"Are you going to open the door or just stand there?" Amy said, trotting down the steps to stand by the Doctor.
"Amy," he said, working hard to keep his voice level and calm, "look outside." He grabbed her arm as she made to open the door, "Through the window, Pond!"
"Right," she said, going up on tiptoe to peek out the glass. "But those are…"
"Now do you understand why I wasn't opening the door?" the Doctor said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Right now I'm trying to figure out what possible want they have for me. So I'll stay in here for the time being, thanks."
Rory squeezed in between, "What's out there?" his eyes widened as he saw the sight out the window and he gulped, going pale. "Staying in here. Staying in here sounds good."
"Daleks?" Amy hissed. "How can they be Daleks? The Daleks' all forgot you."
"Oh, but they're clever. All they know is that they have a TARDIS, occupancy three. Can't see inside, not in detail at least. So as far as they are concerned, a Time Lord and a TARDIS. Nice prize for a Dalek. The gold. Which means we're in more danger than we would have been if they did know me."
"Why's that?" Rory questioned, leaning against the door to have another look outside. The Daleks, a mix-match of the colorful new strain and the old tin cans, were surrounding the TARDIS in a semi-circle. Weapons raised and primed to shoot.
Their voices grating and metallic, the Daleks screamed in unison: "Exterminate! Exterminate!"
Flash!
"Where are we?" Rose asked, releasing River's arm as the effects of the temporal-spatial shift wore away. She quickly grabbed back on as she noticed where they were; precariously standing five floors above the ground, the wind whipping at them.
Hurriedly, River switched the settings back. They now stood where they had fallen a while before, amongst the debris of the destroyed building. "That was supposed to take us back to the TARDIS."
"And instead it took us where the TARDIS was," Rose said, looking up at the beam they had been standing on moments before and feeling relieved for the hard ground under her feet. "What 'elp was that?"
"It didn't work," River said briefly, going about meddling with the manipulator's controls. "I just have to adjust the – Excuse me? Could you let go of my arm now please?"
"Sorry," Rose let go instantly. "I just didn't want you to vanish off without me."
River glared at her, "What kind of woman do you think I am?"
"Well…" Rose counted on her fingers, "A murdering, gun-carrying, mental lunatic from what I've seen."
River smirked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, "I prefer the term psychopath, more specific, more scientific, less long winded."
John had never run faster in his life. He knew the Doctor, and he could very well say that he knew the Doctor better than anyone in existence. And he knew that the Doctor had a nasty habit of vanishing off in the TARDIS just as someone was running to meet him. Out of memory most recently Captain Jack, and John didn't feel like holding onto the outside of the TARDIS as it whizzed through time and space.
He barreled through the streets coming to a stop near where the TARDIS was meant to be. Nothing was there.
John looked around. There were several buildings nearby, any one of which might contain the TARDIS and its passengers. "Hello? Have you come to give me a ride home?"
"…more scientific, less long winded. Although, I do…"
"Quiet!" Rose held up a finger to her lips.
River shushed, looking completely put out for not being allowed to finish her sentence. "I don't hear anything." Her words were lost on Rose, who barreled out the door. "Come back here!" She suddenly realized why the Doctor was always complaining about his companions always running off. She quickly followed after Rose.
Outside, Rose was embracing a man. After a second, River recognized him. She had only met the regeneration of the Doctor this man resembled and even then he had barely known her; she had gotten the idea that he had only met her once or twice before. Rose had found her love it seemed. A human Doctor. He seemed to be the ultimate oxymoron. The Doctor living as a human, stuck in a single time, a single place. He would be miserable, yet this man wasn't; he was smiling, widely, joyously. Because of her, Rose. And the look on John's face, River had seen it before in the eyes of her Doctor. She wished that he would look at her like that, but it was quite obviously a look reserved purely for Rose Tyler.
"But they can't get in, right? Tell me they can't get in!" Amy quickly backed away from the door, as if such a small amount of distance would affect whether or not she got shot by a Dalek.
"They can't get in," the Doctor said, rubbing his hands together nervously.
"Is that a lie?" Rory asked.
The Doctor starred at him, "Of course it's a lie, Rory. It wasn't even a clever lie. I have better things to think about right now than clever lies. Although," he hurried over the control panel and wiggled a few of the controls to no avail, "I think I'll have to think of a few good ones rather soon." He headed back to the door, pausing with his hand on the lock. He glanced back at Amy and Rory. The last time he had been captured by the Daleks they had tried to destroy the TARDIS, with Donna inside. The problem with being over a thousand years old was that you always seemed to fall into the same situations. You saw everything, could predict anything. And here he was, stuck in almost the same situation as he was a few hundred years previously. The Daleks outside ready to destroy his precious ship, his constant companion. That being said he had two others, a hundred times more dear to think about. And while staying in the TARDIS held the risk of being incinerated, going out there had a large chance of being zapped by a Dalek laser, so… "Stay here."
Before Amy could protest, the Doctor pulled open the lock and slipped outside, keeping the door open narrowly enough to hide the two still inside.
The eye stalks of the ten or so Daleks surrounding the TARDIS all turned to stare at him. "Exterminate! Exter…"
"Wait!" the Doctor's hand bolted in the air. "You don't want to shoot me and I'll tell you why. I … um…" A plan, a plan! Well, there was one thing he could think of, just off the top of his head. Old tricks and all that, especially when the ones your tricking can't remember the first dupe. The Doctor cautiously reached down to his jacket pocket, painfully aware that one wrong move would get him zapped. He produced a Jammie Dodger holding it up for the Daleks to see, "Back off or I'll destroy the TARDIS and all of you with it, you got that?"
One of the new issue Daleks, this one a bright green color that might have been pretty if not painted on the vilest being in the universe, rolled forward. "No technology detected. Item no threat. Exterminate!"
The Doctor tossed the Dodger over his shoulder, "Yeah, didn't really think that would work. Your scanners are too good. Last time I tried that you lot were old and damaged, just hanging on."
"Encounter described never occurred," the lead Dalek squawked, shaking with each syllable. "Explain, explain!"
The other Daleks took up the chant, "Explain!"
"Ah that's right, you don't have a clue who I am. Must be frustrating. And if you kill me, you'll never know. And not knowing isn't any fun, is it?"
"You are a Time Lord. An enemy of the Daleks. You will give us the information we demand."
"What information?" The Doctor asked, puzzled. "Explain," he said, imitating the way the Daleks said the word.
"How have the Time Lords hidden their home world? Where is Gallifrey? You will explain. Explain!"
The Doctor licked his lips, "Oh this is Christmas. Good old Oswin, she really did you a hard hit, didn't…"
One of the Daleks interrupted, "Records found, you are the Doctor. You trespassed on the Asylum."
"Doctor who?" he grinned, "Is that all you have on me? You need a library card, go look me up properly. Actually ignore that, don't look me up. Forget I said anything at all... You're good at that."
"You are evading the question." The Dalek was shaking more now. They might claim to be void of emotion, but the Doctor prided himself in being able to make the species extremely irritated.
"Where is the planet Gallifrey?" the Daleks demanded, "Explain!"