Amy gasped for breath. She ran up the stairs as fast as she could, falling a little farther behind the Doctor with each step. He burst into the flat that Susi had chosen, and stopped so suddenly that when Amy did catch up she nearly ran into him.
She didn't have to ask what made him stop. Susi was sitting in a chair, pressing herself back as far as she could. The arms of a Weeping Angel were around her, almost touching her. It's hand was close to her face, as if about to caress her.
"Doctor?" Susi's voice was small as she stared at the angel, closing one eye and then the other.
"We've got it." The Doctor said reassuringly. "Amy, watch it. Don't blink."
Amy's eyes instantly watered, but she stared at the statue. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Doctor walking around behind the angel.
"Doctor," Amy said, "remember when we were with River?"
"Susi, close your eyes." The Doctor ordered. "It's okay, just close them for a moment, okay?"
Susi did close her eyes, breathing shallowly. "We met Weeping Angels before," she whispered.
"Susi, listen to me," the Doctor said urgently, "you can't touch the angel. It would be the same as it touching you."
"I know."
Amy closed her left eye, opened it, and then closed her right eye. "That thing's got its arms all around her. How are we going to get her out without touching it?"
"Let me think." The Doctor paced around, looking closely at the space between the angel's fingers and the chair. "There's no room to pull you out."
"They got Mum. They sent her all the way back to the sixteen hundreds. Dad was- Dad was frantic. We searched for months. When we found her-" a small laugh that sounded like a sob escaped from Susi. "That's when the adventure really started. They thought we were a family of witches."
Amy kept staring at the statue, although her stomach was clenched in fear. What if it took the image in her mind like last time? She didn't want to have to walk around for the rest of her life with her eyes closed. But if she blinked, Susi would be gone. The Doctor, too. He was so close.
"What if you hit it with a chair or something?" Amy asked.
It was Susi that responded. "The time zap energy would just take the chair and him."
"Time zap energy?" the Doctor repeated, aghast.
"Granny called it that once. It stuck."
The Doctor shook his head. "Trust Jackie to come up with something like that." He grumbled.
Susi laugh-sobbed again and opened her eyes. "You can take a break, Amy."
With relief Amy squeezed her eyes tightly shut. She didn't dare keep them closed for very long. She joined the Doctor, walking carefully around the angel and Susi. She couldn't see any way to get the statue away, since hitting it over with a chair was out of the question.
Susi's breathing was shallow. "Doctor?"
"It's okay, I'm going to get you back to the TARDIS."
"Why didn't you say anything about this being Mum's old flat?"
The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and then put it back. He looked around the flat wildly. Amy frowned at him.
"This is where Rose lived?"
"Yes." His voice cracked.
"So you didn't forget when you regenerated?" Susi asked a trace of accusation in her voice.
"I could never forget. Not if I regenerated a thousand times."
Amy felt a lump in her throat. How could anyone forget somebody that they loved? For a minute she thought she was going to start crying. But why was she so sad? It was the pain that the Doctor was trying to hide; that had to be it.
"Susi, you can take a break now." Amy said quickly, fixing the angel with a glare.
"If we had a potato gun we could just blast it away." Susi said.
The Doctor stopped his pointless circling and stared at her. "A potato gun?"
Susi nodded. "Tony used one on a Sontoron once. It was not happy."
The Doctor laughed. "He sounds brilliant."
"He was. The daleks killed him in the first wave. Him and Grandad both. They attacked our Torchwood institute first. There was nothing we could do." Susi breathed out heavily.
Amy felt light-headed. They needed to get out of here before the angel started taking them over. "Don't think about it, Susi," she said. "We need to focus on the situation at hand."
"But it's my fault."
Amy swallowed against the lump in her throat and struggled to keep her eyes from watering with tears. "Stop." She whispered. "Susi, stop."
"But it is."
"I'm going to start crying any time here." Amy warned them, trying to inject her voice with a playful lightness. It didn't work.
The Doctor picked up a lamp. He considered it for a moment. "Susi, get down. Amy, grab the chair. Get ready to pull on my mark." He hefted the lamp in his hand. Amy got ready, seeing his plan.
"But won't it touch the chair when it falls back?"
"When it rocks back, the hands will go up a little. It will miss the back of the chair." The Doctor said quickly. Too quickly.
"Are you sure?" Amy asked.
"No. Ready?"
"If it doesn't work-" Susi started.
"It will work." Amy interrupted.
"But if it doesn't... will you look for me?"
There was a moment of silence. And then, in a voice low with emotion, the Doctor answered. "Until the end of time." None of them moved as they prepared for the worse possibility. "Right. I'll be watching it, so the two of you can close your eyes. We don't want glass shards..." he trailed off. "Ready?"
He threw the lamp.
Amy heard it shatter on impact, and dragged the chair backwards. It caught on the rug, but with a good yank it was over. She kept pulling, her eyes still closed, until she hit a wall.
Her eyes snapped open, expecting to find herself surrounded by people dressed in seventeenth-century clothing. Instead, she found herself still in the flat. The Weeping Angel was leaning back, more balanced then it should have been. It rocked forward, and then fell towards the chair.
Susi jumped up and pulled Amy out from between the wall and the chair. The angel fell face-forward. It's head met the chair, and with a crack broke off. The body hit the floor with a loud thump.
"Are you okay?"
Amy almost forgot to keep watching the angel as the Doctor pulled her into a hug. She nodded.
"And are you okay?" The Doctor turned to Susi. He didn't hug her.
"I'm fine." Susi replied, a little too quickly.
"You're sure?" the Doctor asked.
If not for the looming threat of a headless angel time-zapping them, Amy would have rolled her eyes. "Just hug her already!" she complained.
And the Doctor did hug her. An awkward, one-armed hug, but it was a hug. Susi threw her arms around him, burying her face in his tweed jacket.
"It's okay." The Doctor patted her back, and then put his arms around her in a fatherly embrace. "Everything is going to be all right."
"But they're all dead – and it's my fault!" Susi sobbed.
"Susi, look at me. Look at me." He cupped her face in his hands. "We're going to go back to the TARDIS. And then we're going to talk. And you are not going to leave. Not again."
Amy heard the tears in his voice. She quickly alternated winking to get rid of her own. But she was glad. She didn't think that either of them wanted Susi to leave in the first place. They needed each other.
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Your eyes are just like his. You're the Doctor, but you're not my father."
"No, I'm not. But he did want me to take care of you, and letting Weeping Angels "time-zap" you would not be conducive to that, would it?"
Susi laughed, but quickly sobered. "But how are we getting out of here with that thing still there? They can put their heads back on. I've seen it."
"You've got so many stories to tell." The Doctor grinned. "But we're just going to have to leave it here."
They backed out of the flat, Susi and the Doctor watching the angel while Amy scouted ahead of them. Once outside, they carefully looked around for anything that could tell them where the Weeping Angel was now. Amy could hear a car engine revving somewhere. The three walked swiftly down the street, looking in all directions.
"Almost there." The Doctor muttered as they turned a corner.
Amy stopped, feeling suddenly dizzy. At the far end of the short street stood a Weeping Angel, it's left hand outstretched towards them. In it's right it held back a truck by it's bumper. The revving engine grew to a squeal. The truck broke free of the Angel, headed straight for Amy.