I know I'm laying on the chapters thick, so yay!
In this chapter I'll be introducing a bit of timey-wimey complication... Hang in there, as Hero becomes better at managing time travel weirdness and all that, more shall be explained. :)
Rory bodily lifted Amy in his arms, the bucket of water spilling everywhere as the white cloths scattered to the floor. In a twinkling they were out the door, heading straight for the hospital, and I ran forward to join them when the TARDIS doors came crashing shut in my face and the time machine roared to life, screaming through my mind.
"Wait! No, bloody machine..." I charged back towards the console, desperately messing with the controls in an effort to stop the TARDIS from taking off, but with a shudder we started to dematerialize. "What the hell are you doing?" I yelled, wiggling levers back and forth uselessly, like they were simply plastic dummies placed there by the TARDIS herself to placate me. "Amy and Rory... Silly girl, I hadn't forgotten about the Doctor! What could possibly be so important that you had to take me away right now?"
By now we were in full flight, spinning off into the time vortex, and I sagged against the Doctor's hospital gurney in defeat. Whatever was happening now, I'd have to get back to the Ponds later and hopefully not miss too much. Bloody freakin hell...
Glancing over at the Doctor, I realized that the TARDIS was making no move to land, which could only mean one thing – she wanted me to try to find her thief again. I closed my eyes briefly, biting my lip as I edged forward to the Doctor's side. To be perfectly honest, I was nervous to try again. There was a very real danger that I would get sucked in, that I wouldn't be able to ever find my way out again. Then I nearly smacked myself. "What the hell? You have to save him!" I talked loudly to myself, telling myself off like a disobedient child. "It's the Doctor... Just get in there and get him out!" Then I quieted, staring at the Doctor's youthful face as once more I settled myself on the gurney next to his unconscious form. "I'm doing this..." I breathed, resting my head against his and letting my mind sink into that place which was now so familiar...
My eyes popped open. I froze.
I was still lying on the gurney, resting on my side, but the Doctor was not beside me. The TARDIS was still in normal flight, flying through the vortex, and for a moment true panic seized me. I bolted upright, looking around wildly for a sign of the Time Lord, but there was no one else with me.
"INCORRECT. I AM WITH YOU."
I stiffened. "Ah, you again..." I tried to sound casual, like it didn't matter that it felt like the entity holding the doctor prisoner had somehow entered the real world. "Playing our new game?"
"YOU CATCH ON QUICKLY. THAT IS INDEED WHAT I'M DOING."
I grimaced, getting to my feet and looking around once more to see if anything looked strange or out of place. Nothing was changed. "So... what's the game?"
"SIMPLE. I HAVE CREATED A REPLICA OF THE TARDIS. YOU MUST FIND THE DOCTOR. I HAVE HIDDEN HIM SOMEWHERE IN THE TIME MACHINE."
"That's all? If I didn't know better, I'd say you were going a bit soft..."
"SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERY INCH OF THIS TARDIS, DO YOU?"
My blood ran cold. I realized that I actually didn't know everything about the TARDIS; from what I'd seen, it was vast and confusing, on a good day. And as I stretched out my consciousness, I realized that there was no familiar hum of the TARDIS mind, no helpful sentience to assist me in this game of hide-and-seek.
"O-okay," I stammered, swallowing hard even as I tried to sound brave, "How long do I have? To find him?"
"AS LONG AS IT TAKES, TIME LADY."
I gritted my teeth. That's what I'd been worried about. If I was given all the time in the world, that meant that, wherever the Doctor was, it would be very difficult to find. I would need supplies, and perhaps... some hiking boots or something. Even though this was happening in my mind, I would feel the affects of the search physically as my consciousness gradually grew tired.
"Okay, well then I'll begin now," I said aloud, slowly making my way towards the main hallway which I hoped would still lead to my room. There was no response from the entity, so I broke into a slow run, mentally cataloging all the places in the TARDIS I knew about and also a list of the things I would need from my room.
This was going to take a while.
Realistically, I figured that it would take a few days (in terms of my internal clock) to find the Doctor. I also didn't really know if eating food in my mind would actually nourish my physical body out there in the real TARDIS, in the real time vortex. I figured it couldn't hurt to try, so after I changed into suitable walking shoes and a different shirt, I stopped by the kitchen to gather some supplies. Luckily my old school backpack was still in my bedroom where it had been discarded when I'd first come on the TARDIS with the Doctor and the Ponds, so I used that to hold everything.
Another thing was bothering me, and that was whether actual time was going to go by in terms of my physical body while my mind was searching for the Doctor, or whether we'd eventually wake up with only a few hours having passed – like a long dream. I hoped that it would be the latter, since I was concerned with how this would affect our baby. I was still aware of its presence even hear, walking around in a purely cerebral world, and that fact calmed me.
In a matter of minutes I ready to begin searching, but not before I'd carefully peered into every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen just to be sure the Doctor wasn't stuffed somewhere. He wasn't, so I left the kitchen and mentally crossed it off my list. I decided to search all the areas I knew first, so I headed back to the console room to double check before moving on to his room, the Pond's room (with bunk beds), and back to my own room to check under the bed and in the closet.
About an hour later I'd finished scanning those rooms are thoroughly as I could. Not finding the Doctor in those common places didn't really surprise me, though there was admittedly a weight of disappointment on my shoulders as I considered walking deeper into the TARDIS. Of course, during the months I'd lived here I'd started to explore, usually getting interrupted after half an hour by the Doctor panicking because I'd "disappeared." I could picture his scared face, so earnestly worried about where I'd been whisked off to, and I was always reminded how many times he'd lost those he loved, and how protective he was. Standing in the mind-TARDIS, contemplating my next location to search, I smiled fondly as I remembered how the Doctor would hug me fiercely, squeezing the breath from my lungs as he placed soft kisses on my face. My smile faded; it was difficult to think about such things when there was a vital part missing – the Doctor. I had to start searching now.
The next hour took me through some familiar territory, including some empty bedrooms which I knew had belonged to the Doctor's previous companions Donna, Rose, Mickey, and Martha. Even though I didn't these individuals personally, I was impressed with the level of personalization the TARDIS had taken in creating each of their living spaces. Though didn't the Old Girl do that for you? Thinking back to when I'd passed these rooms on my earlier explorations, the doors had been locked. Now they swung open at the lightest touch. In this dream world, there were no secrets. At first, I was a bit puzzled. And then I remembered, the entity creating this reality was in the Doctor's mind.
I hated to think about what had been done to the Doctor that would make him divulge his oldest memories, the contents of his blue box and of lost friends.
It occurred to me some time later, when my feet started to ache, that I'd underestimated how long this quest would take. It seemed to me that the time machine would go on forever as I passed room after room, some empty, some furnished, most dedicated or belonging to people I didn't know. It humbled me a little, seeing all of this space, all of these memories, of which I was no part. It was a reminder of how old the Doctor truly was, how many people he had cared for and who had cared for him. I pressed a hand across my belly as I contemplated that he had chosen me as his mate. You are the same species, stupid... Why not you? "I'm still bloody lucky," I murmured aloud as I finally stepped into the huge library, sighing heavily when I saw how long it would take to search this vast hall properly.
I lost track of time while I was in the library. There was indeed a swimming pool in there, of sorts; it was more like a calm river which wound back and forth among the towering bookshelves, and scattered here and there were pool chairs and rubber inner-tubes and small paddle boats. It was like a book-filled oasis, but without the danger of sunburn. I had to climb to the top of the bookshelves, using one of the rickety ladders to do it, so that I could make sure the Doctor wasn't tied up on top somewhere. He wasn't.
There were so many books, in so many languages, that after I while I didn't even bother to glance at the shelves except to look for my husband. It was rather overwhelming, and I distantly wondered if book collecting was a hobby of the Doctor's or the TARDIS'... Not that it mattered. It was something to think about.
By the time I was finished searching the library, I was starting to feel the fatigue. Reluctantly I sat down in the doorway of the hall, closing my eyes in an attempt to get my mind to rest. I was grateful that there had been no interruptions by the creepy entity; if it had spoken to me in the past few hours, I would have probably lost my temper, not a good idea in a hostage situation.
I was startled out of my reverie by the sound of a phone ringing. My eyes snapped open. The sound was very close, right next to me in fact, though as I glanced around I saw nothing. Then recognition dawned as I realized that what I was hearing was the actual TARDIS phone, and I surfaced from the Doctor's mind prison like I was rising from deep water. For a moment I was dazed, since I'd been so deep, but I blinked rabidly and slowly I came back to myself in the real TARDIS, in the real time vortex, and the real phone was ringing beside me. When I sat up, I felt distinctly lightheaded, and it took a few seconds for me to stand up. Feeling rather weak, I reached for the still-ringing phone and raised it to my ear. The doctor lay beside me, asleep.
"Hero! It's Rory Williams."
I chuckled at his complete introduction.
"Where are you?" he asked, sounding worried, "You were there for a moment, I took Amy out, and then you just disappeared behind us! What happened?"
"How long has it been since the TARDIS left?" I interrupted, rubbing my aching forehead.
"Sorry, about ten minutes, we've got Amy settled and she's starting to push now. I just wanted to know if you and the Doctor are... are going to come back."
"Go to Amy," I replied as soothingly as I could, "I'm doing all I can to get the Doctor back with us, and we're in a time machine, so... You know."
"Yeah." he said, then I heard Amy shouting in the background for him. "Gotta go," he added hurriedly.
"Good luck!" I called, then blinked when I realized that he'd already hung up. Good boy. I set the phone back down, shaking my head slightly as I tried to clear it. I was feeling a bit dizzy. My stomach growled painfully as I looked down at it.
A thought occurred to me, and I rushed to type into the TARDIS console. After a moment, the results showed on the small screen, and I blinked in surprise, then my hand flew to my mouth as I realized the implications.
Rory had said that it had only been a matter of minutes since he'd taken Amy from the TARDIS to the hospital. In my travels in the Doctor's mind, it had felt like about seven hours. Since we were flying in the vortex and therefore existing across all of space and time, it was as if everything was happening at once. But there was still relative time happening inside the time machine, happening to me and the Doctor.
According to the TARDIS time records, I'd been lying on the gurney beside the Time Lord, lost in his mind, for a week.
The dizziness nearly overcame me, and as I gripped hard at the console I knew something would have to be arranged to keep the pair of us, and the baby, alive during our telepathic battle with the entity. Otherwise, "all the time in the world" which had been granted to me to find the Doctor would lead to our physical deaths.
Not good...
