Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, but since when does that matter?

Ch. 14:

As Renfrew sat at his desk, Canton searched the filing cabinets.

"This place, it's been closed for years." He said. "What have you been doing?"

"Oh, the child, she must be cared for." Renfrew said distractedly. "It's important. That's what they said."

"That's what who said?" Canton asked.

Amy searched the rest of the upstairs, the only light coming from her flashlight. She heard a noise and turned to see a woman with an eye patch peering through an opening in the door.

"Hello." Amy called. "Who are you?"

"No, I think she's just dreaming." The woman said to someone else.

The window slid shut and after a moment, Amy went to the door and opened it to find a small nursery.

"Hello?" she called. "I saw you, looking through the hatch…"

She looked back at the door, but there was no hatch. She ran her hand over the door and checked the back of it. Finding nothing, she walked back inside, looking at the stuffed animals on the bed and a mobile hanging from the light. On the bureau were a whole bunch of photos of the girl at various ages. One at the very back caught Amy's eye and she picked it up.

It was of her. With a baby.

"How?" she whispered. "How can that be me?"

She put the picture down and turned as the astronaut entered the room.

"Who are you?" Amy demanded. "I don't understand, so just tell me who you are!"

The astronaut lifted the visor and it was still the little girl. The inner visor was cracked from the bullet from the shot Amy fired at the warehouse.

"I'm sorry." She told her. "I didn't mean to shoot you. I'm glad I missed. But you killed the Doctor. You're going to kill him. But who are you? Just please tell me, because I don't understand!"

"Please help me." The girl begged. "Help me, please."

Two of the creatures entered the room and Amy screamed as the door slammed shut.

There was a thumping and Renfrew went to the door. He opened it a crack and spoke to the person outside.

"It's just some questions." He said. "Yes, I see."

He closed the door and sat back down.

"Who was that?" Canton asked. "Doctor Renfrew? Who was that?"

"Who was who?" Renfrew asked.

Canton walked towards the door, but stopped when it opened and a creature entered.

"What are you?" Canton asked. "You can tell me."

He activated the recorder on his hand.

"Cause I won't remember." He continued. "You invaded us. You're everyewhere."

"Help me!" Canton heard Amy yell from the distance. "Canton, please will you help me?!"

"Are you armed?" Canton asked the creature.

"The world is ours." The creature told him. "We have ruled it since the wheel and the fire. We have no need of weapons."

"Yeah?" Canton asked.

He drew his revolver and shot the creature three times.

"Welcome to America." He said before taking off down the hall. "Amy!"

Nixon sat at his desk as the Doctor walked back to the TARDIS.

"You have to tape everything that happens in this office, every word, or we won't know if you're under the influence." He told the President.

"Doctor, you have to give me more than this." Nixon told him. "What were you and the Phoenix doing to Apollo 11?"

"A thing." The Doctor replied. "A clever thing. No more questions. You have to trust me and nobody else."

"Theta!" Lily called, leaning out the door. "It's Canton! He needs us. Get your ass in here!"

The Doctor ran inside and the TARDIS dematerialized.

Canton ran to the door where he heard Amy yelling.

"Help me!" she was calling. "Please, I can't, I can't see! Somebody help me!"

Canton tried to break down the door, but it stayed in place.

"Amy!" he yelled, pounding on the door. "Amy, can you hear me? Amy, I'm going to try to blow the lock. I need you to stand back."

Just as Canton raised his gun, The Doctor, Lily, Rory, and River ran up to him.

"Okay, gun down, I've got it!" the Doctor said, moving to the door and pulling out his screwdriver. "Amy, we're here. Are you okay?"

"I can't see!" she called back.

The Doctor opened the door and they all went in. Out of sight, down the hall, the girl stood with her back pressed against the wall.

Inside the room, Amy wasn't there, and on the floor was the spacesuit.

"Where is she, Doctor?" Rory demanded.

The Doctor scaned the suit with the screwdriver while. Lily glanced at Rory and bit her lip.

Theta…

He looked up at his mate and met her eyes.

Do it. He told her. I'll keep watch. Keep you on task.

She nodded and knelt down, laying a hand against the floor, and her eyes started to swirl gold. The Doctor felt her power sweep through her, felt the temptation she had finally told him about, that she had been hiding from him. He could tell she was only using a small fraction of her power, and still the pull to use it to smite all their enemies, to track those who had taken Amy and tear them limb from limb was tremendous.

Focus. He told her.

She nodded and closed her eyes, seeking Amy through her connection to the TARDIS.

River lifted the visor to the suit and the Doctor refocused on their task.

"It's empty." She said.

"It's dark, it's so dark." They heard Amy say. "I don't know where I am. Please, can anybody hear me?"

The Doctor looked down and found the nanorecorder blinking on the floor. Rory bent and picked it up.

"They took this out of her?" Rory asked. "How did they do that, Doctor?"

Amy sobs came over the recorder.

"Why can I still hear her?" he demanded.

"Is it a recording?" River asked.

"No." Lily said standing up.

The Doctor watched her eyes as she fought her power back down. When all the gold was pretty much gone, he sighed softly.

"The recorder defaults to live when it's suddenly removed from the body." Lily continued. "This is current. Wherever she is right now, this is what she's saying. And wherever that is, I can't track her. She's being cut off from the TARDIS."

"Amy, can you hear me?" Rory said into the recorder. "We're coming for you. Wherever you are, we're coming, I swear."

"She can't hear you." The Doctor said. "I'm so sorry. It's one way."

"She can always hear me, Doctor." Rory said. "Always, wherever she is. She always knows that I am coming for her, do you understand me? Always."

"Doctor, are you out there?" Amy called. "Can you hear me? Doctor? Oh, God. Please, please, Doctor, just get me out of this."

"He's coming." Rory told her uselessly. "I'll bring him, I swear."

Lily came over and took his hand, holding it tightly. A second later, Renfrew wandered in.

"Hello, is someone in there?" he asked. "Who? I think someone has been shot. I think we should help. We…I can't…I can't remember."

Renfrew led them back to his office where the creature was lying on the floor. It backed away from the Doctor and Lily as they kneeled in front of him and the Doctor reached out.

"Okay." He said, backing off. "Who and what are you?"

"Silence, Doctor." The creature replied, holding his wound. "We are the Silence."

"Theta." Lily said.

In their minds they remembered all the times they had been told of the silence, not comprehending just what that meant.

"And silence will fall." The creature continued.

Inside Area 51, the doors to the Doctor's cell opened and the soldiers aimed their guns as Canton strolled out.

"Hello again." He said.

"Sir, you've been in there for days." One of the soldiers said. "What the hell have you been doing?"

"Doesn't matter." Canton replied. "I need Dr. Shepherd here, right now."

"Sir, I need to talk to Colonel Jefferson right now!" the soldier shot back.

"No, you really don't." Canton said.

He smirked as President Nixon walked out of the cell and all of the soldiers quickly holstered their weapons and saluted.

"Hi, fellas." He said. "I'm President Nixon. I want to tell you, on behalf of the American people, how much we appreciate all of your hard work."

In the warehouse, The Doctor and River examined the spacesuit, while Rory paced and Lily sat on a crate, spinning the TARDIS blue envelope in her hands. In the background, they listened to the newscast for the moon landing.

"The target for the Apollo 11 astronauts, the moon, at lift off, will be at a distance of 218,095 miles away. We're just past the two minute mark on the countdown. T minus one minute 54 seconds and counting…"

"It's an exo-skeleton." River said, scanning the suit. "Basically, life support. There's about 20 different kinds of alien tech in here."

"Who was she?" the Doctor asked. "Why put her in here?"

"Put this on, you don't even need to eat." River said. "The suit processes sunlight directly. It's got built in weaponry and a communications system that can hack into anything."

"Including the telephone network?" the Doctor suggested.

"Easily." River replied.

"Why phone the president?" Lily called.

"It defaults to the highest authority it can find." River replied. "The little girl gets frightened, the most powerful man on Earth gets a phone call."

"Night terrors and a direct hotline to the White House." Lily murmured. "That's the way I'd set it up for my daughter."

"You'd want to protect your daughter from everything, give her the access to the best help possible." River said, looking up at her turning the envelope over in her hands. "You won't learn anything from that envelope, you know."

The Doctor reached over and took it from Lily.

"Purchased on Earth, perfectly ordinary stationery, TARDIS blue." He said. "Summoned by a stranger who won't even show his face. That's a first for us. How about you?"

"Our lives are back to front." River told them. "Your future's my past, your firsts are my lasts."

"Not really what we asked." Lily said.

"As something else then." River replied with a shrug as she went back to the suit.

"What are the Silence doing?" The Doctor asked.

"Raising a child?" Lily suggested.

"Keeping her safe." River answered. "Even giving her independence."

The Doctor looked at Rory, who was totally focused on the recorder.

"The only way to save Amy is to work out what the Silence are doing." He told him.

"I know." Rory said.

"Every single thing we learn about them brings us a step closer." The Doctor continued.

"Yeah, Doctor, I get it." Rory told him. "I know."

Leave him alone. Lily told her mate.

The Doctor ignored her, but moved back to River.

"Of course, it's possible she's not just any little girl." He said.

"Well, I'd say she's human, going by the life support software." River said.

"But?" Lily asked, getting up to join them.

"She climbed out of this suit." River told them. "Like she forced her way out. She must be incredibly strong."

"Incredibly strong and running away." The Doctor said, looking at the broken straps. "I like her."

"You would." Lily said, smirking.

"We should try to find her." River said.

"Yes, I know, but how?" the Doctor asked. "Anyway, I have the strangest feeling she's going to find us."

"This is Houston, do you read? Over."

"Why does it look like a NASA space suit?" Rory asked.

"Because that's what the Silence do." Lily said, as the Doctor walked over to the TV. "I mean, think about it for a minute. They're an occupying force. They don't need to make anything because you guys will do it all for them."

"So they're parasites then?" River asked.

"Exactly." Lily said.

"Super parasites." The Doctor said. "Standing in the shadows of human history since the very beginning. We know they can influence human behavior any way they want. If they've been doing that on a global scale for thousands of years…"

"Then what?" Rory asked.

"They why did the human race suddenly decide to go to the moon?" Lily asked.

"Ten…nine…ignition sequence start…six…five…four…"

"Because the Silence needed a space suit." The Doctor answered.

"…one…zero…all engines on. Lift off. We have a lift off 32 minutes after the hour, lift off on Apollo 11."

Dr. Shepherd examined the Silence as Canton looked on inside the cell.

"My God!" he exclaimed. "What is it?"

"It's just an alien, Dr. Shepherd." Canton told him.

"Someone's already been treating it." Shepherd said.

"Yeah." Canton sighed. "You've been treating it."

"Does Colonel Jefferson know this thing is here?" Shepherd asked.

"No." Canton replied.

"Then I'm going to tell him right now!" Shepherd declared, getting up and turning away from the Silence.

"Again?" Canton asked.

"Sorry, what?" Shepherd asked.

"Exactly." Canton sighed.

"Sergeant, why was I called in here for no reason?" Shepherd called, walking out of the cell.

"You tend to my wounds." The Silence said. "You are foolish."

"Why?" Canton asked, recording the Silence with Amy's phone. "What would you do in my place?"

"We have ruled your lives since your lives began." The Silence said. "You should kill us all on sight, but you will never remember we were even here. Your will is ours."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but thanks, it's exactly what I needed to hear." Canton said. "This is a video phone, whatever a video phone is."

Canton ended the recording and sent the file to Lily's phone.

"We've got mail." Lily called, pulling out her phone. "It's from Canton. That boy is a quick study."

She tossed her phone to the Doctor, who quickly opened the file.

"You should kill us all on sight."

Lily glanced over to Rory, who stood off to the side, listening to Amy's sobs over the nanorecorder, while River scanned the suit, when the glove twitched.

"This suit, it seems to be repairing itself." She said. "How is it doing that?"

Rory sat down on the floor, his back against a crate. Lily looked at him sadly and the Doctor squeezed her arm.

"Doctor, a unit like this, would it ever be able to move without an occupant?" River asked.

"Why?" he asked.

"Well, the little girl said the space man was coming to eat her." River said. "Maybe that's exactly what happened."

Amy began to speak again and Rory lifted his head. Lily glanced at the Doctor and he shrugged.

"I love you." Amy said. "I know you think it's him. I know you think it ought to be him. But it's not, it's you. And when I see you again, I'm going to tell you properly, just to see your stupid face. My life was so boring before you just dropped out of the sky."

Rory dropped his head.

Oh gods. Lily whispered.

"So just get your stupid face where I can see it, okay?" Amy continued. "Okay?"

Lily moved over and sat down next to Rory, resting her head on his shoulder and hugging his arm.

"She's okay for now." She told him softly. "You know she is, because you know nothing would stop me if I didn't think she was. They need her as a hostage."

"Can't you save her?" Rory asked.

"We can track that signal." Lily confirmed. "It'd take us right to her."

"Then why haven't you?" he demanded.

"Then what, Rory?" she asked. "We find her, and then what do we do? This isn't just some alien invasion. This would all be so much simpler if it was. This is an occupation. They live here. This is their empire. This is kicking the Romans out of Rome."

"Rome fell." Rory replied.

"I know." Lily said. "I was there."

"So was I." Rory shot back.

Lily was quiet for a moment.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked.

"Sure." He replied.

"Do you ever remember it?" she asked. "Those 2,000 years, watching over the Pandorica? Watching over Amy? The Last Centurion?"

"No." Rory replied.

"Are you lying?" Lily asked.

"'Course I'm lying." He said.

"Of course you are." Lily agreed. "It's not really the sort of thing someone forgets, is it?"

"But I don't remember it all the time." He told her. "It's like there's…a door in my head. I can keep it shut."

"Please come and get me." Amy begged. "Come and get me."

She started to sob again and Rory turned his face into Lily's shoulder and she rested her head on his. She looked up and met the Doctor's eyes, and he just sighed.

A/N: Ha! What about that, suckers?! Two chapters! What do you think about that?!

Review, please!

Abbey