A/N: new chappie! enjoy!

Chapter 10: TARDIS

"How did you know about the boxes?!" the Doctor demanded, marching into the room where Idris was being held in a cage, dragging Olivia behind him. "You said they'd make me angry. How did you know?"

"Ah, it's my thief," Idris realized in a soft voice as she sat in the cage, her eyes closed before she opened them to look at them.

"Who are you?" he demanded, making Idris chuckle.

"It's about time," she smiled.

"I don't understand," the Doctor admitted asking her again, "Who are you?"

"Do you really not know me just because they put me in here?" she questioned.

"They said you were dangerous," the Doctor recalled.

"Not the cage, stupid," Idris retorted, shifting closer to a gap and pressing her fingers to her temples as she stared at him. "In here. They put me in here. I'm the…" She stopped as if trying to think of the word, making the Doctor and Olivia both frown at her. "Oh! What do you call me? We travel. I go…"

She moved her mouth and she made a familiar sound, making Olivia's eyes widen at her in absolute disbelief.

"The TARDIS," she breathed through a grin.

"Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Yes, that's it. Names are funny. It's me," she told them, standing and gripping the hexagon bars. "I'm the TARDIS."

"No, you're not!" the Doctor argued. "You're a bitey madlady. The TARDIS is up-and-downy stuff in a big, blue box."

"Yes, that's me," Idris confirmed, leaning on the bars. "A Type 40 TARDIS. I was already a museum piece when you were young. And the first time you touched my console, you said—"

"I said you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever known," the Doctor finished as Olivia glanced between the two, now feeling like a third wheel.

"And then you stole me. And I stole you."

"I borrowed you."

"Borrowing implies the eventual intention to return the thing that was taken. What makes you think I would ever give you back?"

"You're the TARDIS?"

"Yes."

"My TARDIS?!"

"My Doctor. Oh! We have now reached the point in the conversation where you open the lock."

Idris stepped back from the door gracefully as the Doctor stared at her for a moment before pulling out his Sonic, but he didn't aim it at the door like she said he would. He looked to Olivia who was staring at Idris before she looked back at him in wonder.

"What?" she questioned.

"You're not angry," he realized, making her frown at him.

"Why would I be angry?"

"Well…she's a girl."

"She's the TARDIS."

"But…she's a girl."

"Just open the door!"

The Doctor jumped at Olivia's command and used the Sonic on the door which swung open and Idris stepped out, stopping in front of the Doctor and studying him as he studied her. She looked to Olivia as she stepped up to them, glancing between them before meeting Idris' gaze.

"Are all people like this?" she asked Olivia.

"Like what?" Olivia wondered with a frown.

"So much bigger on the inside," Idris explained before looking to the Doctor again. "I'm…Oh, what is that word?! It's so big! So complicated. It's so sad."

"Why pull the soul from a TARDIS and stick it in a human head?" Olivia wondered, looking to Idris. "Why does it want you?"

"Oh, it doesn't want me," Idris replied before sniffing the Doctor.

"How do you know?" he asked before sniffing his jacket as she had.

"House eats TARDISes," she replied, fluffing Olivia's hair around her shoulders before lifting her right wrist to look at the rubber band on it.

"House what?!" he chirped with a frown, watching them. "What do you mean?!"

"I don't know. Something I heard you say," Idris replied, pulling the rubber band from Olivia's wrist and stepping behind her as Olivia's eyes shifted in confusion.

"When?" the Doctor questioned.

"In the future," Idris replied, pulling Olivia's hair into a tight ponytail.

"House eats TARDISes?" the Doctor frowned.

"Oh, there you go," Idris smiled, pressing her thumb to his mouth before looking back at Olivia, asking, "What are fish fingers?"

"When do I say that?" he wondered.

"Any second."

"Of course! House feeds on rift energy and TARDISes are bursting with it. And not raw, lovely and cooked. Processed food. Mm, fish fingers."

"Do fish have fingers?"

"But eating a TARDIS would destroy you," Olivia knew without being told.

"Yes, unless—unless…" the Doctor trailed off.

"Unless you deleted the TARDIS matrix first," Idris finished.

"Whoa, so House deleted you?" Olivia frowned in wonder as Idris looked to her.

"But House can't just delete the TARDIS consciousness. That would blow a hole in the universe. So he pulls out that matrix, sticks it into a living receptacle, and then feeds off the remaining Artron energy." Idris gasped before looking to the Doctor and continuing, "You were about to say all that. I don't suppose you have to now."

"Theta, Amy and Rory are in there," Olivia reminded him as she pulled out her phone and dialed Amy's number.

"They'll be eaten," the Doctor realized, bolting down the hall as he took Olivia shot after him.

"Amy! Rory! Get out of there!" Olivia shouted into the phone.

"Something's wrong!" Amy reported.

"House is after the TARDIS! Both of you get out!"

"We can't! He locked the door!"

"Doctor! Unlock the door!" Olivia shouted at him as they ran toward the TARDIS.

"I have unlocked it!" he shot back.

"He says he's unlocked it," Olivia reported into the phone.

"He stupid well hasn't!" Amy shot back. "Olivia, I don't like this!"

"You and me both," Olivia replied when they reached the TARDIS. "We're trying to get you out. Hang on!"

The Doctor tried his Sonic on the door, and she instantly pulled out her Sonic to try it on the door as well as he snapped his fingers.

"Open!" he shouted. "Open this door!"

"Amy! Rory!" Olivia called, pounding on the door, but instead of opening, the TARDIS engines sounded, making her and the Doctor stare wide eyes at it as it disappeared and she shuddered, "Theta?"

"Mobile. Try the mobile," he ordered, and she pressed the phone to her ear.

"Amy?" she called but the line was dead and when she looked to the Doctor, she shook her head as tears welled in her eyes. "What are we gonna do?"

"I don't know," he murmured. "I really don't know what to do." He smiled, nervously, saying, "That's a new feeling."

"Doctor!" Olivia snapped, pulling him back to his senses before he turned and grabbed her hand to run back into the building where Idris sat in front of her cage.

"It's gone," he reported to her as she sat next to the cage.

"Eaten?" Idris asked.

"No, it left," he replied, letting go of Olivia's hand to pace as Auntie and Uncle hobbled in. "Not eaten. Hijacked. But why?"

"It's time for us both to go, Uncky, together," Auntie announced as Olivia swallowed, sighing as she sat next to Idris who watched her closely.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Go? What do you mean, go?! Where are you going?" the Doctor demanded, marching toward them as they wrapped blankets around themselves.

"Well, we're dying, my love," Auntie replied casually as they sat. "It's time for Auntie and Uncle to pop off."

"I'm against it," Uncle shrugged.

"It's your fault, isn't it, sweets?" Auntie said. "'Cause you told House that it was the last TARDIS. House can't feed on them if there's none more coming, can he?"

"So now he's off to your universe, to find more TARDISes," Uncle explained.

"Doctor…" Olivia called, leaning forward on her knees as Idris took her ponytail gently in one hand, still watching her.

"It won't," the Doctor retorted to Uncle, ignoring Olivia's call.

"Oh, it'll think of something," Auntie replied then fell over, dead. The Doctor ran toward her to examine her as Uncle stood.

"Actually, I feel fine," he announced before falling over as well, dead.

"Ah! Not dead!" the Doctor snapped, stumbling over his body.

"Doctor…" Olivia called again, her tone strained.

"You can't just die!" the Doctor shouted at the bodies.

"Doctor!" Olivia snapped, making him whirl around in time to see her vomit.

"Liv!" He ran toward her, avoiding the sick as he sat on the other side of her, Idris still holding her ponytail back as he pulled out a handkerchief as Olivia finished, panting for breath.

"It's the rift," she explained in a raw voice as he placed his hand under her chin to lift her face and use his kerchief to wipe her mouth. "It's way too powerful here. It's gonna kill me if we stay too long."

"We need to go to where I landed, Doctor, quickly," Idris explained.

"Why?!" he questioned.

"Because we are there in three minutes," Idris replied as she stood.

"Olivia is sick! Look at her! She's so pale!" he snapped at Idris.

"Gee, thanks for the compliments, dear," Olivia muttered, holding her stomach and silently praying she wouldn't hurl again.

"Oh, yes, I'm trying to take care of you, and you get snarky. Lovely."

"We need to go…" Idris paused before resuming, "…now."

She ran toward the exit but stopped, shouting in pain and grabbing her stomach.

"What's wrong with her?" Olivia frowned and the Doctor stood to head toward Idris as she turned to him.

"Roughly how long do these bodies last?" she wondered as the Doctor scanned her with the Sonic then looked to the results. He looked up at her with wide eyes.

"You're dying," he breathed, making Olivia stare at them with wide eyes.

"Yes, of course I'm dying," she retorted snatching his Sonic away. "I don't belong in a flesh body. I could blow the casing in no time. No. Stop it. Don't get emotional. Hmm, that's what the orangey girl says. You're the Doctor. Focus."

"On what?!" he shouted back, snatching his Sonic from her when she presented it to him. "How?! I've got Liv dying over there, you dying over here, two dead already, and I'm a madman with a box, without a box! I'm stuck down the plughole at the end of the universe in a stupid, old junkyard! Ooh…"

"Here we go," Olivia murmured, hearing the change in his tone.

"No, I'm not," he smirked.

"Not what?" Idris asked.

"Because it's not a junkyard. Don't you see? It's not a junkyard."

"What is it?" Olivia asked, slowly rising to her feet just as he grabbed her hand.

"It's a TARDIS junkyard!" he grinned, pulling her toward the exit but stopped in front of Idris to ask her, "Sorry, do you have a name?"

"Seven hundred years," Idris retorted. "Finally, he asks."

"What do I call you?" the Doctor smirked.

"I think you call me…Sexy," she smirked, making Olivia slap her palm to her head as the Doctor glanced between the women.

"Only when we're alone," he murmured to Idris.

"I'm gonna stick to calling you Idris," Olivia announced before turning toward the exit, still holding the Doctor's hand and dragging him with her as he grabbed Idris' hand to pull her with them. He stepped ahead to lead the way through the junkyard and they stopped on a hill to look over the landscape.

"Valley of half-eaten TARDISes," the Doctor named the wreckage before them. "Are either of you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I'm thinking all of my sisters are dead, that they were devoured, and that we are looking at their corpses," Idris replied.

"Ah, sorry, no, I wasn't thinking that," the Doctor admitted.

"No. You were thinking you could build a working TARDIS console out broken remnants of a hundred different models," Idris replied. "And you don't care that it's impossible."

"It's not impossible as long as we're alive," the Doctor argued. "Rory and Amy need us, so, yeah, we're gonna build a TARDIS."

Olivia watched him run off somewhere as she and Idris remained on the hill before she turned to her to ask a question.

"Yes," Idris replied when Olivia opened her mouth, making her frown and close it as Idris looked to her.

"What?"

"Yes, it's the secret you're thinking of."

"Oh…"

Olivia glanced at the Doctor rummaging through a pile of spare parts before stepping closer to Idris.

"No, I can't tell you how or when, but he will find out."

"But you know?"

"Yes."

Olivia swallowed, tears welling in her eyes and her stomach turned, not just from the rift energy around her now, but because of the subject of their conversation.

"Will it…change things between us?" she asked, meeting Idris' gaze and she only offered a smile. "No, of course, you can't tell me."

"Liv!" the Doctor called, drawing her attention to him. "I need your Sonic, love!"

The three worked, Idris easily finding the things they needed and the Doctor telling Olivia what to do until she looked ready to be sick again, then he told her to sit and rest while he worked.

"Bond the tube directly into the tachyon diverter," Idris instructed as the Doctor dragged a huge piece of paneling toward their TARDIS console.

"Yes, I have actually rebuilt a TARDIS before, you know! I know what I'm doing!" he shot back as Olivia stepped next to him to help him. "No, Liv, go sit down. Don't strain yourself."

"You're like a nine year old trying to rebuild a motorbike in his bedroom and you never read the instructions," Idris retorted.

"I always read the instructions!" he strained under the weight of the panel.

"There's a sign on my front door. You've been walking past it for seven hundred years. What does it say?"

"That's not instructions!"

"There's an instruction at the bottom. Even Olivia saw it. What does it say?"

"'Pull to open.'"

"Yes, and what do you do?"

"I push!"

"Every single time. Seven hundred years. Police box doors open out the way."

"I told you!" Olivia grinned to the Doctor. "Didn't I tell you?! I told you years ago!"

"Stay out of this, Liv!" he ordered her, tossing the ropes he was using to drag the panel with aside to march toward Idris. "You know, I think I have earned the right to open my front doors any way I want!"

"Your front doors? Have you any idea how childish that sounds?"

"You are not my mother."

"And you are not my child."

"You know, since we're talking, with mouths, not really an opportunity that comes along very often, I just wanna say, you know, you have never been very reliable."

"And you have?"

"You didn't always take me where I wanted to go."

"No, but I always took you where you needed to go."

"You did," the Doctor realized before ginning. "Look at us, talking! Wouldn't it be amazing if we could always talk, even when you're stuck inside the box?"

"You know I'm not constructed that way. I exist across all space and time and you talk and run around and bring home strays!"

"Hey!" Olivia called in offense, before gasping and hurrying toward Idris when she collapsed against the Doctor as he steadied her. "You alright?"

"One of the kidneys has already failed," Idris reported. "It doesn't matter. We need to finish assembling the console."

"Using a console without a proper shell…it's not gonna be safe," the Doctor realized as Olivia scanned Idris with her Sonic and quickly looked to the results.

"Theta, she's got eighteen minutes," she reported.

"The universe we're in will reach absolute zero in three hours," Idris reported. "Safe is relative."

The Doctor exchanged a glance with Olivia before turning to grab the ropes he'd tossed away, saying, "Then we need to get a move on, eh, old girl? Liv, stay with her."

Olivia obeyed and worked alongside Idris who had her do as little as possible since she still looked as pale as a ghost. She sat on an old seat in the pile, watching Idris gather things they needed then glanced to the Doctor as he worked on the construction of the console.

"I'm sure you know what I'm gonna ask you, but I wanna ask anyway," she said as Idris still worked. "Do the Doctor and I…ever…?"

"Yes."

Olivia's eyes widened at Idris who smiled, warmly making Olivia grin back.

"Thank you for telling me."

"You needed the hope."

Olivia remained silent as Idris and the Doctor worked, and she did what she could to help a little longer until she was standing at the nearly completed console where the Doctor had asked for her help.

"You'll need to install the time rotor!" Idris called to the Doctor from a pile she was looking through as he carried something toward the console.

"How is this thing gonna make it through the rift?" Olivia wondered, still working.

"Don't worry, it will," the Doctor assured her as he lowered the glass column he was carrying into the center on the console. "Almost done. Time to do a quick check! Rust diffuser?"

"Check!" Olivia called as he ran around her.

"Retro scope?"

"Check."

"Blue…thingy?"

"Check…dork."

"Oi, you married me."

Olivia couldn't help smiling as she pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Yes I did."

"Do you ever wonder why I chose you all those years ago?" Idris asked the Doctor, examining a coat hanger in her hands.

"I chose you," the Doctor corrected, still working. "You were unlocked."

"Of course I was," Idris retorted, turning to step toward the console. "I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away. And you were the only one mad enough."

"Sounds about right," Olivia nodded with a smirk as she and the Doctor stepped toward her to look at their work.

"Right, perfect," the Doctor grinned. "Look at that. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Oh, don't say that," Olivia chided, smacking his arm lightly before something popped off the console. "See?!"

"That's fine. That always happens."

"Oh, yes, I often see parts pop off the console in your TARDIS."

"No, hang on, wait!" the Doctor chirped as Idris stepped toward the console and he grabbed thick, long red cords from the pile nearby before running back toward it, handing one to Olivia. They hooked up the cords before taking positions around the console as he began, "Right, ok, let's go. Follow that TARDIS."

He yanked on the coat hanger now hanging on a hook in the console and the red engine in the cylinder glowed red but didn't launch. Olivia looked to Idris as she looked at herself in the mirror set up on the console. She giggled when Idris poked and squished her own face.

"There's rift energy everywhere," the Doctor complained working something on the console. "You can do it. Ok. Diverting all power to thrust. Let's be having ya!"

The console sparked, making the three jump with a start.

"What's wrong with it?" Olivia questioned with a frown.

"It can't hold a charge. It can't even start. There's no…power! I've got nothing."

"You idiot," Olivia smirked, drawing his gaze to her. "You have everything you need right here."

"You've got me," Idris smiled in agreement, kissing a finger and her eyes glowed gold as she reached out and gave energy to the console, making it jostle to life before disappearing from the asteroid's surface.

A/N: no, lovelies, no! it's not the secret you're probably thinking it is. reviews?