It was an indoor play area; full of very lurid primary colours and screaming children who dashed about with wild abandon. There were kids swinging on monkey bars and twirling on ropes and whizzing down – frankly rather scary looking – drop slides. A familiar sound, that Amy associated with childhood birthday parties, was the strange noise that all the balls made when you threw yourself in a ball pit: a kind of crunchy-whumph.

Along the walls were paintings of animals in amongst the cartoon trees: lions and tigers and giraffes and monkeys. They had unnervingly googly eyes and human-like smiles that Amy had always found vaguely disturbing. Then again, she'd never liked people dressed up in animal costumes when she was little. She used to scream and cry whenever they had to go near one – Disneyland had been hell. Therefore, she guessed it was kind of ironic what she was doing with her life now and all the very real scary creatures that were in it.

In front of her, the Doctor was rubbing the back of his head, sending his hair into disarray, and looking very, very perplexed. She noticed a shadow on his face and caught his chin in her fingers so she could look closer. "What did you do to your head?" There was a large bump of a bruise on the right side of his forehead.

"Ran into a door when you were screaming at me," the Doctor replied, smoothly, brushing her probing fingers away.

"Idiot," she laughed.

The Doctor made a face at her and then wheeled back round when he felt something tugging at the bottom of his tweed jacket. He looked down and came face to face with a pint-sized human – about five years old judging by the elasticity of her skin and condition of her teeth – who was staring at him with earnest brown eyes.

"Hallo there," he said, brightly. "Are you all right?"

She considered him for a moment and then said, "Mister, your box is in the way."

"My box? Oh, my box!" He patted the side of the TARDIS. "What's she in the way of?"

"The swirly slide," she replied, pointedly.

"Oh right, yes, sorry about that. Let me just move her a bit. Don't want to stop you getting on the swirly slide. Sounds like great fun. Can I just ask…it's rather busy for," he checked his watch, "Eleven o'clock, don't you think? Surely past your bed time? Why are you all still up?"

"The grown ups brought us here. They don't want us to go to bed."

"Right. Thanks. There we go: one box moved."

"Thank you, Mister."

"It's the Doctor," the Doctor corrected her.

"You're not my doctor. He has lollies," the child answered, simply, before skipping past him and clambering up the stairs.

"Do you think I should invest in lollies?"

Ignoring his question, Amy turned round and realised that he had indeed moved the TARDIS several feet to the left. She stared at him with questioning eyes. She hadn't believed it possible that you could just move the spaceship like a wardrobe.

"How did you-"

"Well, if it's not bigger on the outside then why should it be heavier?" The Doctor offered her a grin. He swiftly locked the door and looked around. "We need to find out why these children are here."

After surveying the play area for obvious clues, the Doctor watched a young boy sitting at one of the tables in the café section of the play area: his eyes were drooping and his head was lolling. He looked exhausted but his mother caught his shoulders and shook him. "Robbie, no, you can't go to sleep. Keep your eyes open and go and play. Go on."

"I don't want to. I'm tired," he whined, sticking out his bottom lip.

"I know, darling, but do as Mummy says."

Amy was also observing the dispute and found herself thoroughly confused. Surely if the child was tired then he should be allowed to sleep? He looked like he'd been awake for ages anyway; there were big dark circles under his eyes. She was about to ask the Doctor something but, when she looked around, she realised – as usual – her companion was already one step ahead of her. He was now standing right beside the woman's table. Huffing, Amy hurried to join him.

"Um…excuse me, I was wondering if you could tell me the date?" the Doctor asked, politely.

"Oh, er….of course, 18th February."

"Year?"

He received the usual frown for this. "2310."

"Three hundred years and it hasn't changed much," Amy muttered in his ear, "We still have ball pits." He waved her away but couldn't help a small smile that twitched his lips.

"Planet?"

"Earth of course." The woman was eyeing him very suspiciously. She glanced in the space around him. "Which one did you say was yours again?"

The Doctor registered the look of distrust on her face and knew it didn't bode well for him. So he offered her a giant, disarming grin and neatly grabbed one of the children that was running past.

"This one," he said, looking down and observing a mop of messy red hair, "Is mine."

"Ours," Amy butted in, linking an arm through his. He glanced at her with raised eyebrows.

"Yes, ours," the Doctor amended, ruffling the boy's hair, "His name's…er...tell her your name…"

The child looked up at him with bemused blue eyes. "Felix."

"Like the cat?" the Doctor murmured, questioningly, before stating, abruptly, "Like the cat! Yes, big cat fanatic, me. Anyway, run along then." He gently pushed the child in the back and Felix gratefully escaped.

"So…er….I was wondering…why everyone's here so late? Is there some kind of party?"

The woman stared at him like he'd grown two heads. "No, we brought them here so they wouldn't go to sleep."

"And what happens when they go to sleep?"

"They vanish, of course."

"Of course!" the Doctor agreed, clicking his fingers. Then a frown knotted his brow. "Hang on, they vanish?"

"Yes, haven't you seen it on the news? It's happening all over the world. Kids go to sleep and then they just disappear. No one knows where they go."

"And so you brought them here because?"

"Then we could all keep an eye on them and keep them from going to sleep. The play area keeps them entertained."

The Doctor rubbed his chin. "But you know they'll have to fall asleep eventually? Children can't stay awake forever."

"We're hoping they will solve the problem before that happens," the woman replied, calmly. Suspicion still lurked in her eyes as she considered his lack of awareness of the situation. "What's your name?"

"The Doctor."

Immediately, the woman's expression changed and a smile even graced her thin lips. "Doctor who?"

"Just…." The Doctor scratched the back of his head, wondering how this would go down. He was in a delicate situation. Here was a room full of worried parents and he was doing rather a good job of looking like a creep. "Er…Doctor…"

"Pond," Amy supplied, quickly.

The Doctor turned to stare at her again, mouthing 'you're marrying us now?' to which he was given a shrug of the shoulders and a mischievous grin. Unfortunately, before he could say anything more, someone let out an ear-splitting screech and he had to turn his attentions elsewhere.

Instantly running in the direction of the sound, the Doctor hurdled several chairs and skidded to a halt in a small alley between the climbing frames. There was a young woman desperately scrabbling at the ground. He could see the vague outline of what must have once been a child; particles still hanging in the air.

"Noooooo!" the woman wailed, "My baby! Anna! Anna!"

Her hoarse cry was truly heart-breaking as tears flooding down her cheeks. Quickly, the Doctor ducked around her and whipped out his sonic screwdriver, testing the air where the child had vanished. The buzzing seemed to interrupt the mother's distraught crying as he felt a fierce hand suddenly grab his wrist with painful strength. He let out a hiss of surprise and pain.

"What are you doing?" a broken voice asked.

"I'm helping," the Time Lord replied, softly, "I'm so sorry for your loss but I really am trying to help."

Eventually, the woman released his arm and dropped back onto her heels, staring into space with glassy blue eyes. Occasionally she would whisper the name of her lost daughter.

"Doctor, what's going on?" Amy had appeared at his side as had several other parents who were now comforting the stricken woman. "Did the child actually disappear?"

"It would seem so."

"Is she….dead?" she whispered the last part as quietly as possible, sparing a glance over her shoulder at the mother.

The Doctor flicked several buttons on his screwdriver, tapped it against his thigh and bit the end, hard. "I don't know. My sonic is acting up. It could be one of two options: she could have just been teleported somewhere or her atoms may have simultaneously separated and therefore, yes, she is dead."

"Lets focus on the first option then, shall we?" Amy hissed, still wary of all those that could be listening.

The Doctor nodded, silently, having stopped fiddling for a moment. Amy registered the faraway look in his eyes with worry. This was probably not the best time for him to have found himself in an awful situation with vanishing children and distraught parents. She still didn't know what had caused his children – his race, in fact – to perish but this could hardly be helping matters.

Gently, she placed a comforting hand on his arm. He glanced at her, his eyes unnervingly intense, before he leapt to his feet.

"Right, we need to find out what's doing this and stop it," he murmured, his jaw set and his expression determined. "I think we need to spend some time with the children. See if they have any clue on them because if it is a teleport then they'll be covered in seeking beacons and if its not, well….it'll be something else..."

"Okay, won't the parents be a bit, you know, suspicious of a grown man 'playing' with their kiddies?"

"I'll just tell them I'm researching. Flash them the psychic paper. Come on, let's go find Felix!"

"Ah, our ginger love-child?"

"That'd be the one!"

Thanks for the reviews. Sorry for not writing spoiler at the end of last chapter too when I mentioned Rory! Forgot some of you guys are in America.

I know this quick but I decided I needed to do this before my exams. :O