Another chapter! Woo... thanks for the review(s), I'm glad you like it. On with the show! :) x
The Cybermen turned to face the Doctor; it's vice grip still on Amy's neck. "Ah, okay. No need to panic." The Doctor said, clearly panicking.
"Doctor, calm down." Amy stated her hands trying to claw the Cyberman away.
"Okay, need an idea. Think..." The Doctor continued to himself running his fingers through his hair. "Oi, junk heap." The Doctor yelled and the Cyberman turned to face him. "Let go of my wife!" The Cyberman didn't complied surprisingly.
"Wow, I didn't think that would actually work..." The Doctor said pleased with himself. His smile dropped when the Cyberman turned and faced him. "Ah, not so good."
"You will be deleted. The Doctor will be deleted." The Cyberman chanted and began to walk towards the Doctor, whose brain was now working over time.
The Doctor, still backing away from the closing Cyberman, scanned to room. With a slightly crazy smile he noticed the glowing red switches behind Amy. He would have laughed at the Cybermen's idiocy if he wasn't about to be killed by one. "Amy, the switches behind you, turn them all on." He said, he was only a few steps from the wall now and needed her to hurry.
"Which ones?" Amy yelled her voice still rough from the Cyberman.
"All of them." The Doctor replied, his back now against the wall. Amy got to work as the Cyberman made a grab for the Doctor. The Doctor ducked and clipped a wire onto the Cyberman's arms. He then dodged around the back and clipped one to its back.
"Done." Amy yelled and the Doctor grabbed her hand, running back to the teleport. Standing on the blue circle, the pair teleported in a haze of blue light.
The Doctor and Amy landed with a thud in the elevator, both panting from breath, slumped on the floor. Before either could talk the elevator doors rolled open to reveal Craig standing there with Baby Alfie. "You're back!" Craig said shocked.
"Yeah... big... bad... big bad... Cybermen...gone." The Doctor said between pants. He then took a deep breath and shakily got to his feet. After he was stable he offered Amy's his hand and pulled her up to her feet as well. "You shouldn't get anymore problems from them." The Doctor explained and the group left the shopping centre.
Amy and Doctor spent the evening with Craig and Alfie, the latter was totally entranced by the new company and his little fingers ended up being tangled in Amy's hair on more than one occasion. The trio, Alfie having gone to bed, were now sat on the sofa chatting. Amy and Craig with a glass of wine in their hands whilst the Doctor stuck to water, it was all very domestic. "So there I was covered in this god awful green gunk after climbing through the forest and he comes out not even a hair out of place. It was the second worst thing I have been covered in, ever." Amy said, retelling one of her and the Doctor's mishaps.
"What was the first? I mean green alien gunk, that's got to be pretty bad?" Craig asked slightly revolted and yet curious at what could be more revolting than alien gunk.
"Star-whale vomit." Amy replied and shivered. "My first ever trip with 'im and we end up in the mouth of a giant star-whale, no way out except to make the poor thing vomit!" She shivered again, as did Craig. The Doctor on the other hand chuckled at the memory. This was also the moment Alfie decided to wake up and like clockwork the crying started.
Craig sighed heavily and began to get up. "No, no. I'll do it." The Doctor insisted and was up the stairs before Craig could argue. Craig shrugged and sat back down, from the stories he had been told earlier Amy and the Doctor had only been parents recently, the Doctor would be fine. He turned to Amy who was staring behind him, a look of utter fear on her face. "Amy?" Craig asked softly and Amy's eyes quickly darted to him, tears forming in the corner. "Amy, what's wrong?" He asked.
"The Doctor... he's going to die." She replied.
The man in question at this point was still at the top of the stairs. He had felt Amy's sadness and was going to ask when he finished with Alfie, but Craig had beaten him to it and after hearing's Amy's last sentence, he was intrigued to hear more.
Craig looked confused at Amy. "What do you mean?" He asked. Amy took a deep breath before replying. "It was a few years ago now, we were given these invitations, a time, a date and a map reference on them in a Tardis blue envelope. So without second thought we packed up and followed instruction." Amy took another breath, trying to calm her breathing down.
"The map reference led us to Utah, 22nd April 2011, 4:00pm. As per usual, he turns up in the middle of no-where, wearing a Stetson of all things." She smiled a little at the memory of him, leaning on the red car, hat precariously placed on his head.
"And River, a friend of ours, arrived and we went to a cafe. We talked for a bit, we hadn't seen him for a while, Rory and I had just gotten married by this point..." Amy had explained the whole Rory thing to Craig earlier so he nodded in understanding.
"...And then we went to beach for a picnic. It was nice. We had wine, chatted and just enjoyed being together with some universal threat to stop. But then at about 5 ish, I'm not sure, this... this astronaut thing comes out of the water and stops at the beach edge." Amy started to speak to really quickly as with every word she says to Craig is causing the memory to replay in her head and the Doctor would be down soon and it was important that he didn't find out, her crying would just give it away. Little did Amy know that he already was.
"The Doctor, he went really quiet and everyone stood up. He told us to stay back, but I wasn't really focused on him, more on the apparent Apollo astronaut that had appeared out of the lake. He walked forward and started to talk to it. The thing lifted its visor and the Doctor bowed his head and... and it shot him." Amy couldn't control her sobs anymore and Craig came and sat next her, allowing her to bury her head in his shoulder.
"But, he can do that thing can't he? Didn't he regenerate or whatever?" Craig asked. Amy shook her head, although muffled she managed to reply to Craig.
"It shot him again, while he was half-way through the cycle. His body was already dead; the regeneration gets it started again by changing it. The second shot, stopped the cycle. He died and we... we had to burn the body." Amy replied and tears flowed freely, this long repressed memory now at the forefront of her mind.
The Doctor was shocked at Amy's confession to Craig. He always knew his death was coming; it was inevitable, but like that... Why would he have chosen to go like that? He couldn't take hearing Amy's sobs anymore, each sniffle breaking his hearts, so he silently opened Alfie's door and steeped into the room. He was met with the sound of a babbling toddler.
"Hello." The Doctor said, his eyes were still glazed but his smile was genuine as he picked up the small boy. Alfie babbled in response.
"Hmm... it is quite pretty." The Doctor mused, looking up at the projection of constellations on the ceiling. "But do you know what it really wants to look like?" He asked and then whipped out his sonic screwdriver pointing it at the projector. The image instantly changed into the true look of the stars. Reds, blue, gold filled the ceiling and each of the little stars and galaxies were moving in their own unique way. "See, that's better." The Doctor said pocketing the sonic.
"When you're older Alfie they'll be just starting to touch the stars. Oh you little humans get so far, all the way to the end of the universe and beyond. I've been their believe me. You've got so much ahead of you, whilst I apparently don't have much. I finally feel old; haven't felt that in a long time." The Doctor rambled, still looking at the projection above his head not noticing that Alfie had fallen back asleep on his shoulder.
"And then Amy, all these years of not telling me. I don't blame her, she had to, to maintain the timelines but... I just wish she could've told me." The Doctor said and looked down at Alfie, his features instantly softened. "Look at me, an old man rambling his issues to you." The Doctor continued, placing Alfie back in his cot. "Night little one." He said gently and left the room, closing the door softly behind him.
The Doctor leant back against the door and yawned. Without second thought he trudged his way down the corridor to the spare room Craig had said he and Amy could use. The Doctor didn't take in the room upon entry; his eyes were on the bed and with a flop he landed on it, face first. Eyes drifting shut, he managed to slip off his shoes, pull off his bow tie and shrug off his trousers and braces. Within seconds he was asleep, the first time in a long time he had fallen asleep without his wife in his arms.
I just realised this chapters quite depressing, sorry about that but I way checking thing through and I realised the Doctor never found out about his death in The Almost People like the Doctor in the real show, so I thought I add it in here. Hope it doesn't confuse things too much. Reviews would really make my day! :) x