Chapter 9
Both of the Doctors were getting antsy on the train – time was moving far too slowly for them. At least one of them could easily depart in his TARDIS. This is exactly what the Doctor sitting with Rory, Amelia, and John did. After getting information about where this Molly Hooper was, the Doctor stood up and left, leaving the other Doctor, Amy, and Sherlock still sitting in the train.
Amelia was quiet, though it made sense. Being in a completely different dimension and experiencing time travel for the first time put her in a situation that made her quiet. Luckily for her, she had something familiar to hang onto – John, even to the dismay of Rory. Rory kept reminding himself that the woman in his presence wasn't his wife, but it still stung to see her flirt with John Watson. John didn't mind, of course.
"Doctor, what if we never get her back?" Rory observed Amelia for a moment before quietly asking the busy Doctor as he leaned his back on the console.
"Don't say 'never,' Rory. We'll get her back, I'll do whatever it takes," the Doctor said while focused on the coordinates he just put in the TARDIS.
"So what's Sherlock like, then, in your dimension," Amelia asked John. "I can't believe I'm even talking about time travel. Never realized how much running is involved."
"Sherlock. He's ... he's brilliant, but he's an idiot. I don't know what's going on in his head. But whatever it is, he says what he sees and doesn't care what other people think," John reminisced. "He's a good friend though. Says I'm his only friend."
"You're his only friend? Sounds lonely, that man," Amelia sounded surprised.
"There was a woman once, but she's dead," John remarked. "Closest thing to come to a girlfriend."
"And yourself, John Watson?" Amelia teased. "Have you got a girlfriend?"
John laughed and shook his head, "unfortunately not. But I'm glad that my counterpart is at least getting married to such a beautiful woman."
Amelia giggled. Rory turned around and faced the console after overhearing the conversation. He thought to himself what he would do if he couldn't get his wife back. Surely, Amelia would never reciprocate the feelings he had and would instead go after John. It wasn't her fault. No, it would never be her fault. He could only assume that they'd all have to move on. Maybe Amy could snatch up Rory in the other dimension. Clouding his head with depressing thoughts, Rory excused himself away from the console. The Doctor could see what was up, and stopped him.
"If I have to, I'll burn stars to get her back, Rory," the Doctor spoke quietly into Rory's ear.
Arriving in London, Sherlock and Amy acted like sleuths, and the Doctor tried his hardest to do the same, but in ragged clothing, he was an eye sore. From the time they got into a cab at the train station to when they arrived at St. Bart's, they managed not to run into anyone they knew. Enough time passed by that Sherlock and Amy assumed that people guessed the wedding was off and they could resume their day. Luckily for them they assumed correctly.
Sherlock pushed open the door to the lab and called out, "Molly! Well, hello!"
Molly jumped from the corpse she was hunched over examining and her eyes widened when she saw Sherlock, "Sherlock! What are you doing here? What's happened to the wedding?"
"Oh, that, right. No need to worry about that right now, can I get the pictures?" Sherlock waved that off.
"Pictures?" Molly was confused.
"The pictures. The pictures of the coma patients. The ones walking around London!" Sherlock was so excited that he was almost yelling.
"Yes, right, fine," Molly handed him her phone. He began to message the pictures to his own phone. "Who's that?"
"I'm the Doctor. Pay no mind to my clothes. I've just changed," the Doctor smiled and gave her a kiss on both cheeks. "Molly Hooper, you are beautiful. Those pictures you took, just fantastic."
Amy arrived after stopping to get something to eat at the vending machines, "Molly, right?"
"Amy? Wh-what ... what are you doing here?" Molly was aghast.
It took Amy a second to realize what she was talking about and the fact that Molly was quite familiar with her, "Oh! Right, the wedding! Erm, I'm ..."
Sherlock looked at Amy and shook his head. Explaining the situation to Molly would take up too much time.
"Is there anyone, any of the patients, walking around? Anywhere?" Sherlock asked quickly.
"Erm, yes. This one," Molly showed him the picture. "Festival Gardens, about a half hour ago."
"Thanks, Molly," Sherlock walked ahead and out of the lab.
Amy and the Doctor stood there awkwardly for a moment before walking out. They took the short walk to the area and began the search. Even from the start, there wasn't much hope that they'd find Prisoner Zero, but a very loud scream from a very public area caught everyone's interest. Pushing through the crowd, they saw a body on the ground and the coma patient standing on top of it. Prisoner Zero looked around at the crowd forming and growled, showing its massive and pointy teeth which scared off everyone.
"Prisoner Zero!" the Doctor yelled.
"Well, well, Doctor," Prisoner Zero said in the male voice it was copying. "Long time, no see."
"Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded," a voice boomed overhead. "Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated."
Sherlock and Amy stared at the sky for the origin of the voice – which came as a floating eyeball in the sky looking for Prisoner Zero, but the Doctor sprang into action and began to sonic the area.
"Nothing says alien than a sonic screwdriver," lamps were bursting, cars were beeping, and the sonic screwdriver emitted a high pitched sound. "I think someone's going to notice, don't you?"
The Atraxi were desperately searching for Prisoner Zero, but in the disguise as a human, they were stumped. Soon enough the Doctor's sonic screwdriver fizzled and became non-functional. It fell from his hands as a twisted lump of metal.
"No! No!" the Doctor tried to pick up the broken screwdriver, but Prisoner Zero used that as an advantage to escape.
"Doctor, it's disappeared," Sherlock patted the Doctor's shoulder.
The Doctor gave a look of disappointment and desperation to Amy for a second before putting on a face of confidence, "well, of course it did. It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open. No TARDIS, no screwdriver, and less than twenty minutes to the end of the world. Come on, think."
"Twenty minutes?" Sherlock repeated.
"Look up into the sky, they're going to trap the planet and burn it," the Doctor instructed as he pulled on his hair.
The Atraxi began to seal off the upper atmosphere like the Doctor said. The Doctor paced around. Watching him Amy realized one thing that she completely missed – she'd already been through this and she knew exactly what to do. If she could do one thing here, it was to be one step ahead of everyone, including the Doctor and Prisoner Zero.
"Doctor, I have a plan," Amy stopped him from pacing. "Sherlock, go back to your flat with him. I'll go back to St. Bart's and clear off the floor and find the Doctor."
"Why am I going back to Baker Street?" Sherlock gave her a confused look.
"You're going to need a laptop for this one and the one sitting on your desk will do just the job."
"What for?" the Doctor asked.
"You're going to create a virus. There's going to be a call between all of the experts in the world, and they're going to need you two," Amy explained. "A consulting detective and an alien – just what the people need to save the world."
"Ah!" the Doctor realized what was going on and kissed her on the forehead. "Brilliant! Mr. Holmes, I'm going to need to borrow your phone."
