Note: I'm so glad people asked questions, it's really helping me understand more about how this whole 'writing stuff' thing works, which is exactly why I started this story in the first place.

BTW, if I don't answer a particular question, it's because you're asking the right question. I can't answer certain questions. Spoilers. :)

Question 1: I was hoping I'd get this question. Essentially, what happened is a sort of cosmic branching-off point, where the story sort of goes in two ways based on whether or not Jenny turned around to look at the rock a second time. Remember she saw the funny hand, then she went to leave the room. If she did turn around, she'd have seen that the hand had disappeared. If she didn't turn around, she wouldn't have seen the hand disappear. The first (or main) timeline the story's going to follow is the one where she doesn't turn around. The italic bits follow the timeline where she does turn around. You won't see much of it, but pay attention when you do.

Question 2: Yes, everyone is on Earth. Birmingham, England, around 2005 to be exact. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory initially weren't, but now they are.

Clues that won't make any sense until much later: in my version of Doctor Who, the success of a time lord's regeneration is not guaranteed. There can be mistakes. Also, your emotional state at the time of your regeneration can reflect on your new body's state of mind. For instance, say you're a Time Lord whose last action before regenerating was to really get excited because you stole something cool. Your next body might have a bit of a problem with kleptomania. Just so you know. Keep that in your head.

Ok. Story time.


Part 1, Chapter 7

They were in a small dusty sort of office, currently occupied by the constable on duty. Five minutes earlier, the Doctor and Rory blithely walked into the constable's office. The constable, for his part, reacted to the sudden intrusion with by briefly glancing at them above his newspaper, then leaning back in his chair and taking a long slow sip of coffee. The sip itself took approximately thirty-five seconds. It was the most confusing thirty-five seconds of Rory's life.

Amy, who had been delayed outside by a pebble in her shoe, then burst into the office, destroying the carefully cultivated air of confusion and awkwardness. The Doctor then remembered what he had initially decided to do, and asked the constable for information on Jennifer Smith.

"Hello," the Doctor greeted the constable. "We're looking for information on a missing persons case. Happened just a week ago. Jennifer Smith. That's her name. The missing person. Got any? Information, I mean."

The constable looked up from his paper again, surveyed the Doctor, and then returned to his paper. "No," he stated.

Clearing his throat, the Doctor flashed his psychic paper. The constable looked up, and reading the paper, quickly sat up straight in his chair and quickly apologized for his previous behaviour. It was blindingly obvious to Rory that this was a nearly transparent lie.

"So, you're from Scotland Yard, then? I suppose I can let you have a look at the file." The constable rose from his chair and trudged over to the filing cabinet.

The Doctor winked at Rory. He was so sure this wouldn't work. Rory scowled in response. Amy rolled her eyes at the two of them and went to inspect a nearby plant.

From beside the filing cabinet, the constable muttered, "S...Smith...Smith...sorry, I can't seem to find her file."

Rory's mind immediately filled with vaguely rude words. The Doctor's only outward reaction was a slight smile. Amy, for her part, gave no indication that she had heard the constable, being otherwise concerned with a nearby potted ficus.

"It's probably around here somewhere, I remember looking at it earlier this week," the constable continued, trying to make it seem as though he had full intentions of continuing to look for the case file.

Amy held up a manila folder. "This it?"

The constable's red face brightened slightly. "Yeah, that's it. Bring it over here, love."

Amy bristled at the pet name, but silently handed the file to the constable, who handed it to the Doctor.

"Right, then. Let's see what's in here, shall we?" The Doctor placed the file on the desk for the benefit of Amy and Rory, who were peering at the file's contents over his shoulder.

The constable cleared his throat. "Er, I'm afraid I can't let you two look at the file," he said, looking pointedly at Amy and then Rory.

The Doctor quickly stepped in. "They're with me. It's all right, Constable."

"Have they got identification?" The constable frowned. Rory poked the Doctor with his elbow, trying to get him to show the constable the psychic paper again. The Doctor didn't understand. Or perhaps he ignored him.

Either way, what happened next was either entirely Rory's or the Doctor's fault. Depending on who you asked.

First, the Doctor said to the constable, "No, they haven't got any identification."

Then Rory, frustrated by the Doctor's apparent inability to think on his feet, slipped his hand into the Doctor's pocket, looking for the psychic paper.

Next, he yelped as something in the Doctor's pocket bit him, bringing attention to the fact that his hand was in the Doctor's pocket.

"What the hell have you got in your pockets?" Rory exclaimed.

The Doctor fixed him with a look. "And why have you got your hand in my pocket?"

"I was looking for the...the thing," Rory replied lamely, not wanting to say the words 'psychic paper' in front of the constable.

"You could have just asked," the Doctor said. "It's rude to stick your hand in other people's pockets without asking."

Rory then looked over at his wife, who appeared to be unable to stop rolling her eyes. Something about the Doctor's willful ignorance combined with the look Amy was currently giving him brought him dangerously close to the point of incoherent indignation. "Right, then, next time I'll ask," he managed to say.

After that, the constable stood up and began saying something about how 'that sort of thing wasn't going to happen in his office'. In his defence, he would have gone on to say that 'he wasn't against that sort of thing in principle, in fact his ex-wife's nephew was one of that lot and he was a lovely fellow'.

Luckily he never got that far, because Amy had grabbed Rory's arm, and apologizing, dragged him out of the constable's office and into the main waiting room.

Approximately fifteen minutes later, Amy and Rory were waiting for the Doctor. In a police station. Amy leaned against a desk, picking at her nail polish and glaring at the door through which the Doctor had disappeared twenty minutes earlier with the officer on duty.

Rory peered into a nearby cell, and jumped when a somewhat conscious man opened his eyes and blinked wearily at him.

"Haven't seen the inside of one of these in ages," He remarked offhandedly, as the man in the cell wandered over to the toilet and sat down on the lid.

That statement briefly shook Amy out of her train of thought, and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?" It's not like she wasn't there.

If Rory had lacked a sense of self-preservation, he would have called the look on Amy's face a pout. As it was, he was hard-pressed to come up with anything else to call it.

"We're not doing anything," she pouted.

At that moment, almost as if it had been scripted, or as if he had been listening at the door, the Doctor burst out of the office. "Yes, we are."

"I thought we were going to figure out what happened," Amy said, only slightly petulantly.

With a blithe wave of his hand, he responded. "We are. We're investigating. We're investigators."

"We're at a police station," Amy helpfully pointed out, as the Doctor scanned the man in the cell with his screwdriver.

"So?"

"So, why are we not at the scene of the crime?" Amy hissed, in an obvious attempt to avoid being overheard. It was mostly successful, if only for the fact that the only person who could have theoretically heard her was currently passed out on a toilet inside a jail cell.

"We're interviewing. We're interviewers." He then grabbed a pad of paper and pen from the constable's desk and scribbled something that looked like 'funky rock thing'.

Rory looked over his shoulder. "Puffy rod thing? What puffy rod thing?"

"Funky rock thing. Much different. Also, I found another thing. Evidently, no one remembers what happened. They've all got different stories; most don't even remember anything. But, BUT. They all remember her," the Doctor said, poking the pad of paper with a satisfyingly solid 'plonk' where he had written the name 'Jennifer Smith'. "And they all say she saved their lives."

"So, what do you think, Doctor?" Amy asked.

"What do I think? This is your investigation. You're the sleuth," he told Amy, as he glided out the front door of the police station.

"I'm the sleuth?"

"Amelia Pond, time-traveling sleuth," the Doctor called over his shoulder.

"Actually, it's Williams now." Rory stated, mildly put out. As he walked alongside Amy as they left the police station, he experienced a sudden fit of premonitory dread. He could see the rest of his life. He saw himself, Rory Pond, the time-traveling sleuth's husband, constantly correcting people on his and Amy's names. Damn it.