Chapter 2: The eleventh hour
Bella POV
By the time we got to my house we were all drenched, wet to the bone, only to realize I didn't have my key with me seeing as I had left my purse in the store. I knocked on the door and Charlie opened it looking as if he hadn't slept in days. When he saw us his eyes grew wide and grabbed me in a strong hug that easily rivaled Emmett's and left me breathless.
"You're home, you're home."
"Yeah, shouldn't I?"
"Where have you been?"
"I went for a walk with Mike after work and… "
"We found this man on the way and brought him here, sir,"
Mike piped in and for the first time Charlie and looked at him and the Doctor who looked as if he was ready to fall asleep, or in a comma. Dad went to a full cop mode as he motioned Mike to haul the Doctor in and drop him on the sofa. He even hugged Mike and seeing as the Doctor had fallen asleep he only called Mike's parents, and made us a tea. After that he brought a pair of athletic pants and a t-shirt and ordered me to go to change in my room and give him space to change the Doctor.
After that the three of us sat down and he told us how we were missing for three weeks and our phones and bags were in the store. He had gone insane and called everyone he knew to find us. They had lost hope as there was no ransom call which meant we weren't kidnapped and were ready to declare us both dead as a big black bear made its appearance every now and then. Just then the doorbell rung and he went to get the door. I moved closer to Mike on the floor and told him,
"3 weeks?"
"Uh huh, we just got out of the store to help him and he got us here."
"Listen to me, no one will believe us if we tell the truth, so we're telling we don't know what happened, only that we were working and then we came here."
"And as soon as the Doctor wakes up we ask him a few questions."
"Before Charlie does."
We agreed on that and saw as the Newtons came in and pulled Mike in their arms and then me. Wow I knew they liked me but this? The Newtons left after agreeing they'd bring Mike back tomorrow at the station to tell what happened. Charlie and I shared the leftovers of a pizza and I told him again the version of the truth that Mike and I agreed on. I had no bruises except the ones on my knees from falling in the TARDIS. Dad put a blanket on the Doctor and we headed in our rooms to sleep. I was too keyed up to be able to sleep and I took a long warm shower.
Returning to my room I found a letter on my desk.
"Bella, I never thought you would do this to Edward. You left with Newton and didn't give me a call? The people from the rez came to my house today and accused us for hurting you. We were forced to leave the place that felt more like home to us than any other place because of you. I really hope that something happened to you because your little disappearing act has hurt us all, not only Edward. If you ever return, consider this letter as goodbye. Don't call me or any of us ever again. Alice."
I burst into tears as I read and re-read the note they left me, cursing inwardly them, Billy, the Doctor and my stupidity for helping him. I don't know how long I laid in my bed curled and crying but I only stopped when I heard a crush coming from the kitchen and a muffled noise. I got dressed quickly in my sleep clothes, dark pink shorts and white hello kitty tank top. I found the Doctor in the kitchen going through the cupboards, I felt a small smile rising in my face.
"Can I help you?"
He turned to me with an embarrassed expression that faded quickly as he declared he was hungry and that was the clue to start a mission to find what his new regeneration's favorite food was. I asked him what the heck happened and he changed his face and he told me about him.
"When you met me I was dying. My body fixed itself and now I look like this."
He gestured to his face. I nodded, to show I was following.
"That's regeneration… a way of cheating death…"
Then he looked right into my face, into my eyes, pokerfaced.
"I travel through time and space. I am a Time Lord, from the distant planet Gallifrey. I am nine-hundred-and-six-years old."
He flashed me a sassy smirk.
"And I just landed my spaceship here."
I just stared at him, not speaking, not breathing, just looking at him. Then I started laughing. You know the kind of crazy laughter you hear demented people have? That one. All the nerves I had as I found out that Edward and the Cullens left, that I just lost 3 weeks of my life. He simply looked at me while I was laughing and as I did my best to catch my breath. Then he smiled, leaned closer, took my handt and said,
"Don't get excited."
He smiled – and pressed my palm on the left side of his chest. Through the fabric of his shirt I could feel the soft thump of a heartbeat. I raised an eyebrow at him,
"You have a heartbeat. Shocking."
I had met people without heartbeats. I loved people without heartbeats. The Doctor's eyes locked with my own and he moved my hand to the right side of his chest. What I felt made my hand convulse and forced a whoosh of air to tumble out of my mouth.
Ba-boom. Ba-boom.
Under my skin I felt another rhythm. Another pulse. A second heart.
"What..? How..?"
One whisper was my answer: "Alien."
I fell heavily on a chair as my brain was running in overdrive to try and figure out what was going on. The Doctor was an alien. Of course, it all made sense. Like it always did in my warped little world of Quilettes and cold ones and treaties and tribal stories. The Doctor was an alien. What else would he be? Didn't dad just say I was missing for three weeks? A small, enlightened laugh drooled lethargically from between my lips.
"Huh,"
I looked at the Doctor and gave him an affectionate smile.
"You look pretty good for nine-hundred-and-six."
He let out a relieved chuckle; shaking his head slightly.
"You should see me in the morning"
"OK"
"What?"
"My dad wants to question you in the morning. He's a cop whose only daughter just went missing for three weeks along with her classmate, only to return calmly with a strange man in tow."
I smiled at him.
"What are you going to tell him?"
The Doctor made a gargling noise with his eyes huge.
"It's OK, I've fend off parents before. Wait is your mom around?"
"No, she lives in Jacksonville with her husband."
"Where?"
"Florida, they're divorced and I live with my dad now."
He let out a huge breath of air.
"Good, it's always the mothers."
"It's always the mothers?"
"Yes, they slap me."
"Wonder why."
"Who dressed me and where are my clothes?"
"My dad, he didn't want you to ruin the couch, I put them up to dry."
"Oh OK, now come on, you promised you'd feed me."
"Okey okey. What do you want?"
"Can I have an apple? All I can think about - apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new - never had craving before".
I stifled a laugh and handed him an apple from the fruit basket on the table. He took a bite, started to chew and then spit it off passing closely my right ear and threw the apple on the floor. Then he coughed.
"That's disgusting. What is that?"
"Apple."
"Apples are rubbish, I hate apples."
"You said you loved them."
"No, no, I love yogurt. Yogurt's my favorite. Give me yogurt."
I opened the fridge to see it was mostly empty, apparently the three weeks I'd been missing Charlie ate everything he liked and never shopped. Luckily there was yogurt in the fridge seeing as I was the only person that ate it. I took one and handed it to the Doctor and looked for a spoon. He opened it and gulped it and also spit it on the floor. He's so cleaning up, I decided.
"I hate yogurt, it's just stuff with bits in."
"You said it was your favorite."
'New mouth, new rules."
he swiped his mouth on his arm.
"It's like eating after cleaning your teeth, everything tastes wro-agh!"
He let a yelp and acted as if someone hit him with electricity. For a moment Charlie's snores stopped but started up again quickly."
"Why can't you give me decent food? you're American - fry something."
I shook my head and headed to the cooker where I made him Charlie's favorite breakfast. Bacon. I served him a plate and he took only one bite smiling at me before he spit it back out.
"Are you truing to poison me?"
I bit back the "Do you want me to?" answer that was begging to be said and I worked through the cupboards. I found a can of red beans, it wasn't expired so I heated it up on the stove and served him again. Again he spit his bite, thankfully in the sink this time with a "beans are evil, bad, bad beans" that had me fuming. Next was simple bread and butter that had him throwing the plate out the back door and probably hitting the neighbor's cats, judging from the mewling that followed the flying plate. His command
"And stay out!"
at the plate had me laughing hard in the crook of my arm as i tried not to make anymore noise. Since we had not found his new favorite food I moved to the fridge to find some carrots but he didn't even want to hear it so he opened the big freezer to get the fish fingers I made from dad's last catch (three weeks ago) and the custard I made when I served a roast to dad. I cooked them both and as he seemed to like it (judging from his huge bites and the fact he drank the whole bowl of custard straight, he'd better like it). I decided it was safe enough to eat my favorite chocolate and strawberry ice cream.
"You like it."
"Yummy."
"Good."
As he ate we talked more about his life and why it's been three weeks since this afternoon and he told me that the TARDIS is old and she's not very good with dates. Great! I thought sarcastically she could have returned us many years later.
"So anything scary around here?"
'Only a bunch of vampires and werewolves'
"Depends on your definition of scary. Why?"
"The TARDIS wouldn't have brought me here if there wasn't anything worth looking into."
"Not that I know of."
Unfortunately that was all the invitation he needed to go and grab his coat and go on a quest to every room in the house and me chasing after him to make sure he wouldn't wake Charlie up. I followed him in the kitchen, the living room, the back door, the laundry machine were he put his head in, upstairs in the bathroom. I stopped him before he entered Charlie's room and in the end in my room. He inspected it all, going through my desk drawers until I hit his hands away with a
"Hey!"
"Oi!"
he replied but stopped and turned his attention on the note from Alice and he read it but thought better than commenting on it and in the end crawled on my bed to examine a crack I had never seen before.
"You've had some cowboys in here. Not actual cowboys though that can happen."
At my non amused face he went on with a serious expression
"This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing - where's the draft coming from?"
He leaned back and pulled lighter with a blue light and pointed it at my wall. Then he read it as if he was reading a thermometer.
"Wibbly-wobbly, timey - wimey." Huh? "You know what the crack is?"
"An old crack in the paint?"
"It's a crack."
"Really? I'd never think a crack was just a crack."
He gave me a "don't be difficult" look and went on.
"I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, cause the crack isn't in the wall."
"Come again?"
"The crack isn't in the wall."
"Where is it then?"
"Everywhere. In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together right here in the wall of your bedroom." He looked at me "Sometimes, can you hear..."
he waited and turned to look at me.
"Don't look at me, that wasn't here the last time I was in my room."
He looked at me strangely and then pressed his ear on the wall. A strange noise was heard and he moved back to grab the glass from my nightstand, threw the water over his shoulder and used the glass to hear on the wall like they do in the movies and then said,
"Prisoner Zero has escaped."
"What? what does that mean? Do I need to tell Charlie?"
"It means that on the other side of this wall there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner. Do you know what that means?"
"That this is all a bad dream and I'll wake up? Because on the other side of this wall there is nothing but the front of the house."
"You need a better wall."
He gave me a sassy smirk, took my desk and put it away, took my hand and pointed the flashlight on the crack. The crack trembled and opened large. I gulped as a loud voice said "Prisoner Zero has escaped." The Doctor still holding my hand, leaned in slowly and said "Hello," a couple times. A huge eyeball appeared and zoomed on us. I admit i jumped up in fright. the eye sent a shiny something straight in the Doctor's gut and got him on his knees. Then it closed.
"See? good as new."
"What was that thing? Prisoner Zero?"
"No, I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard, whatever it was, it sent me a message. Psychic paper."
And showed me a leather pocket with a completely blank piece of paper in.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped. Why tell us?"
"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here," I finished for him.
"But he couldn't have. We'd know."
Just then Charlie's alarm went off and a quick glance outside told me the sun was starting to rise. 6.30 am. Where did the night go? I shooed the Doctor downstairs to pretend he's asleep until Charlie would show up and I jumped in my bed to do the same. True enough, less that five minutes later I heard my door open and close after I felt a light kiss on my forehead and I jumped up to get dressed and appear as if I had just woken up. A pair of jeans, a simple pink top and my cowboy boots (as I couldn't find my beloved sneakers anywhere) and I ran downstairs to see dad and the Doctor talk over coffee on the kitchen table. I stopped dead on my tracks and I walked in the kitchen slowly.
"Good morning dad, Doctor."
"Morning Bells. Doctor Smith was just telling me about these days. He got in an accident and you and Mike pulled him of his car before it exploded. You must have fainted and you woke up today. That explains why neither you nor Mike remembers anything else."
Doctor Smith? I simply smiled and nodded. Dad left after that to go to the station and write a report about me and Mike going missing and then returning last night. he left me with a happy birthday and a hug. As soon as I heard the cruiser pulling away I turned to the Doctor.
"Doctor Smith?"
"John Smith, just a name I like to use, see?"
he flashed me the blank paper from last night and I shook my head.
"So that Prisoner Zero, what do we do?"
"Catch him and send him back, of course."
"Right. And how do we do that?"
"We?"
"Yes we, that thing came out of my wall, remember?"
He gave me a big happy grin and we got up to get out. I reminded him he's still in sweat pants and he shrugged simply pulling his sneakers on. He got a strange look and ran upstairs. When I followed he stopped me and asked me how many rooms are on this floor. Astonished I told him, three. He insisted on four. Insisted I look in the corner of my eye and he was right, there was another door, right next to Charlie's room. I let my feet guide me to it and he run behind me telling me not to open that door but me being me didn't listen and entered it. In the end he was right, I shouldn't have entered. I had seen a floating, blue snake-like thing. On the table in the middle of the room I found the flashlight the Doctor used last night and brought it to him when I got out. Right then a light appeared under the door. The door opened and we both saw a man with a dog and a tool belt on his waist.
Later that day
The Doctor, Mike and I sat at the old playground discussing our day. The alien thing in my house, the out of this world voice that threatened to incinerate my house or actually the whole planet as the Doctor figured out later, the run we did and I didn't lose my balance once, how the three of us saved the world in 20 minutes! How the Doctor and I had run in the square, run into Mike who told us about the host of the Prisoner Zero, the huge floating eye, the way Mike and I went to the hospital and the Doctor went to Eric's (who he secretly named "the geek") place and used his laptop (yeah I know), somehow he got every single agency on the planet to somehow use it when he found Prisoner Zero, how I entered the "secret zone" in the hospital by using my daddy's name (kill me now), got that alien thing talking to kill time (thank you James) until the Doctor got there and of course how he broke a window to get in having stolen a fire fighter truck to get in. I swear this man has a flare for the dramatic! She gave a few lines about the universe being cracked (to which Mike looked at me and I shook my head since I'd tell him later), how something called "the Pandorica" will open and silence will fall, (have no idea what that means by the way - note to self, note all that down somewhere), the huge ship with the hanging eye coming also through the window to get their prisoner, me fainting (as I was later told) and the Prisoner Zero taking Doctor's form in my dad's clothes, (according to Mike that was a funny bit as the Doctor had no idea how he looked and acted like a spoiled three year old not getting its way), the Doctor talking to me and getting me to think about the real form of the prisoner (note to self - talk with the Doctor about my mind's shield, that thing is confusing), me changing the image from the Doctor to the real snake-like Prisoner Zero, the floating eye aka atraxi - locating their prisoner and taking him - me waking up, the Doctor bringing the aliens back after sending them away (Mike's words, not mine), us all rushing to the roof, the Doctor giving weird lines (and he thought were funny or appropriate - they didn't believe me), the floating eye scanning him, the two of them having a bantering contest, a huge screen-like ball appearing between them showing random things among which a series of men faces (they were all the Doctor - mind that all of them where getting younger and younger - talk about mid-life crisis) ending with the Doctor standing in front of us, to the Doctor telling them to butt out as he's the Doctor and protects the Earth. Of course then he started running like crazy which had us following him also running like crazy to the forest behind my house where the TARDIS had landed the previous day.
It looked brand new, painted in a lighter shade of blue and standing proud in the middle of the woods. When we got there a few moments after him I knelt on the ground to gather my breath and after exchanging a look with Mike we hesitantly almost got in. The Doctor stepped out looking different. His hair was neater, combed to the side. He was dressed in an off-white shirt with vertical lines, a crimson bow-tie and a light brown tweed jacket; he wore black rolled-up trousers and black lace-up boots. I appraised him, eyebrows raised.
"You have weirder fashion sense than me."
"How did you do that so fast? we were barely five minutes behind you,"
Mike piped in.
"Time Lord, remember?"
He chuckled at Mike's face holding out his hand. Between his fingers was a key hanging from a long chain.
"Yours, I believe."
"Mine?"
"So what do you think?"
"Of what?"
"Other planets. Want to check some out?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means... well, it means come with me. Both of you."
"Where?"
"Wherever you like."
"We can't, we have school in the morning."
"I'll bring you back for school."
"Promise?"
He nodded smiling, I smiled back.
"I'm in. Mike?"
"I don't know, we can't disappear again."
"You have a point."
"How about you Bella come with me and the next time Mike you will have seen I can and will bring you back by the morning, so you can join us." He snapped his fingers and the door opened, Mike and I got in and it was different. Not only clean but different. There were a lot of stairs now and the theme was different.
That's how we ended up on this bench working on our stories after making a pit stop at his parents' store to get my purse, keys and sunglasses. Official story: I'd go with the Doctor for one adventure to let him prove us he can bring me home by the time I'm supposed to be home to go to school. In case I wasn't, Mike would use the cover story and give me time while calling me to get my ass here. The Doctor did something with a green flashlight thingy to my cell and could get signal to and from everywhere in the galaxy. Cover story: I was so tired I simply fell asleep and texted him to tell the school. I gave a hug to Mike and we parted. He went home and I took the Doctor's hand and got in the TARDIS for "the adventure of a life time," as he put it.
"All of the time and space, anywhere particular you want to go?"
I leaned back, smirked and said,
"Surprise me."
With a "Goodbye Forks, hello everything" he pulled something from the console and the low rumbling became louder, the TARDIS shook and we were on our way.
