Note: I realize that I left the last chapter at something of a cliffhanger. I now realize that this could be perceived as somewhat evil. This is me showing mercy.

Part 1, Chapter 4

-she pulls her hand back. Best not. There's something strange about the rock that she can't quite understand. There's something about it that makes her want to touch it. Something about it that makes her hand reach out of its own accord. That makes her look down, resolving to keep an eye on her arms. The compulsion she feels to touch it hasn't abated, but honestly the idea of not having control of her own limbs has her more worried than anything else.

She's safe, she tells herself, so long as she stays far enough away from the rock, and keeps an eye on her hands. She looks down, and is relieved to see them dangling at her sides.

It's a mystery, but not important right now. The most important thing is finding Josh, she tells herself, and she turns to leave the room. Maybe he's in another exhibit.

Jenny gives the strange rock one last glance, and notices something she hadn't seen before. There's a carving of what looks like the outline of a hand protruding from the surface of the rock. It doesn't really look like a palaeolithic carving, however. In the moonlight, the smoothness of the rock makes the small carving look more like an unborn child's hand stretching in its mother's womb. Jenny vividly remembers Josh doing the exact thing, seven years ago.

The thought of Josh reminds her of what she's here to do, and she briefly chastises herself for getting distracted. Again. She's never been one to resist a good mystery, but Josh is most likely somewhere in this museum. It is her responsibility to find him and bring him home. Without ice cream. With that in mind, she walks to the doorway.

Before she takes a final step out of the room, she feels a strong compulsion to turn and look at the rock again. One last look, she thinks, won't do any harm. She manages to ignore the feeling, and leaves the room.

Approximately two hundred light years away, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory entered a pub.

"So. A pub. Here's a pub. A nice, boring pub," The Doctor stated, waving his hand around in the air in an unintentional imitation of Vanna White. "Are you happy, Rory Williams?," he asked, in a tone that implied that he was far from happy.

"Quite." Rory had learned that the best way to annoy the Doctor was to say as little as possible. That and touch his screwdriver, but he figured the screwdriver was far too much of a symbol of certain other things for him to feel remotely comfortable touching it.

The three of them sat down at an ordinary-looking booth, and ordered hamburgers. Rory ordered a pint, as he reckoned he'd probably want one eventually.

Amy looked up at the television suspended over the bar. "They haven't got the football on," she remarked.

"Odd, that." Considering the time period they were in (the mid 2000s, according to the size of the television) and place they were in (somewhere near Birmingham, if the barmaid's accent was local), the odds were likely that a typical pub would not be showing football were astronomically low. Well, not astronomically low. Still, low.

Rory then realized his inner dialogue was starting to sound like the Doctor's outer dialogue. He whimpered softly inside his head.

The Doctor beamed at Amy. "Football! I did that. It was lovely. Remember that, Amy?"

"No."

"Right, you were in the TARDIS." He took a big bite of hamburger. "And Rory didn't exist," he noted, gesturing at Rory with the hamburger.

"Oh, I remember that," Amy said darkly. She grabbed a napkin and leaned across the table to wipe up the stray bits of the Doctor's hamburger.

"Funny story," the Doctor continued, waving his hamburger around, "I thought it had to do with sticks, and then-"

Amy then abruptly shushed him, her attention suddenly on the television behind him. The Doctor put down his hamburger and twisted around in his seat. Rory looked up from his pint.

On the television behind him, a generic newscaster-y looking woman with aggressively large shoulder-pads was talking about shocking new developments on a recent local hostage crisis. The Doctor knew this because it said so on the screen.

"The story behind this Tuesday's museum hostage crisis has taken on new depths as more information comes out about the identity of the mysterious hero," said shoulder-pad lady, with the detached soullessness of a newscaster who deserved much better than a local television station.

The Doctor couldn't help but exclaim, "Ooh, mysterious hero!"

Rory couldn't help but drawl, "Ooh, mysterious hero."

"The name of the girl who, according to witnesses, managed to single-handedly end the hostage crisis, was discovered to be Jennifer Smith, a local resident."

At that point, the screen switched to a blurry photograph of a girl. It was a rather blurry picture, obviously clipped from a much larger photograph. She was looking at something to her left, and her hand was in the middle of flicking her dark, thick plait to the back of her head.

The newscaster continued talking. "According to witnesses, Jennifer Smith passed away at the scene of the crime, but her body has not been found."

A young woman was being interviewed. "She was always there for anyone who needed it. She'd always drop everything to help. She helped me with my Josh." Her voice broke.

"Without her, I couldn't have done it."

The screen then switched back to the newscaster with the shoulder-pads. "Ms Nichols is the mother of Joshua Nichols, one of the young children involved in the hostage crisis. Ms Smith was at the museum to fetch Josh. However, the identity of Ms Smith is largely unknown. Authorities have been unable to locate family members, birth records, even Ms Smith's NHS number. According to Ms Nichols, she was a student at the local university. However, there are no records of a Jennifer Smith ever having attended. Who is Jennifer Smith? If anyone has any information, please contact the police."

The newscaster disappeared, replaced by a man in a fashionably loud tie talking about the weather.

The Doctor looked at Amy. Amy looked at the Doctor. Rory looked at Amy. Then he looked at the Doctor.

"Well, that was odd," Amy said, stating the obvious.