Chapter Seven: The Day We Talked

Authors Note: I borrowed and tweaked a chapter from TheValiantStorm, so if you recognise it, that's why

Two Months Later

The TARDIS was sitting in the vortex peacefully, and The Doctor, Amy, Rory and Rose were sitting around the console, wondering where to go next. "What about Woman's Wept doctor? Oh we've got to go there again!" said Rose remembering the trip her and her leather-clad doctor had taken there.

"What's Woman's Wept?" asked Rory

"oh it's this planet, its mostly beaches and it's all frozen because of some kind of time lock, so the waves are just frozen still, almost fifty feet high. You can walk right under them!" Rose babbled. Rose was beginning to notice in the past two months since learning her DNA had been altered she had the tendency to babble, much like The Doctor. Maybe it was a Time Lord thing, or maybe it was just a habit she had picked up, but she quite liked babbling and could see why The Doctor was always doing it. She was about to go into another babble about Woman's Wept, when there came a tapping at the door.

"Doctor what's that?" asked Amy "I thought you said we were in the vortex?"

"I did and we are."

"So what's that?"

The Doctor just smiled and walked to the doors. "Let's find out" he grinned as he threw open the TARDIS doors. Suddenly a small glowing white box with a snake mark on flew through the door.

"What's that?" asked Rory.

"I've got mail" the doctor beamed.

"What do you mean you've got mail?" asked Rose, as The Doctor began reading the co-ordinates off of the box and piloting the TARDIS.

"well basically, these little white boxes are time lord emergency boxes to send messages to other time lords when said time lord is in trouble or need of assistance. Somewhere out there is a living breathing time lord! And look at this snake picture, that's the mark of the corsair! Got it tattooed on every regeneration! Said he didn't feel himself without it! And herself sometimes, oh she was a bad girl."

Rose was sceptical and Amy was confused, knowing what had happened to the doctor's planet Gallifrey and the rest of The Doctor's species, but before either of them could ask, the TARDIS lurched and they were all thrown about. The Doctor ran to the monitor, worriedly checking the readings.

"Doctor!" Rose screamed "what's going on!"

"We're flying outside of the universe!" he exclaimed.

Once they had landed with great difficulty they began to find their feet. Rose was about to ask where they were when suddenly the TARDIS's power began to drain.

"Doctor what the hell is going on?" asked Rory

"I-I don't know, it's like the TARDIS' soul had just vanished!" said The Doctor. Rose worriedly nodded in agreement.

"We need to get out there and see where the hell we are." She said.

They walked out of the TARDIS to find themselves in a junkyard. Amy and Rose began to look around at the old washing machines and coat hangers.

"Doctor what is all this stuff?" Amy asked

"Well we appear to be outside of the void, sometimes things get sucked in." The Doctor said. He was about to elaborate on his theory to Rory about being part of a soap bubble slash plughole when a woman in a period Victorian blue dress, with long dark hair came running towards them.

"THIEF! WOLF!" she shouted pointing at The Doctor and Rose, "my thief and my wolf! Goodbye! No the other one!" she then proceeded to full on kiss The Doctor and then Rose on the mouth.

Rose and the doctor were both quite alarmed, as were Amy and Rory. As the strange woman tried to lunge towards The Doctor. Suddenly an odd looking man and woman stepped out from the shadows and stood in front of the woman.

"Greetings strangers," said the man "hello, hello, sorry about the mad person" he gestured to the woman who was trying to fight her way through to The Doctor and Rose.

"Why am I a thief?" asked the doctor "what have I stolen?"

"Me," said the crazy woman "you're going to steal me, you have stolen me, you are stealing me oh tenses are difficult aren't they?" she babbled

"We're sorry she's mad. They call me auntie and this is uncle" said the other woman. "Keep away from this one," she said gesturing to the crazy woman. "She's mad, she bites."

"Do I?" asked the woman. Without waiting for a reply she smiled and sad "oh excellent!" and bit The Doctor on the neck. Auntie and uncle quickly restrained her and The Doctor rubbed his neck and winced slightly in pain.

"She's definitely mad!" said Rose as she stifled a laugh

"I'm not mad! I'mmmmmmm… I'mmmmm oh what's the word?"

The doctor stepped away slightly and pulled Rose behind him protectively.

"Oh no," she said "your angry, no you're not… you will be angry. The little boxed will make you angry." She had suddenly become a lot more tender, and was staring at The Doctor closely, into his eyes

"Little boxes?" asked The Doctor.

But the woman suddenly changed from tender to crazy again and ignored the doctors question, pointing to him and exclaiming "Oh your chin is HILARIOUS ha-ha"

"Come away now Idris" said uncle, pulling her slightly.

"Oh okay," she said "I'll just see if there's an off switch" and suddenly she fainted. An ood called nephew came and took her away to 'put her in a cage where she couldn't hurt anybody'. The doctor was very confused but he had bigger problems.

Auntie and uncle were explaining to him about 'house' the planet that they were on.

"He feeds us, and clothes us and looks after us. We walk on his ground and breathe his air and do my will" The three time travellers were quite alarmed when the deep voice came out of the mouths of auntie and uncle and The Doctor turned to the ood.

"What is it?" asked Amy repulsively, noticing the ood for the first time.

"Don't be rude Amelia it's just an ood! And it's a he not an it! Oh Rose you remember the ood right?"

"I distinctly remember thinking you were dead, and them being controlled by some kind of devil who controlled them to kill us."

"Well they couldn't help it, they were being controlled. I met them again with Donna, similar thing was happening then, but we fixed it. Set the ood free, this one must have ended up here by accident. What's your name?" The Doctor asked. The ood nodded to his translator ball, trying to show that it wasn't working.

"Oh broken I see, well let me fix that." He lifted up the ball and took it apart, fiddling with a knob to get a correct frequency. The doctor and Rose were then very alarmed to hear numerous voices calling for help coming from nephew's translator ball. Nephew quickly turned it off, and The Doctor turned his attention back to trying to find the corsair.

They went to go and look around, after The Doctor deemed 'house' to be relatively friendly, but Rose wasn't too sure.

"Doctor I get a bad feeling from this asteroid planet thing. Like I don't know what it is but it just feels wrong"

"Seems nice enough, we won't be here long I suppose" said The Doctor. Rose didn't get mad at him for dismissing her worries, because he was possibly going to be very let down if he didn't find the corsair and she didn't want to add to his troubles.

From her cage, Idris was calling from her cage for her thief and her wolf. She was screaming their names anxiously.

"Doctor please can we go" asked Rory

"No there are timelords here I heard them they need me"

"But doctor," said Amy "you told me about your people and what you did"

"Well yes but if their like the corsair they're good ones. I can explain"

"You want to be forgiven." Rose stated looking into the doctors eyes.

"Don't we all?" he asked sadly. "I can explain what happened and why"

"Okay fine," Amy sighed "well what do you need from us?"

The Doctor began to pat his jacket pockets, "My screwdriver I left it in the TARDIS in my jacket can you go and get it"

"You have two of those?" asked Rory

"Whatever. I'll get it" said Amy she walked off taking Rory with her.

"I'll keep an eye on them" said Rose. "But Doctor. Promise me you won't get emotional? That's when you make mistakes"

"I promise. Love you."

"Love you too." She tossed him her phone and gave him a light kiss. "I'll call you from the TARDIS" she said as she went to follow Amy and Rory.

The three of them walked into the TARDIS and as they shut the doors it was covered in some kind of green smoke.

Rose called the doctor.

"Hey we're here, screwdrivers in your jacket yeah?"

"Yep," said the doctor. He pulled the screwdriver out of his pocket and turned it on. "Have a good look around."

This is timelord business he thought I need to do this alone.

Inside the TARDIS suddenly the doors bolted shut. "Did one of you do that?" asked Rose

"Nope" said Amy as she looked around the console

"I haven't touched anything, now jacket…" said Rory

The doctor was searching around the junkyard, "come on where are you all, where are you?" he thought aloud.

Then he heard the voices. He followed them and traced them to a cupboard. Well they can't all be in here… he opened the cupboard and found about 15 time lord message boxes inside.

Uncle and auntie found him.

"Just admiring your timelord distress signal collection. Very nice." He said coldly "This is what nephews translator picked up. Cries for help from the long dead." He swallowed "How many timelords have you lured here like you lured me? And what happened to them all?" he asked, anger starting to build up inside of him

"House is kind hous-"

"Repairs you when you break YES I KNOW," the doctor shouted "but how exactly does house mend you?" he turned to uncle "You've got the eyes of a 20 year old." He said

"Why thank yo-"

"No I mean it literally, your eyes are thirty years younger than the rest of you, your ears don't match, and your right arm is two inches longer than your left and HOWS YOUR DANCING? Because you've got two left feet. Patchwork people. You've been repaired and patched up so often I doubt there's anything left of the real you. I had an umbrella like you once"

The doctor grabbed aunties arm examining it, "it's been a good arm for me this" she said

"The mark of the corsair" the doctor instantly noticed.

"He was a strapping big bloke wasn't he uncle? I got the arm and uncle got the spine and the kidneys."

Uncle nodded in agreement muttering 'yes very good'. The Doctor had heard enough, he released auntie's arm and turned to face her and uncle.

"You gave me hope and then you took it away, that's enough to make anyone dangerous, god knows what it will do to me. Basically, RUN"

"Poor old timelord," uncle practically whispered as he backed away to follow auntie who had already scarpered. "You are too late. House is too clever"

Then Rose's phone rang inside The Doctors pocket.

"No sonic screwdriver and the door locked behind us, Rory thinks there's a perfectly innocentexplanation but I think you lied." Rose growled

"Timelord stuff I needed you all out of the way"

"Well I am part time lord or don't you remember?" Rose asked angrily

"well Rose yes, but I think what happened to Gallifrey would be enough to shock them enough let alone mention that in its absence I had fallen in love with a human who my TARDIS had then altered the DNA of to become half Gallifreyan" The Doctor sighed

"Oh sorry are we not good enough for your smart new friends?" Rose asked sarcastically. But The Doctor wasn't really listening, his mind drifted back to Idris, the mad lady and her words earlier.

"The boxes will make you angry… how could she have known?" the doctor thought aloud.

"Doctor what are you talking about?"

"Stay put," he shouted down the phone worriedly "stay exactly where you are" he hung up the phone.

"Well we don't exactly have much choice..." Rose trailed off realising the doctor had hung up the phone.

Rory sighed.

The doctor ran to Idris's cell. "You said the boxes would make me angry, how did you know?"

"Oh it's my thief."

"Who are you?"

"It's about time"

The TARDIS was being smouldered in the fog outside

"I don't understand, who are you?" the doctor asked again

"You really don't know me just because they put me in here?"

"They said you were dangerous" he gestured to the cage.

"Not the cage, in here" she pointed to her head

"They put me in here, I'm the t- oh what do you call me. We travel. I go:" the doctor heard the sound of the TARDIS matrix

"The TARDIS?"

"Yes time and relative dimension in space, aren't names funny, it's me. I'm the TARDIS"

"No you're not; you're a bitey mad lady! The TARDIS is uppy downey stuff in a big blue box!" The Doctor exclaimed, hinting at the absurdity of her suggestion in his voice.

"Yes that's me a type 40 TARDIS. You travel inside me with your beloved bad wolf and those two lovely humans."

"Right."
"And then you stole me, and I stole you."

"I borrowed you"

"Borrowing usually means that one had the intention on bringing the item back, what makes you think I would ever give you back?" then she paused, "oh , we've reached the point in the conversation where you open the lock."

The doctor was very amazed and delighted and a little bit confused as he soniced the lock and Idris stepped out.

"I can't believe immmm immm what's it called. Oh that word so big and so very very sad."

"I don't understand, why pull the living soul of a TARDIS and put it in a human body?"

"It's not me house wants. House eats tardises."

"He what?"

"I don't know, it's something I heard you say. In the future."

It wasn't long before the doctor realised what was going on. House had taken out the TARDIS' soul and deposited it into a human body so he could feed off the rift energy left in the empty shell, thus destroying it. He then remembered he had sent the three most important people to him inside. The Doctor and Idris had to rescue Rose Rory and Amy, fast. He ran to the TARDIS shell but it was bolted shut, he called and shouted for them to get out. But the door was locked and they were all very scared inside. The doctor couldn't get the door open. Soon the TARDIS dematerialized. He tried to call on Rose's phone to no avail. He really didn't know what to do.

Inside the TARDIS Rose had begun to realise what was happening, her, Rory and Amy stood close together, afraid.

"Listen whatever happens at least we're all together. And we're in the TARDIS so we're safe right?" said Rory.

"Well you're half right." Said a deep voice. "You are all together in the TARDIS, what an adventure. I should have done this half a million years ago. So Amy Rory Rose, why shouldn't I kill you all right now?"

It was all very very stressful. The Doctor and Idris had to build a TARDIS from scratch out of a junkyard full of dead ones to rescue Rose and Amy and Rory who were being messed with by house. They were running around through corridors and house playing with their minds. He had already make Amy think Rory had died waiting for her on the other side of the wall which was almost enough to send her over the edge. Without Rose reassuring her it wasn't real, and without Rory coming around the corner two minutes later who knows what she might've done. But suddenly as they were climbing up a ladder Rory winced as Idris sent him a psychic message.

"Rory" asked Amy

"It was The Doctor and that crazy lady, she said that she's sending me a map in my head to the old control room and he and The Doctor are meeting us there"

"Why is she with The Doctor?" asked Amy

"OH I SEE" Rose said "for house to devour the rift energy from the TARDIS he had to get rid of the soul, so he put it into a human body where it would just burn out within a day or two. He put the soul of the TARDIS inside that woman! Poor girl, the TARDIS' mind must be compressing her to death"

Once they were running to the old control room, house sent in Nephew the ood, who was now trying to kill them, "Oh its AWLWAYS the flippin' ood!" Rose shouted as they ran, following Rory. They quickly made it to the old control room with Nephew hot on their heels when the makeshift TARDIS materialized in his place.

"Where the HELL have you been!" Rose shouted as she ran into The Doctors arms

"Sorry, I was pretty busy. Rory, Amy, Rose this is the TARDIS" he beamed as he pointed to Idris

"Yeah we know that bit, Rose explained it after you both appeared inside my head" said Rory

"Oh yes, sorry about that" said The Doctor

"Sorry but where is nephew?" asked Amy "he was standing right where you materialized"

"Well I guess the makeshift TARDIS must have compressed him into the air,"

"So where is he now?" asked Rory

"Well, you're breathing him"

"Nice."

House's voice then came back as he began to taunt them, shifting the gravity and sucking out the air. And then he thought he was being very clever as he deleted the control room they were in.

"not so fast!" shouted The Doctor as they all appeared In the main control room "TARDIS failsafe, any living organism's in a room that gets deleted are immediately transported to the main control room." Meanwhile Idris had stopped breathing and Rory and Rose were holding her.

"I can easily kill you in here as in any other room, fear me I've killed hundreds of timelords" said house

"Fear me," said The Doctor "I've killed all of them. Yes your right you've completely won. You can kill us in oodles of really creative ways but before you do kill us allow me and my friends, Amy and Rory and Rose to congratulate you" he began to clap and Rose and Amy slowly joined in "yeah, congratulations" said Amy, worriedly looking at Rose.

"yep you have defeated us, me and my lovely friends and last but not least the matrix of the TARDIS herself, a living consciousness you ripped out of this very control room and locked up into a human body, but look at her!" he pointed to Idris

"Doctor she's stopped breathing" said Rory

"Enough. That is enough"

"No!" said The Doctor "it's never enough! You forced the TARDIS into a human body so that she'd burn out safely a very long way away from this very control room. A flesh body can't hold the TARDIS matrix and live, look at her body house!"

"And you think I should mourn her?"

"No, I think you should be very very careful about what you let back into this control room."

Suddenly Idris' body jerked up and the soul of the TARDIS came out of her in a golden light, it began to float back into the controls and you could hear the voice of house begging for mercy.

"You took her from her home," said Rose as she watched the TARDIS' soul drift back inside "and now she's in the box again!" she grinned

"Look at my girl LOOK AT HER GO" The Doctor shouted. "BIGGER ON THE INSIDE. See house that's your problem! You're the size of a planet but inside you are JUST SO SMALL!"

"Stop this doctor! No, help!"

"Finish him off girl!" said The Doctor, My beautiful TARDIS he thought to himself.

She came said goodbye, using the body of Idris as a voice floating in the air surrounded by golden dust.

"Doctor," she called "are you there?"

"I'm here…hey"

"I've been looking for a word. A big complicated word, but so sad. I've found it now"

"What word?" the doctors voice was barely a whisper

"Alive. I'm alive."

"Alive isn't sad."

"It's sad when it's over. I'll always be here doctor, but this is when we talked" she smiled sadly "and now even that has come to an end. There's something I didn't get to say to you"

"Goodbye?"

"No. I just wanted to say hello. Hello doctor. It's so very nice to meet you" tears were pouring down the doctor's face even though he tried so hard to keep them in, this was his TARDIS and this was the day they had talked. Rose was crying too, she was a part of the TARDIS she had seen into the heart of it and she could feel her slipping away. She started to fade slowly.

"Please, I don't want you to go"

"I love you" she whispered as she disappeared. Rose ran to the doctor's side and hugged him. She had time to be mad at him later for leaving them inside the TARDIS with house. Right now they needed each other.

He kissed Rose on the forehead and thought about the day. This would always be their day. The day they talked.