CHAPTER THREE: DO DOCTORS DREAM OF ELECTRIC DALEKS?
"Amy, Olivia, what is going on?" Peter said with a sigh as he ran a hand over his eyes, suddenly very tired. Rory sat down on the bed next to him and patted him on the shoulder. He could relate to how he was feeling right now as it happened to him daily when traveling with his wife and the Doctor.
"He's reaching out to you, Olivia!" Amy smiled broadly as her eyes lit up in delight and she took Olivia's hands in hers. "There must be something he believes you can do to help him out of this coma somehow..."
"Amelia, I'm sorry, but how can I possibly help this man out when I don't even know his name?"
"Oh, but you do, Olivia. You told us just as much when you barged in here a moment ago. You know him. You've had an 'Encounter' with him!" Amy said releasing her hands from Olivia's and standing up as Rory could see the wheels in her brain churning rapidly.
"Well, if the past four years of my life has taught me anything," Olivia said with a soft smile as she looked at Peter who was sitting next to her on the bed, "It's that things that at first glance appear impossible aren't."
"There you go, Olivia. That's exactly what the Doctor taught Rory and I." Amy smiled as Olivia closed her eyes to try and remember back to her childhood - a thing she hated to do and probably why she locked those memories up and forgot them for all these years.
"Try and remember, Olivia. Do you remember seeing anything odd or strange or a police box?" Amy whispered, moving to sit next to the blonde woman who had her fingers pressed to her temples in order to concentrate better as she delved into the darker parts of her memories.
Suddenly Olivia's eyes popped open, wide as she turned and grabbed Amy's hands in her hers and looked her straight in the eye with a smile. "I remember, Amelia. I remember everything!"
"Oh, boy," Peter said with a sigh from next to Rory, "Here we go again..."
"The Doctor. He called himself the Doctor. He found me in that field of white tulips all those years ago when I ran away from the Day Care Center in Jacksonville..." Olivia whispered.
"Hold up a moment, Liv!" Peter said, getting up. "That was me, remember?"
"In the original timeline, it was you, Peter. But in this new timeline where both versions of you died when you were a boy, the Doctor was the one who found me that night..." Olivia whispered as it all came back to her.
"Timelines?" Rory asked, feeling very confused now.
"Long story, I'll explain later." Peter said dismissively with a wave of his hand as he looked at Olivia.
"Right." Rory nodded. He had heard that quite often from the Doctor.
Just then the phone rang, jolting the foursome from their thoughts. Amy got up to leave Olivia and Peter to their thoughts.
"Uh, Dunham-Bishop Residence." she said as she picked up the phone unsure what name to use for the residence.
"Ah, Mrs. Pond, this is Director Nina Sharp from the Science Division." a woman's voice replied.
"The division where my friend is at?" Amy asked, trying to place a face with the name and voice.
"Indeed. And, the matter I am calling about concerns your friend."
"What's happened? Has he gotten worse?" Amy's voice raised an octave as Rory got up and came over to put an arm around his wife.
"We're not entirely sure what is happening with your friend. I had hoped you and your husband may have a clue. Can you two get over here as soon as you can?"
"We're on our way, Director." Amy said, hanging up as Olivia and Peter looked up from where they were sitting at the end of the bed in the guest room.
"Has something happened to the Doctor?" Olivia ventured, looking worried.
"Happening would be the operative word actually. Your Director friend informed me that something is happening with him and they need Rory and my help ascertaining as to what it is."
"Alright, we'll take you over. Should I call Walter?" Olivia asked as she and Peter stood up.
"Yeah, you probably should. Who knows maybe he will be of more help than us." Amy nodded as Olivia and Peter left the guest room so they could get dressed.
Harvard University
Walter woke with a start. He had no idea why he had awoken, but as he sat up in his bed in the makeshift bedroom adjacent to his lab, he widened his eyes when he saw a dark silhouette of a woman in the doorway. He closed his eyes, counted to ten, and opened them once more. She was still there.
"Who are you, and what do you want?" he asked, suddenly wishing Timmy or Astro were here.
"Help them, Walter. You're their only hope." the woman whispered as she stepped into the bedroom. As she did so, a beam of moonlight shone through the window illuminating her features. She was a middle aged woman of average height with wild and frizzy dark blonde hair and she was wearing a fancy red dress with matching high heels. Yet, most odd of all, she was soaking wet.
"You're all wet, my dear. Let me get you a towel." Walter said, ever the gentleman as he sprung out of bed and dashed for the bathroom. When he came back, the mysterious female was nowhere in sight.
"Why can't I have one normal night?" Walter muttered, sitting on the end of his bed and putting his face in his hands, "Is that too much to ask?"
"How is he?" were the first words out of Amy's mouth as she, Rory, Olivia, and Peter strode down corridor of the Science Division's Medical Wing as they met Director Nina Sharp at the door to the Doctor's room.
"Come with me." she said simply and led the four into the Observation Room where a medical technician was monitoring all of the Doctor's vitals via a computer array.
"As you can see," Nina began, gesturing towards the computer array, "his brain activity is increasing by the second. What do you make of it?"
Before Amy or Rory could confer with one another, a pair of footsteps echoed from the corridor and Dr. Bishop and his young assistant, Astrid Farnsworth, walked into the room.
"Good Evening, everyone." Walter said with a nod as Astrid set down his equipment on a nearby table. Amy thought he looked very haggard as if he hadn't slept well or something had happened to create stress for him.
"Dr. Bishop, is everything alright? You look stressed..." she asked, looking at him warily.
"I'm fine, Amelia. Now, about your friend over there," he said with a nod in the Doctor's direction, "two things have occurred to me. The first is that he is in a rapid dream state or his mind is being overtaxed by a sudden onslaught of memories."
After a moment, when he was sure he had nothing else to say Rory cleared his throat, looking curiously at the old scientist. "And the other?"
"Excuse me?" Walter asked in confusion.
"You said two things occurred to you Dr. Bishop." Rory said with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, right, I did, didn't I? The second thing was that I haven't had red vines in over a week!"
Rory just looked at him in bewilderment. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You're thinking of food at a time like this? Our friend is in a coma and all you have to offer is Red Vines?" he exclaimed.
"It's perfectly normal, I assure you, Mr. Pond. Most cultures have a custom where they..." he said as Astrid interrupted as she handed him a handful of red vines wrapped in paper.
"Walter." she said as he took them from her.
"My apologies, Mr. Pond. As I was saying, I believe your friend may be experiencing a massive wave of memories or is in a dream state. The only thing we can do is to wait it out."
As Amy opened her mouth to ask something, the Doctor's vitals suddenly calmed down and stabilized.
"The patient's brain activity has stopped and stabilized." the technician said.
"Well, that's good news at least..." Amy sighed, knowing her friend was still no closer to awakening.
"For now." Nina nodded as Amy leaned against a wall, feeling very frustrated.
"I don't think I can sleep after all of this," she said after a moment. "Can I go back to the lab and check on the TARDIS?"
"Sure, Amelia. And, then I can continue showing you around." Walter smiled.
"I think I'm gonna go back to bed, if that's alright with you, hun?" Rory said, stifling a yawn.
"Sure, sure." Amy said.
"Peter, I'll be at the lab too, so why don't you and Rory go back to the house?" Olivia said with a reassuring smile as she gently patted her belly reassuring him that the baby would be fine.
"Astrid, keep an eye on her, alright?" he said, too tired to get into another argument this late at night.
"Sure." Astrid smiled as they all bid a goodnight to Nina who was looking tired herself.
"So, what is this again?" Amy asked, laying a hand on the giant tank in the middle of the lab. She had seen to the TARDIS and after a brief flutter of noise from its engines and light from the bulb atop, it had grown silent.
"That is the sensory deprivation tank." Olivia answered. "It deprives you of all your senses so you can expand your mind via all manner of drugs. I even used it once to venture into my partner's unconscious mind."
Amy's eyes lit up. An idea was beginning to form in her mind. "Really? And, were you successful?"
"Very much so." Olivia nodded.
"Do you think I could do the same thing with the Doctor then?" Amy asked, hardly daring to hope that it would work.
"Now, why didn't I think of that in the first place?" Walter said with a frown as he began gathering the materials and drugs needed for such a venture.
"You do know that this process involves a massive cocktail of drugs including LSD, correct?" Olivia asked as Amy paled. She had never done drugs before save for the ones her therapists had her on as a child.
"I'm game to try anything if it brings the Doctor back." She said in a timid whisper, knowing full well that Rory would be furious when he found out.
The next morning, Rory and Peter arrived at the lab to find it in a frenzy of activity. The two men looked at each other, with raised eyebrows. Amy was waiting for Rory with a nervous smile. Rory grew suspicious at once.
"Amy, what's going on?" he said at once, folding his arms over his chest as Peter slipped past them to check on Olivia.
Before Amy could reply, Dr. Bishop came over with a tray of syringes and vials with a childlike smile on his face. "You'll want to strip to your underwear, Mrs. Pond." he said as if he was discussing the weather and then walked away.
"Excuse me?!" Rory yelled in a fury. How dare that old coot talk to his wife like that!
"Relax, Rory. It's perfectly normal." Amy smiled reassuringly at her husband as she began undressing as Astrid came over with a robe for her, not even batting an eye at the young woman undressing in front of her.
"Amy, I'll ask again, what is going on?" Rory said, seething now at his wife's odd behavior.
"Rory, can I have a word?" Peter called from across the lab with a knowing look in his eye as Olivia approached.
"I'd rather not. I'd much rather stay here with my unclothed wife!" Rory said, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at Amy.
"Rory, trust me, will you? I'll explain everything to you." Peter said with a smile as he walked into an office.
"Fine." Rory said as he stalked across the lab to join Peter in the office.
Olivia chuckled as she helped Amy into the robe as Rory slammed the door behind him. "He'll be fine. I was in a similar position as you are in once, in an alternate timeline..."
Just then the double doors to the lab swung open to reveal the comatose Doctor being wheeled in headfirst on a gurney by two EMTs followed by Nina Sharp. Amy closed her eyes as the seriousness of the situation hit her anew. There was no turning back if she hoped to save her Raggedy Doctor and ever have a hope of ever returning home.
"Mrs. Pond, Olivia." Nina nodded as the EMTs, under the direction of Astrid Farnsworth, wheeled the Doctor over to the middle of the lab where a mess of a trail of wires led to the Sensory Deprivation Tank.
"So, you're really going to do this, then?" Nina asked with a raised eyebrow at Amy.
"If I can just find the Doctor in his mind, I know he will have a solution on how to awaken himself." Amy nodded as she made her way towards the tank.
"How are you holding up, Olivia?" Nina asked once Amy was out of earshot.
"The baby and I are doing just fine." Olivia sighed, wishing life would just calm down and return to normal for her and Peter for a change.
"Olivia, I know you and Peter just want to settle down and have a normal life," Nina began as Olivia nodded. "But, I'm afraid that this is normal for you and the Bishops. As you know Walter has never led a very normal life, not in the slightest."
"How did Elizabeth handle it?" Olivia asked, regretting that Peter's mother was trapped in the alternate universe and her counterpart from this universe had committed suicide. She could really use another woman with Elizabeth's experiences right now.
"She took it in stride as best as she could," Nina began with a sad look in her eyes.
Before Nina could elaborate further, Rory and Peter walked back into the lab. Rory had a very determined look in his eyes while Peter just looked resigned.
"Looks like trouble," Olivia sighed as she walked over to meet them to see what was brewing.
"Walter, you better get more LSD..." Peter sighed as Walter's eyes widened in delight.
"Oh, goodie!" he said, clapping his hands in delight as Astrid got more sugar cubes out.
"Rory and I are going in as well..." Peter explained as Olivia came over with Nina.
"Rory, I can handle myself!" Amy groaned irritably. "And, besides the tank only fits one!"
"Ah, but Dr. Bishop can hook up a few more people with just a few minor adjustments. Peter told me about how he, Walter, and some guy called Bell traveled into Olivia's consciousness in a similar fashion." Rory said, not taking no for an answer. Amy sighed, knowing she was fighting a losing battle.
"Fine, come along, the more the merrier!" she said, throwing up her hands as she leaned against the tank, very annoyed now.
Olivia ignored Amy for the time being as she made her way over to Peter. As she stopped in front of him with a concerned, wary look in her eyes, he cupped her face in his hands and the young couple locked lips.
"Liv, it will be alright. I'm an old pro at this, remember?" he said with a wink as they pulled apart from their kiss.
"I love you, Peter." Olivia whisperer as he embraced her. It was a heart-wrenching moment to watch as he gripped the back of her head against his chest and she clutched her hands around his shoulders.
"I love you too, Liv." he whispered as they stood there, neither of them wanting to step out of the embrace.
"Mr. Williams, Peter, you should each eat one of these sugar cubes that I have laced with a triple does of LSD to speed up the process…" Walter called from across the lab as he held out a bowl of two sugar cubes.
Rory looked warily at Peter as he and Olivia broke apart. "That's quite a massive dose of LSD…"
"It'll be fine, trust me, Rory." Peter said once more as he led him over to where Walter had set down the bowl of sugar cubes.
"Peter, I'm a trained nurse. I know the dangers of overdosing on drugs." Rory protested as Peter calmly popped a sugar cube into his mouth and let it dissolve.
Rory just stood there with his arms crossed over his chest waiting for the inivitable to happen – for Peter to go into some kind of seizure or faint. But all that happened was that Peter suddenly smiled very strangely at him and to rub his hand through his hair. Rory shoved him back.
"What do you think you are doing, dude? You don't just walk up to another man and do stuff like that!" Rory said.
"Are you my dead doppleganger or something?" Peter said in an odd voice.
"What? Are you crazy? I'm Rory, remember?" Rory said slowly, not understanding what was happening.
"Come on, Peter, let's get you hooked up." Astrid said with in a gentle voice, one you would use when talking to toddlers. Rory just watched her take Peter by the hand and lead him over to the two chairs connected to the tank where Amy would be shortly.
"See, Mr. Williams, it's perfectly safe." Walter said, holding up the bowl with the remaining sugar cube.
"Is he tripping?" Rory said, aghast as he numbly took the sugar cube.
"He most certainly is. Take it from me who regularly takes the stuff." Walter said as Rory tentavily placed the sugar cube into his mouth and let it sit on his tongue and dissolve.
"Ok, Rory. You can do this. This is only a one time thing. For Amy." He said as he was suddenly filled with a strange, calming sensation and the world became a much more joyous place. Was that Amy dressed as a housewife making him dinner? Was that the Doctor disassembling his TARDIS and living in a house with River Song? And, who was this lovely maid guiding him by the hand to his armchair in his study? He sighed as he closed his eyes and sat down in his chair by the fire.
A short while later, Amy was floating in the sensory deprivation tank as the drug laced sugar cube she had consumed began to take effect while her husband and Peter were outside the tank in reclining chairs just going under as Olivia, Walter, Astrid, and Nina monitored their vitals.
"Mrs. Pond, can you hear me?" Walter asked over a microphone.
"Yes, Dr. Bishop..." Amy said dreamily as she sank deeply into unconsciousness.
"Good, now imagine a set of stairs, an escalator if you will." he instructed as the blackness Amy was seeing brightened and she found herself at the bottom of a massive escalator where she could just make out her husband and Peter climbing down.
"I see it and can see Rory and Peter." Amy said as Walter's voice and all the noises from the lab vanished, she had fully entered the Doctor's mind.
"Amy!" Rory said, leaping over the last few steps and running over to her with a great sigh of relief.
"I'm fine, Rory. But, where's the Doctor?" Amy asked, looking around as Peter walked over to the couple.
"We'll have to travel more deeply into his mind to find him. As you know him more than I, why don't you lead the way."
"Right." Amy nodded as she led her two companions out of the building they were in and out into the bright outdoors of what appeared to be a rather depressing London street.
"Whoa." Peter and Rory said stopping in their tracks behind her.
"Everything's in black in white..." Amy nodded, looking around for any familiar locations or sign of the Doctor.
"So, where are we?" Rory asked, looking around him with wide eyes.
"The 23rd of November of 1963 I believe." Peter said, indicating with his eyes a street sign that told them they were on the corner of the 23rd of November Street and 1963 Avenue.
Just as they were standing there examining their surroundings, a lone police man strolled by on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. They watched him amble on past an old junkyard.
"Hmm..." Amy said watching him go. Something felt oddly significant about this moment, but she didn't know what it was.
"This moment in time and this place is important." an odd voice with a strange cadence said from behind the trio.
"September?" Peter gasped as they all turned around with stunned expressions.
"Your journey will begin in the junkyard." the Observer said simply before walking away without another word to the trio.
"The junkyard?" Rory whispered with a frown at his wife. "What are we supposed to find in a junkyard?"
"Something Old," Amy said, her eyes lighting up, "Something New,"
And, with that she bolted across the road to the junkyard labelled "Foreman's Junk Yard" with Rory hot on her heels and a very bewildered Peter following skeptically behind them.
"Something Borrowed," Amy continued as she passed a couple getting out of their car and entered the junkyard, "and, Something Blue!"
"What, is someone having a wedding in a junkyard?" Peter asked not getting it until he had entered the junkyard and saw what lay inside. "It's your Police Box!"
"We found him." Amy smiled as the couple from earlier passed by them and approached the TARDIS.
"Hold on, Amy." Rory said, grabbing his wife's hand. "Who are they?"
"Who are we?' Amy said with a smile, "The Doctor's companions!"
Rory merely shrugged as Peter gave him a questioning look before Amy led them in a dash into the junkyard. He had a feeling this would be one of those days.
Olivia sighed again and began pacing. Astrid drummed her fingers on her desk, feeling the worry the FBI agent was going through. If something happened to Peter, not only would Olivia be without him, but she feared Walter would slip back into the man he once was.
"Don't worry, Olivia. I'm sure Peter will be fine. From what you've told me, he's been through more dire situations than this." Nina said, who was still there monitoring the Doctor.
Just then Olivia's phone rang. It was Broyles. After a brief conversation she hung up.
"Trouble?" Astrid guessed. Olivia nodded.
"There's been another Fringe event in Manhattan at Massive Dynamic." Olivia said, looking over at Nina. "Broyles wants us to have a look, Nina."
"Of course, Olivia. I'm sure Astrid can handle both Walter and everyone else." She smiled as she and Olivia made their way out.
"Bye." Astrid said with a sigh, feeling more and more like a babysitter than ever.
An hour later, Olivia parked her black sedan in the parking garage below Massive Dynamic. There was a resounding thud of the car doors slamming shut as she and Nina got out. The sound was deafening in the vast emptiness of the parking garage.
"It's so eerie." Olivia said into the silence, shivering as she zipped up her leather jacket against the cold.
"Yes, it is. I've been here late nights when there were one or two scientists working late, but this is something else entirely. No one is here anymore as they've all moved to the new Ministry of Science." Nina explained as they walked towards the elevators. According to Broyles, Fringe Division had picked up an anomalous reading from inside Massive Dynamic.
"It's like a ghost town." Olivia whispered as the elevator doors closed with a click and Nina slid in her access card and keyed for the top floor where her old office was.
Peter and Rory followed Amy into the weathered, old, and beaten police box in the junk yard. Rory, of course, was expecting to step into the other world that was the TARDIS' interior but was stopped speechless in his track when they emerged into what looked like prehistoric times. He thought he could make out a caveman staring at them from off in the distance.
"Amy, what happened to the TARDIS?" he inquired as he turned to his wife, ignoring Peter's bewildered look as he stood there wide-eyed in their new environment.
"I don't know, dear!" Amy said crossly, clearly not in the mood for questions. "It should be here!" she finished, putting her hands on her hips and looking in every direction for some sign of the Doctor, his former companions, or even for a glimpse of the console room. But none of them were in sight. Until, that is she turned around.
"Rory!" she shouted in shock, "It's the TARDIS!"
Rory and Peter whirled around and blinked in incredulity as they saw the Police Box standing behind them. "We must have bypassed the interior and went straight to its next destination!" Rory breathed out in wonderment. It had never done that trick before!
"You mean that wasn't supposed to happen?" Peter blinked stupidly, looking back and forth between the TARDIS and the Ponds.
"No, it wasn't." Amy whispered worriedly as she closed her eyes briefly trying to figure out what the Doctor would do in a situation like they were in.
Nina flicked the lights on as she led Olivia into her empty office. It was totally empty, the desk was gone as were the rest of the furniture.
"Brings back memories," Nina whispered.
"What does?" Olivia asked, following her inside.
"You and me in this office, albeit it was fully furnished back then…" Nina whispered as she thought back to that day all those years ago when Olivia had started her first steps on her journey in Fringe Division.
"Yeah, I guess so." Olivia grimaced as she fought back two timeline's worth of memories of her and Nina.
"You're remembering the original timeline's version of events, aren't you, Olive?" Nina whispered sadly as she looked into Olivia's eyes.
"Yeah," Olivia nodded as she turned away, batting away a tear. "The one in which you never raised me as your daughter."
There was a brief moment of tense silence between the two women as Olivia's words hung like an elephant in the room. Olivia finally sniffed and turned back around. "Well, we better get to work tracking down this anomalous reading that is somewhere in this building."
"Of course, Olivia," Nina nodded, back to her professional self.
Peter looked around at the barren landscape they were in and thought he glimpsed what appeared to be several cavemen off in the distance. "So, where are we exactly he asked? And, are those…?"
Amy shared a grin with Rory. They used to be just like him. Now they were in the Doctor's position. "From what I can gather," Amy said loftily as she looked around, "we appear to be in primitive times when the cavemen walked the earth, and yes those are cavemen."
"But, how did we get here from 1960s London?"
"The TARDIS, the little blue box we crashed in that river of yours." Rory supplied, taking over.
"The what…?"
"The TARDIS. T. A. R. D. I. S. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space." Amy explained slowly as he just looked at her like she was some mad woman off her rocker.
"So you three travel in time and space in that little box?" Peter asked skeptically. "Must be very tight space in there…"
"It's bi-" Rory started to say when the doors of the TARDIS behind them swung open to reveal an elderly gentleman, the young couple from before, and a young pre-teen girl.
"Oh, hey there, hello," Rory said with a smile as he offered his hand to the elderly gentleman in greeting. But the old man ignored him and continued on right past them as did his entourage.
"What's going on? Can't they see us?" Amy asked as she started waving her hands in the air trying to get their attention, but to no avail. It was like Amy, Peter, and Rory were invisible to the other time-space travellers.
"Must be something to do with the fact that we are in the Doctor's mind…" Amy ventured as the four strangers ambled on past them. "We must be invisible to all life forms in his mind."
"What about September? He interacted with us back in 1963, didn't he?" Rory asked.
"He's an Observer with gifts and powers I have yet to fully understand." Peter shrugged.
"Well, let's follow em!" Amy said, as she pointing off in the distance to where the strangers were approaching the woods.
Astrid ran a hand through her hair as she watched Walter putter around the lab and let out a long sigh. She had had enough of this babysitting Walter stuff and decided she would do something for a change. But, what? Suddenly as she walked past the old police box the Ponds had arrived in, her eyes lit up with an idea. No one had any progress getting inside; maybe she would try her hand at it?
"Ok, picking locks seems easy enough when Olivia does it…" she said, tongue sticking out from her mouth as she knelt by the blue box's doors and began to attempt picking the lock.
As she laid a hand on the door, the box began to make a shuddering noise as of ancient engines grinding and the light atop began to blink on and off. Astrid stopped what she was doing afraid she had triggered something within it.
"Astro, what are you doing?!" Walter cried aloud in disbelief and horror as he made his way over to her. "Amelia implicitly instructed us to NOT touch that box!"
Before Astrid could even think of replying, there was a shimmer of air from in front of the police box and a ghostly image of a woman with frizzy dark blonde hair appeared. Walter's eyes nearly bulged out of his head and he let out a yell of terror before fleeing into the nearby office.
"Help me, my love…" the image whispered before vanishing. Astrid blinked as she stood up, looking every which way for the ghostly image but it had gone.
"What on earth…" she whispered as she made her way over to the office to try and coax Walter back into the lab.
A few hours later, Peter and the Ponds finally caught up with the strangers just as the elderly gentleman was about to stone a caveman to death.
"Doctor, you can't!" the other man said, grabbing the old man's wrist.
Amy and Rory looked at each other, appalled at what they had just seen. Their old friend had been on the verge of murdering someone!
"Rory, that's not him! He's never been like that!" Amy said resolutely as she watched the other man toss the rock away.
"Come on, hun. I think we've seen enough of this Doctor." Rory whispered gently as he led his wife back to the TARDIS.
"THAT was the Doctor? But he's an old man!" Peter scoffed as they made their way out of the woods.
"He does this thing when he's close to death…" Amy managed after a moment. "He calls it 'Regeneration'. He changes his face during this process."
"No, really. Who was that?" Peter laughed as Rory shook his head.
"Find anything?" Olivia asked once she and Nina met up on the 25th Floor after a few hours of scanning the massive building floor by floor.
"Nothing's showing up I'm afraid. Could it have been a glitch in the new monitoring system we set up at Fringe Division HQ a few weeks ago?"
"Possibly, but just to be sure we should finish scanning the rest of the building."
"I agree." Nina said as they parted ways once more. This was turning out to be one long scavenger hunt or was it a game of cat and mouse? Nina sighed, feeling very exhausted.
Suddenly Olivia stopped in her tracks with a low gasp. Nina turned around and looked back at her curiously. "What is it, Olivia? Is it the baby?"
"Well, actually it's the baby and I just thought of something…" Olivia smiled, placing a hand over her mid-section as the little child inside of her kicked again.
"Nina, we have to get to Bell's office!" Olivia said, leading the way in a brisk walk to the elevators. "I think I know what's going on!"
"But, you said Peter and Walter saw William vanish after you were shot!" Nina said, following her into the elevator.
"Exactly, Nina, the key word here being 'vanish'! Where else would he go?"
"Oh, William…." Nina whispered in regret as a tear slid down her cheek.
Nina slid her keycard in the security reader outside Bell's office and a green light lit up in confirmation. The door slid open soundlessly as the two women looked uneasily at each other, neither of them knowing what lay in wait inside the enigmatic CEO of Massive Dynamic's office.
"Come on." Olivia whispered as she stepped inside before the door could close again.
Once they were inside, Nina let out a small gasp. At the far wall of the office was a crack in the middle of the wall that resembled a wicked smile. And strewn across William's desk as if someone had just left in a rush were a variety of blueprints and papers.
"There's no doubt about it someone was just here…" Olivia said walking over to the desk and picking up the blueprint on the top of the mess which was labeled 'Dalek Prototype'.
"And only William can access this office." Nina finished, hardly daring to believe it. She had thought she had known him. She had loved him after all. She still did.
"We have to bring all this to Walter. He may be able to decipher what Bell is planning." Olivia murmured as Nina went to the far wall and slid her robotic hand over the crack.
"Yes, of course, Olivia." Nina whispered sadly as she turned her back on the crack.
Peter followed the Ponds out of the TARDIS into a dark forest. He thought he could see the lights of a distant city through the trees. He wondered where they were this time. This was unlike anything he had experienced in the multiverse or the alternate timeline.
"Ok, you two where are we?" he said with a frown as Amy and Rory stopped in their tracks.
But before either of them could reply, the TARDIS doors behind them swung open to reveal the trio of time travellers from earlier. And, again the trio acted as though Peter and the Ponds weren't there and walked right by them without a word.
"Come on, boys, this way!" Amelia smiled as she followed the trio.
Rory just shrugged and ran off after her with Peter on his tail.
Back in the lab, Olivia and Astrid were going over all the papers from Bell's office trying to make some sense of them and figure out what exactly old 'Belly' was up to. Walter was running a hand through his wild hair and pacing up and down the lab as Nina debriefed him of what had happened at the former Massive Dynamic offices.
"Hang on, what's this?" Astrid said, lifting a single piece of paper out of the mess in front of her and Olivia.
"A list," Olivia ventured as she peered at it over Astrid's shoulder. Her eyes widened as they fell upon two VERY recognizable names: Amelia McCrimmon and Rory Williams.
"Why does William Bell have Amy and Rory's names on this list?" Astrid asked.
"Furthermore, why does he have them listed with different surnames?" Olivia added, scanning the rest of the list for anymore names she might recognize.
"Don't look at me. The last time I saw Belly he was trying to create a universe!" Walter sputtered.
Olivia closed her eyes briefly as she started to have an onslaught of memories of the dream she had the night before. "I think I am beginning to remember something…" she whispered as she placed a hand on the table for support as more memories began to flood her consciousness.
"Olivia, what's wrong?" Nina said in alarm as Astrid brought a chair over in which Olivia collapsed into as she was overwhelmed with over 900 years of memories.
"The Doctor…." She whispered as the others gathered round her looking very concerned.
"Doctor? Doctor Who?" Astrid asked with a frown.
"Amy and Rory's friend," Olivia continued as she looked over at the comatose Doctor.
"It's like I am peering into his mind and he is sharing his memories with me."
"Memories of what, Agent Dunham," Walter asked.
"Of running away from Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS, of meeting the Daleks for the first time all those years ago, of saving the Earth from a plethora of alien invasions, of several dozens of companions that traveled with him in the TARDIS." Olivia said, closing her eyes from exhaustion.
"The Daleks? What are Daleks?" Astrid asked, keying in on what she thought was a crucial memory.
"Mutated alien creatures cased in these upside down trash can-like robots. They are the most feared thing in the entire universe and the Doctor's most fearsome enemy. Their main purpose is to exterminate all life." Olivia finished, looking extremely worried.
Before anyone could say anything more, the doors to the TARDIS crashed open and a woman with wild hair came running out, looking very very wet and being chased by the exact thing Olivia Dunham had just finished describing – a Dalek.
"Get down or run!" the mysterious woman with wild hair shouted as the Dalek shot a laser from one of its 'arms' and a dozen test tubes exploded on the table behind Olivia. Astrid grabbed her gun and fired straight at the Dalek's eye-stalk. The Dalek stopped in its tracks and the top of its dome came off in a great explosion. As smoke poured out of it, she approached it carefully with her gun still raised.
"Is it dead?" she whispered as the wild haired woman looked at her with curiosity.
"Very much so. Nice shot if I say so myself!" she winked.
"River Song!" Olivia gasped out in shock as more memories flooded into her mind.
"YOU!" Walter cried out in terror at the same time as he dropped into his chair.
"I'm sorry, have we met?" River asked with a frown as she took in her surroundings all the while dripping water on the floor of the lab. "And where's the Doctor and Amy and Rory? I very much would like to speak with them."
"They're incapacitated at the moment…" Olivia whispered as River's eyes found the unconscious bodies of The Doctor and the Ponds.
"What in the name of sanity is going on here? Why do you have them knocked out like this and hooked up with all those wires? I'm warning you, I'm armed and extremely dangerous!"
"River, it's alright. Amy and Rory only went under to try and wake up the Doctor from his coma. My husband went with them." Olivia said in a soft voice,, looking the older woman in the eye.
"Coma? How did that happen? Are you monitoring him? How long has he been like this?"
"We don't know. His alien physiology is a complete mystery to us." Walter said, still shaken by the sight of the woman that had been giving him nightmares for the past week.
"And what is this about Amy and Rory being hooked up to him? What are you attempting to do?"
"They are currently inside the Doctor's mind attempting to make contact with him to wake him up." Astrid explained quickly as River walked over to where her husband lay, unmoving with all manner of wires and electronics attached to his thin body.
"Oh, sweetie…" River whispered as a lone tear slid down her cheek.
"YOU WILL MOVE AHEAD OF US, AND FOLLOW MY DIRECTIONS!" the machine uttered in an inhuman mechanical voice that made Peter shudder and freeze in his tracks as he and the Ponds pressed their backs to the wall beside the Doctor and his current traveling companions.
"What are those things?!" Peter breathed out in shock. For some reason he was feeling outright terror.
"Daleks." Amy breathed out with wide eyes. She had grown quite pale upon seeing the robotic creatures with the plungers and egg whisks sticking out of their torsos like arms.
"The most feared creatures in the entire Universe and the Doctor's greatest nemesis!" Rory added in a hurried whisper as they followed the Doctor and his group of companions down the corridor as they were taken prisoner by the Daleks.
Peter gulped at that as they followed the Daleks and their captives further down the corridor to a prison cell. "Sorry I asked."