They reentered their hotel suite, Allison's laughter resounding through the room. The Doctor's arms were full of bags, mostly Allie's clothing-though he allowed her to pick out for him a few outfits to appease her.
"Sightseeing tomorrow?" the Doctor asked. "We can go looking for Area 51!"
Allison rolled her eyes. "That doesn't seriously exist-does it?"
"Dunno. Never checked, to be honest-never been in the neighborhood. I've got a general idea where it should be, though."
Allison raised her eyebrows in amusement. "Really? Well…if spaceships haven't landed there yet, one's about to."
The Doctor grinned, unbuttoning his jacket. The night before, they'd fallen asleep before the telly-he didn't care for changing that arrangement, as it seemed to work for Allison well. He didn't raise the subject and it didn't come up-for a second night, their dreams came for them as they rested in the chairs, the light of the telly still splaying onto them.
Allison woke the next morning to an empty room.
"Doctor?" she called nervously, when sudden, uncontrollable fear took hold. He'd left? He'd left her in Vegas? They hadn't even done anything drunk and stupid! He just...left?
Suddenly the door burst open and in rushed an excited Doctor.
"Allie! Allie!" He ran past her to the chair she had fallen asleep in, shouting at the chair. "Allie-you're…not…in the chair anymore." He spun around, seeing her at last and grinning. "Allie! Got to run, you've got to see this-you're gonna love it."
Minutes later they exited the TARDIS, Allison looking about in confusion-they had landed in the middle of the desert.
"Doctor, we can look for Area 51 after breakfast…" She felt her stomach grumbling impatiently.
The Doctor shook his head. "No, Allie. We're not looking for Area 51-we're standing right on top of it."
That took a moment to sink in for Allison. "Really?" she asked. The Doctor nodded, holding up his sonic screwdriver.
"Beneath the sand is a thick metal sheet, and then a pocket of nitrogen, oxygen-basically, a room underground." He seemed delighted. "Isn't it brilliant? A room-likely an entire building-underground."
"Awesome!" Allison shared his grin. "So…we need shovels, or what?"
"No, no-that's the brilliant part. There's a door, somewhere around here-"
"You don't know where it is?" Allison crossed her arms.
The Doctor held his sonic screwdriver to the ground. "I'll find it. It's just beneath the surface, and then…ah!"
There was a pause, and the Doctor leapt backwards. "There it is."
Slowly Allison saw sand get displaced by subterranean movement. She leaned into the Doctor, feeling his arm fall comfortably over her shoulder, and knew whatever lurked beneath the sand couldn't harm her while he was with her.
"How'd you find it?" She asked quietly.
"Oh, you know," the Doctor said with a shrug. "Tried going to where I thought it was, and landed a few miles away. Lucky for me, memory's not as good as it used to be. Nine-hundred years old, Allie."
Allison rolled her eyes. "You would do that, yeah. Not to mention the TARDIS probably knew better than you where she was going."
The sand cleared away, revealing a metal hatchway. The Doctor laughed, unlatching it and opening it up. Light shone impossibly from the ground.
As they stepped in, following a bright, white passageway, Allison shook her head with laughter.
"You'd think Area 51 would have better-"
They froze, realizing suddenly that they weren't alone.
"-security…" she finished quietly, stunned. Before them were several hideous aliens. The Doctor stared, looking almost as shocked as the aliens.
"Sontarans!" he exclaimed, but Allison was first to notice what was behind the creatures.
"Humans," she whispered-she was right, as there was a slow-moving line of humans stepping through the room, in one door and out the other-though beyond the humans were cages bearing creatures that made her shudder. "Future predators," she murmured with terror. "D-Doctor?"
"I've seen them before," he nodded, taking a step to the side to grip her wrist. "If the Sontarans have them, we should be very scared."
