overlooking a pond in a local park. Before she fell asleep, she compiled a mental list of things to do. The first thing on her list was to avoid Leadworth at all costs.
Her younger self was still there, most likely laughing at Rory bumbling over something or scheming with Mels to get a teacher back or skipping school. She smiled softly at the memories of her family. They were the last thing she thought about before allowing fatigue to envelop her, drifting asleep.
When she woke up the next morning, she found that she was left undisturbed for the entire night. Looking around, she saw several people out on morning jogs and shivered in the chilly morning air, yearning for the warm afternoon heat. She stood up and stretched, working the kinks that had developed overnight out of her back.
Amy made her way to the public toilet and used the wash basin to wash her face, wiping away the contents of leftover makeup. While she combed out any knots in her hair, Amy pondered over what she should do next.
While fiddling around with her tan jacket, Amy discovered thirty quid stuffed in the bottom of the pocket and smiled. Rory always made sure she had money on her just in case. The memory of her husband caused her to tear up a bit but she quickly dismissed the thought. She made a pledge last night to find him and she intended to follow through with that promise.
Suddenly, Amy's stomach rumbled obnoxiously and she sighed. Before she could do anything, she would need food.
Deciding to conserve the money she had, Amy ate at a Pizza and Pasta place she passed earlier in the morning while looking for a place to eat. Now, she was seated at a secluded table near the door waiting for her pizza to arrive. She curiously looked around the area.
The place was fairly full as people sat eating pizza and chatting happily about current affairs. She noticed one brunette girl, who was picking at her food, her eyes stained with tears. She had a blue book by her side and Amy could just make out the title. 101 places to see
The waitress finally arrived with her pizza. Handing her the right amount of money for the bill, Amy wondered if she would have to get a low key job. She'd have to use an alias to avoid the creation of a paradox.
Finishing her pizza, Amy stood to go to the toilet, passing a man in a leather jacket with a champagne bottle in hand.
Amy froze. Quickly she turned around to confirm what she had seen. There was the Doctor, champagne bottle in hand, talking to a couple distracted by their heated conversation to notice him. Running her eyes over the couple, Amy took notice of the peroxide blonde hair and gasped.
Rose. Was the Doctor following her? Why?
This was beyond coincidence.
She then noticed something about her boyfriend. He was gripping her hand tightly and had a sadistic grin plastered on his face. His skin looked unnatural and Amy finally realised why the Doctor had followed Rose.
She walked over and stood right behind Rose's chair. The only one to notice her was the Doctor, who raised a finger to his lips, signalling her to keep quiet. Amy complied and watched as the Doctor shifted his attention back to Rose and her friend.
"Doesn't anybody want their champagne?"
"Look," the boyfriend growled as he turned to face the Doctor. "We didn't order any champagne-"
He finally realised who he was talking to and chuckled darkly. "Ah!"
Rose turned to see who he was talking to and Amy watched as her jaw dropped to the floor.
"Gotcha" the boyfriend exclaimed. Amy stiffened at the use of the word but quickly dismissed it. She had to make sure Rose would be safe. She then noticed the Doctor was shaking the bottle vigorously, glee painted onto his face.
"Oh, don't mind me," he exclaimed as he finally stopped shaking the bottle and pointed it directly at Rose's boyfriend. Rose stared at him in shock. "I'm just toasting the happy couple, on the house!"
With that, he released a cork and Amy watched it fly straight for the boy's head. Instead of bouncing right off, the cork was…absorbed into the boy's head.
"What the…" He then began to move his mouth rapidly in a chewing manner and Amy wrinkled her nose.
"Your mum never teach you to eat slowly?" she saw the Doctor roll his eyes from the corner of her eye and smirked. She noticed Rose flinch when she mentioned his mother and wondered if she was dead or something.
The boy stopped chewing and spit the cork right into Amy's face. The cork hit her forehead and bounced onto the table. Amy glared at the alien, who shifted his attention to the Doctor. People throughout the restaurant observed the scene, clearly shocked.
"Anyway." The boy deadpanned as he stood from the table, grinning sadistically. The three looked down to see his hand morph into a chopper, startling everybody in the restaurant. He slammed the chopper onto the table and snapped it in two. Moving on instinct, Amy pulled Rose away before she was injured and took her away from the scene while the Doctor jumped on the man and wrapped his arms around his head, similar to how he took off the arm of that mannequin back in the shop.
Amy checked Rose over for any injuries, worried that plastic boy had hurt her.
"Did he hurt you?" she asked worriedly. Rose quickly shook her head and Amy sighed. She looked up and saw Rose gaping at her.
"It-it's you," she stuttered as she looked at Amy in shock. "From the shop…!"
Before Amy could respond, the scream of a man reverberated around the entire room and she turned to see the Doctor with the man's head in his arm. The body was flailing around wildly, crashing into several tables and pillars and crushing them.
"Shut up and run!" she screamed at the man, who quickly jumped up and ran out the door. Amy noticed the body blindly approaching a little girl who was clearly petrified, waving its chopper maniacally.
The shrill sound of a fire alarm filled the air and Amy turned to see Rose has slammed it, yelling for everybody to get out. This seemed to snap the girl out of her stupor, as she leapt out of her chair and ran out the door with her mother.
She could see people running out the door but the teenage girl she noticed earlier ran back in. Amy was confused for a second but then noticed her book was resting on the floor. She watched as the girl picked it up with tears in her eyes.
"Look out!" Amy screamed when she realised the headless body was dangerously close to the girl. The Doctor and Rose hadn't noticed her and they ran through the back to the kitchen, most likely evacuating the cooks.
Turning back, Amy dived and pulled the teenager to safety. The poor girl looked traumatised and Amy's motherly instincts kicked in.
"Hey, it's okay" she replied softly. The girl looked at her. "Why did you run back in?"
"The book" the girl replied, holding it up for her to see with shaking hands. "It was my mother's" Amy nodded sympathetically. "You better run to your dad now"
The girl nodded, thanked Amy and ran out the door. Amy turned to follow her when a voice called out to her.
"Oi, ginger!" she turned to see the Doctor beckoning for her to join him, plastic head still tucked under his arm. Amy ran towards him, noticing the body was also following them. She followed him through a kitchen and a narrow corridor. She pulled down stacked chairs in an effort to slow the body down. For a headless dummy, it was surprisingly agile.
They ran out through another door and found themselves in a spacious back area. She could see Rose desperately trying to open a chained gate. Amy slammed the door behind her and used her weight to keep it closed as she felt the body fight to open it. The Doctor pushed her out of the way and locked it with the sonic screwdriver.
"Use that tube thing! Come on!" Rose screamed. Amy noticed desperation was laced into her tone. The Doctor just shrugged, completely ignoring her emotional state as he started strolling towards a blue box.
Amy felt as if time froze. It was the TARDIS, her spaceship. The mythical blue box that was bigger on the inside that never took them to where they wanted to go, but to where they needed. Old, new and the bluest blue ever. A tear fell from Amy's eyes and she smiled at the sentient time machine.
"Nah," the Doctor chuckled and Amy remembered the current situation. "Tell you what, let's go in here" he pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked it. Amy suddenly remembered the key still in the pocket of her jeans and decided to hide it from him.
Amy wrestled over whether she should step into the TARDIS or not. Apart from pulling her away from the head, he acted like he completely forgot she was there. To be fair, he did come back for her. Amy smiled at the thought. No matter what regeneration, the Doctor always came back for her.
"You can't hide inside a wooden box!" Rose cried, eyeballing the TARDIS. Amy sighed. She couldn't leave the girl on her own. The plastic body slammed on the door again and Rose gasped.
"It's going to get us…" she yelled as she ran to the gate. She used all her strength to try and pry the gate open but she still failed. "Doctor…!"
Rose finally moved away from the gate and ran into the TARDIS. Amy blew out a breath of relief and was about to join them when she collided with Rose's back. The girl stared at the police box in shock, circling it as if she was trying to convince herself there was a reason it was bigger on the inside. She circled the whole of the TARDIS and joined a very confused Amy at the doors.
"It's…" she trailed off when the plastic boyfriend managed to make a dent in the door. Amy grabbed the girl by the arm and dragged her into the TARDIS for her own safety. Amy turned and gasped in shock at the sight.
It was the same console room her and Rory ran into to disable the shields so the Doctor and Idris could get into the TARDIS. Everything was the same, from the time rotor in the middle, which shone a noticeably marine blue hue, to the large Y-shaped structures Amy and Rory hid behind to avoid disintegration.
It wasn't the TARDIS she was used to but it was still magnificent. Suddenly, the frenzy and paranoia from when she first entered the TARDIS bubbled inside her. She wasn't meant to be here…yet he she was.
"It's going to follow us!" Rose yelled feebly before freezing again, as if she finally realised where she was. The Doctor was pressing several buttons and pulling levers, busy at work.
"The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door and believe me, they've tried. Now shut up a minute"
Amy wondered what the assembled hordes of Genghis Khan was for a second before checking on Rose, who was still looking around the TARDIS in shock. She placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, which snapped her out of her reverie.
"Are you ok?" Rose nodded quickly, looking at the interior of the spaceship again in awe.
"It's just so…" she couldn't find the right word and Amy nodded in understanding. There was not a word in the English dictionary that could describe the TARDIS.
"Yeah, it is"
The Doctor finally finished fiddling around with the controls and turned to face them cheerfully. Peering over him, Amy could see he attached the plastic head to the TARDIS console.
"Right, where do you want to start?"
"Um…" Rose paused, looking at the man as if seeing him for the first time. She gulped and Amy placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Rose smiled at her gratefully before facing the Doctor again. "The inside's bigger than the outside?"
"Yes" the Doctor clarified.
"It's alien…" Rose trailed off, her face paling. Realising she wasn't a part of the conversation, Amy brushed past the Doctor and looked at the console to determine whether it had a similar mechanism to her TARDIS. The Doctor had taught her how to fly the TARDIS once but he was stuck in space and she was attacked by an entity and it was all a long story. At least she knew how to raise and deactivate the shields.
"Yep"
"Are you alien?" Rose asked, staring at the Doctor. Amy tuned herself back into the conversation and saw the Doctor staring at Rose intently.
"Yes" he replied. Amy smiled at his bluntness. He never did hide the fact he was an alien. "Is that ok?"
"Yeah" Rose quickly replied and the Doctor visibly cheered up. Amy made her way to a structure and placed her hand on it. She gasped when she felt something pulse between her fingers.
"It's beautiful…" Amy gasped. Last time she was in here, it was an unused desktop. Now that she was here to witness it first hand, she couldn't help but admire its beauty.
"Don't touch anything" the Doctor snapped at her. Amy held up both her hands in surrender.
"I didn't!" she defended. The Doctor shot her an uneasy look before returning to address Rose. Amy could've sworn she heard the TARDIS purr and looked at the rotor with a smile.
"It's called the TARDIS, this thing. That's T-A-R-D-I-S. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space" he explained.
For a few seconds, Rose remained completely silent before she covered her mouth with her hand and sobbed. Pitying the girl, Amy wrapped an arm around her while the Doctor stared at Rose uncomfortably. Amy rolled her eyes. He never did understand human emotions.
"That's alright," the Doctor awkwardly comforted. "Culture shock, happens to the best of us"
"Did they kill him?" Rose asked, pulling her hand away from her mouth, looking at the Doctor in utter distress. She sighed at the Doctor's confused face and continued. "Mickey… did- did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?"
Keeping her arm wrapped around the distraught Rose, Amy peered over the Doctor's shoulder again and wondered if the plastic boyfriend was Mickey. Meanwhile, the Doctor looked like he had just remembered the plastic boyfriend was once a human being.
"Oh, I didn't think of that"
"He's my boyfriend," Rose practically screeched at him. "You pulled off his head!"
"In his defence, he did try to attack us with a chopper" Amy reminded her softly. Rose shrugged out of Amy's arm and glared at the Doctor, ignoring her completely.
"They copied him and you didn't even think?!" Rose spat the question like venom. She paused and Amy wondered if the girl finally calmed down. She could see the Doctor shuffling restlessly and smirked.
"Now you're just going to let him melt?" Rose startled both the Doctor and Amy with her question.
"Melt…?" The Doctor whipped around and Amy could see that Rose was right. The eyes were peeling down the already melting face. "No, no, no, no, no!" The Doctor yelled as he jumped up and ran around the console. The familiar wheezing groan that reverberated around the room alerted Amy of the fact they were dematerialising.
"It's ok, I'm sure he's alive" Amy turned to try and comfort Rose. Rose looked at her mournfully.
"Why would they bother to keep him alive if they replaced him in the first place?" Rose whispered. Amy paused, the girl had a point. Rose bowed her head before turning to face the Doctor again. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to follow the signal- its fading" The Doctor explained as he scrambled around the console, pushing buttons and pressing levers. He stood motionless staring at the scanner for a few seconds. "Wait a minute, hold on…"
"Well?" Amy cried out when the Doctor wouldn't respond.
He didn't stand still for very long as he started pulling levers again vigorously "No, no, no, no, no, no!"
Amy realised they had landed when the Doctor left the console and brushed past them, running out the door.
"You can't go out there!" an alarmed Rose cried, tearing after him. "It's not safe!"
Amy looked at the control room one last time before joining them outside. The first thing Amy noticed was the RAF monument, deducing they were on the North bank of the Thames. She leaned against a railing looked in wonder at the city lights bounced off the water, reflecting London's majesty and allure.
Somewhere out there in 2020, Amy would be sitting right next to her raggedy Doctor discussing the ethics of their time travel. Amy smiled softly at the memory.
"I lost the signal, I got so close!" a frustrated Doctor exclaimed, leaning against the same railing as Amy, who rolled her eyes. Only the Doctor would ruin the serenity of the evening beauty.
"We've moved" Rose gasped in wonder as she closed the TARDIS door behind her. "Does it fly?"
"Disappeared there, reappeared here" The Doctor all but snarled at the girl. "You wouldn't understand"
"If we're somewhere else," Rose started, turning to look at the Doctor. "What about that headless thing? It's still on the loose" Amy realised the girl was right.
"It melted with the head" The Doctor stated brusquely. "Are you going to witter on all night?"
"Maybe we will, if you keep throwing insults at us" Amy threw in, having had enough of the Doctor's coldness. He turned to glare at her. Amy responded by glaring back.
"I'll have to tell his mother…" Rose sighed, rubbing her head. Amy froze and bowed her head, looking at the water. Her parents would never know what happened to her. Why she never came around for anymore Christmases or Easter's or…just to come around. The Doctor obviously wouldn't explain. He'd just leave them wondering.
He would leave them waiting for the rest of their lives.
"Mickey!" Rose shouted at the confused Doctor. "I'll have to tell his mother he's dead and you just went and forgot him again" Rose huffed and shook her head. "You were right, you are alien"
"Look if I did forget some kid called Mickey-"
"Yeah, he's not a kid" Rose retorted, glaring at him. The Doctor ignored her interruption and continued with his speech.
"-It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape on this planet, alright?" he finished, countering Rose with a glare of his own.
Rose's eyes widened as she gaped at the man in disbelief. "Alright?" she cried, questioning the man's authority.
"Yes, it is!" The Doctor retorted, crossing his arms. Amy sighed at his childishness. The fight seemed to have declined and both the Doctor and Rose resorted to not looking at each other.
"If you are an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North?" Rose asked suddenly. The Doctor and Amy both looked at Rose with a raised eyebrow.
"Lots of planets have a North!" he answered as if he was defending his pride.
"What's a police public call box?" Rose asked, looking up at the lettering on the TARDIS. Amy saw the Doctor visibly perk up.
"It's a police box from the 1950s" he explained, walking up and patting it lovingly. "It's a disguise!" he exclaimed proudly.
"Not a very good disguise, there's not exactly a bunch of police boxes nowadays" Amy pointed out. The Doctor just shrugged.
"Kay…" Rose shrugged it off, chuckling to herself. "And this living plastic…what's it got against us?"
"Nothing, it loves you!" he spoke with glee. "You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air…perfect!"
"Why do I feel like it's not as simple as that?" Amy asked, moving away from the railing and standing beside Rose.
"It's just what the Nestene Consciousness needs" Amy noted that the Nestene Consciousness was the same thing Rory was controlled by when she reunited with him in Stonehenge. Amy then noticed the Doctor staring at her and looked at him strangely.
"What?"
The Doctor continued to look at her with searching eyes, which made Amy uncomfortable before he turned to address Rose.
"It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all it's protein planets rotted, so Earth, dinner!"
Rose looked uncomfortable as she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her purple hoodie.
"Is there any way of stopping it?" Amy asked for Rose, who rocked back and forth on her toes. The Doctor pulled out a test tube filled with blue liquid and showed it to the two with a grin.
"Anti-plastic" he declared triumphantly as Amy looked at the tube curiously.
"Anti-plastic…?" Rose repeated, looking at the Doctor strangely as he ran his finger up and down the side of the tube excitedly.
"Anti-plastic!" he grinned like a Cheshire cat.
"You just happened to have anti-plastic on you?" Amy asked with a raised eyebrow. The Doctor shrugged innocently as if it was perfectly normal.
"But first I've got to find it" he continued, steeling his face for the task ahead. "How can you hide something that big in a city this small?"
"I wouldn't consider London to be small" Amy scoffed. She turned to find that the Doctor had wandered back to the railing, Rose right behind him.
"Hold on," Rose wrinkled her nose as she tried to keep up with the Doctor's thought process. "Hide what?"
"The transmitter!" the Doctor replied, turning to face her. "The consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal"
"What's it look like?" Rose asked as the Doctor walked past her and Amy.
"Like a transmitter" the Doctor inputted unhelpfully.
"Yeah, that helps" Amy replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"Round and massive, somewhere slap bang in the middle of London" he added, giving Amy a weary look. Amy wished she understood what went through his head. It was easier with her Doctor but this one was more aloof and cold.
Amy noticed he was standing by a rail to get a better look at London. Her eyes wandered behind him and her jaw dropped. Oh, of course. The Doctor seemed unaware as he continued with his rant.
"A huge circular structure…like a dish!" his voice raised as he thought of an example. Rose looked at Amy and followed her gaze and her own eyes widened with realisation. "Radial, close to where we're standing, must be completely invisible!"
The Doctor noticed Amy and Rose's looks and frowned.
"What?"
The two just motioned at what they were looking at. He turned to look at the London eye before turning back towards them.
"What?" he asked again, confused. Amy was getting annoyed by the Doctor's obliviousness. She pointed towards the London eye.
"What?" he followed her finger but he didn't see what they saw. "What is it? What?"
Amy exchanged frustrated looks with Rose, gesturing violently towards the London eye. She only became more frustrated when the Doctor continued to stare at the eye, clueless of what they saw.
"I really don't-"
"Look at the eye!" Amy and Rose yelled simultaneously, cutting him off. The Doctor turned to look at the eye before turning to look at them. Then he turned to look at the eye again.
Then he looked at them with a huge smile.
"Fantastic!"
Clara watched as the headless body started to melt away. She clung to her book tighter as the fire brigade and police looked at the melting body in confusion. She was worried they hadn't found the ginger woman who saved her inside the restaurant. A tap on her shoulder alerted her of the presence of her father.
"You shouldn't have done that Clara," her father, Dave started. Clara didn't want to listen to this. All she wanted was to go home and sleep for a long time. "Why did you even run in?"
"I dropped the book" she replied softly. Dave faltered and pulled her into a hug. Clara hugged him back. They had only come into London to spend the day after her mother had died to give them time to soak it in before her funeral tomorrow.
"Come on, let's go home"
"Yeah, home…" Clara whispered. While the two walked past multiple people and policeman, Clara spotted an unusual looking man with a ridiculous bow tie and brown tweed jacket looking at the restaurant with sad eyes. He looked startled when a voice came from inside the blue box he was standing by and jumped inside.
Suddenly, a stream of people stampeded past, blocking Clara's view of the strange man. Annoyed, she pushed several people in her way, much to the chagrin of her father.
By the time she could see again, the man and the blue box were gone.
