The Lodgers (Part Two)
The Doctor was sitting in a chair, wires draped around his shoulders as he worked with them, more like fiddled with them, as he tried to ignore how uncomfortable the situation was. Craig and Sophie were sitting on the sofa, Craig looking up at the ceiling, while Sophie sat with a glass of wine in her hand. She seemed far more interested in having a conversation with the Doctor than Craig, but the Doctor could tell Craig wasn't pleased. He was starting to regret his decision to join them instead of continuing to wire the house.
"Cos life can seem pointless, Doctor," Sophie was saying, lost in thought, "Work, weekend, work, weekend. And there's six billion people on the planet doing pretty much the same."
"Six billion people?" he muttered to himself, "Watching you two at work, I'm starting to wonder where they all come from."
"What?" Sophie looked at him, "What do you mean by that?"
The Doctor didn't answer, only went with a different change of conversation, "So, the call center. That's no good? What do you really want to do?"
"Don't laugh. I only ever told Craig about it. I want to work looking after animals. Maybe abroad? I saw this orangutan sanctuary on telly."
"What's stopping you?"
"She can't," Craig finally spoke, the first words since the Doctor had sat down, "You need loads of qualifications."
"Yeah, true," Sophie sighed, glum, "Plus it's scary, everyone I know lives round here. Craig got offered a job in London, better money, didn't take it."
"What's wrong with staying here? I can't see the point of London."
"Well, perhaps that's you, then," the Doctor shrugged, "Perhaps you'll just have to stay here, secure and a little bit miserable until the day you drop. Better than trying and failing, eh?"
"You think I'd fail?" Sophie looked quite upset at that.
"Everybody's got dreams, Sophie, very few are going to achieve them, so why pretend?" he reached out and picked up a glass of wine that Sophie had poured for him earlier, taking a sip only to spit it right back into the glass with a grimace, "Perhaps, in the whole universe, a call center is where you should be?"
"Why are you saying that? That's horrible."
"Is it true?"
"Of course it's not true. I'm not staying in a call center all my life, I can do anything I want!" Sophie suddenly cut off when she noticed the Doctor smiling at her and realized what he'd done, getting her motivated to live out her dreams, "Oh! Yeah! Right!" she turned to Craig, "Oh, my God! Did you see what he just did?"
"No," Craig frowned, "What's happening? Are you going to live with monkeys now?"
"It's a big old world, Sophie," the Doctor added, "Work out what's really keeping you here, eh?"
"I don't know," she shrugged, "Dunno."
"Right, well, it's getting late, and we have work in the morning," Craig reminded Sophie.
"Right, yeah, I should get going," she nodded as she stood up, Craig moving to escort her to the door.
The Doctor looked around the room for a moment, his gaze drifting up to the stain in the corner of the ceiling. He tapped his fingers along the armrest of his chair before pushing himself up and heading to his room for the night. He slipped inside quietly, looking over at where Amy Pond was still sleeping as he had left her. He was pleased to see that the device he had been working on was still functioning in the middle of the room. Some people might call it large or ungainly, there were bits and pieces sticking out all over it, set in the middle of the bed frame with a broom and other spinning devices attached to it.
He smiled as he stepped closer to it, reaching out a finger to start the spinning motion to generate a shield that would allow him to scan for the man upstairs.
He ducked down, avoiding one of the spinning motions, and tapped the earpiece on his side, "Right. Everything alright, Ambassador?"
"So far so good," she replied to him, her voice a bit tense, though this time he didn't put her on speaker as Amy was still sleeping and he was trying to be considerate, "Had a bumpy ride, but we're stable as we can be at the mo."
"Good, good. Alright then, shield's up. Let's scan!"
A moment later she was back in his ear, "Are you getting anything?"
He looked over at where he had converted a digital clock, "Upstairs. No traces of high technology. Totally normal. No no, no, no, it can't be!"
"What can't?"
"It's too normal."
"...it's too normal? First of all, how is that even possible for anything to be TOO normal, and second of all, why is that a problem?"
"It's a problem because whatever is upstairs is masking itself and making it impossible to scan properly. I have no idea what's going on up there because it reads as Earth normal, which means no indication of an alien tech to help me identify our neighbor," he sighed and rubbed his head, "If I could just get a look in there...hold on," he reached out to stop the device spinning, "Use the data bank, get me the plans of this building, its history, the layout, everything. Meanwhile, I shall recruit a spy."
"Why do I get the feeling you're definition of a spy and mine are two very different things?"
The Doctor just chuckled and headed for the door.
~8~
"I am telling you, Doctor," Amy spoke quietly as she followed the Doctor down the hall towards Craig's room, the man with a tray of breakfast in his hands, "This is NOT normal. Yeah, maybe flatmates make each other breakfast, but not ones they just met two days ago!"
"Pish posh," the Doctor waved her concerns off, "I made you breakfast, didn't I, flatmate?"
"You know that's different," Amy rolled her eyes.
"If I can make breakfast for you, then I can make Craig breakfast too," he stuck his tongue out at her as they came to a stop outside Craig's door. He looked between the tray in his hands and the door twice before turning to Amy.
"What?"
He nodded at the door, earning another eyeroll, before she opened it for him. He beamed at her and entered the room, "Good morning, Craig, I've got breakfast, which is perfectly normal," he added pointedly to Amy, before he faced Craig once more, "Craig?" he stopped short, seeing Craig lying on the bed, almost unmoving, "Craig!" he quickly shoved the tray into Amy's hand and rushed over to the bed to check on him.
"Is he ok?" Amy frowned, setting the tray down on a desk as she joined him, "What's wrong with him?"
The Doctor moved to check him over, only to pull back when he reached out for the man, hesitating and looking around for something. Amy was just about to ask what he was looking for when he grabbed two socks that were lying on the floor near Craig's shoes, and pulled them onto his hands. Amy nearly grimaced at how he'd just put someone's used socks on his hands, when she realized WHY he'd done it when he finally got a hold of Craig's hand. He wouldn't have been able to touch him otherwise.
"Craig," he muttered, spotting a large streak of discolor running up his arm like a vein, "I told you not to touch it!" he huffed, "An unfamiliar and obviously poisonous substance. 'Oh, I know what would be really clever, I'll stick my hand in it!'"
"What, that's from the stain on the ceiling?" Amy frowned at the sight.
"Got it in one, Pond," the Doctor muttered, leaning in as close as he could to Craig's mouth as he could stand, before pulling back when he felt nothing, Craig wasn't breathing, "Come on, Craig, breathe!" he pulled back and grabbed his hands together, he pounded them down on Craig's chest. A moment later Craig gasped, breathing on his own, "Come on, Craig, breathe! Thems are healthy footballer's lungs! Pond, watch him!"
Before Amy could even respond, the Doctor was out the door, racing for the kitchen. He grabbed the teapot off the stove, having just made the tea. The water wasn't boiling hot any longer, but it was warm enough to do what he needed. He turned, grabbing teabags from their place and trying to grab hold of them. He quickly pulled one of the socks off his hand and shoved the teabags into the teapot.
"Right," he began to murmur to himself, "Reverse the enzyme decay. Excite the tannin molecules," he took off back to Craig's room, "How is he?" he called to Amy.
"Still breathing," she reported.
"Right, good, here we go," he moved his still clothed hand behind Craig's head so he could use his other hand to tip the teapot and have Craig drink the tea-infused liquid.
"I've got to go to work," Craig began to speak after a moment, wheezing slightly, his eyes still shut.
"On no account," the Doctor ordered, "You need rest."
"Doctor's orders," Amy agreed.
"One more," the Doctor tipped the pot once more.
"It's the planning meeting, it's important," Craig tried to argue, though it was weakened by a slight cough after he spoke.
"You're important," he countered.
"You'll be just fine, Craig," Amy reassured him, "Won't he, Doctor?"
"Yes, yes," he nodded, "Lots of rest. And don't you worry about the planning meeting. Pond and I have got it covered."
Amy nodded, until his words registered, "What?"
~8~
The Doctor popped up from behind a desk when he heard Craig, of all people, speaking to a bloke named Michael, the head of the call center. The meeting had gone swimmingly, or at least that's what Amy had said after she'd stolen Craig's notes from him and sent him to sit in the corner while she gave the report to the other planners. She'd just read everything Craig had jotted down and a number of them had agreed it was a better plan to follow.
Afterwards he had gone along with taking over Craig's regular job at his desk, helping customers, especially after Amy had gotten into a bit of a verbal row with one of them. One person he was trying to help the most was Craig, who should NOT be there right now, he was supposed to be resting! He had hoped he'd just misheard, but no, Craig truly was there.
"I think that's not what my screen is telling me, Mr. Lang," he spoke into a headset he was wearing, trying to finish up the call so he could send Craig back home.
"What's he doing here?" Craig nearly groaned, "What are you doing here?"
"If that's your attitude, Mr. Lang, please take your custom elsewhere," he finally finished, blowing a raspberry into the headset just to get the final word in.
"No, no, no, that's one of my best clients!"
"Craig, how are you feeling?" the Doctor didn't seem perturbed, "Had some time to kill, I was curious, never worked in an office."
Amy snorted as she made her way over with a plate of biscuits, munching on one as she went, "You've never worked anywhere before."
The Doctor pointed at her like he was going to argue, before he just took the biscuits from her instead.
"You're insane!" Craig cried, gaping at him.
"Leave off the Doctor, I love the Doctor," Michael chuckled, "He and Miss Pond were brilliant in the planning meeting."
"You went to the planning meeting?!"
"Yes," the Doctor smiled, "Amy was your representative. We don't need Mr. Lang anymore. Rude Mr. Lang."
"Here you go," Sophie spoke as she joined them, giving the Doctor a cup of tea before she noticed Craig, "Hi, Craig. I went on the web, applied for a wildlife charity thing. They said I could always start as a volunteer straight away. Should I do it?"
"Yeah, great, yeah, good, go for it," Craig muttered to himself, sounding more in shock than like he was truly paying attention to what she was saying.
"Oi," Amy frowned at him, "You're supposed to be resting, Mister," she reached out to grab Craig by the shoulders, aboutfacing him, "Off you go. Bed. Now."
"Right, who next?" the Doctor spoke eagerly, typing on a keyboard as Craig dejectedly headed for the door, "Oh, yes, hello, Mr. Joergensen. Can you hold? I have to eat a biscuit."
"He's going to be ok, right?" Amy asked the Doctor quietly as Sophie and Michael walked off, "Should I head back with him?"
"He'll be just fine," the Doctor reassured her, putting a hand over the microphone of the headset, "And you are staying with me."
She rolled her eyes, "I'm not going to go peeking upstairs," she muttered. But she huffed when he gave her a look, "Fine, I would definitely be peeking upstairs."
"And that's why you're with me, Pond."
Amy just shook her head and wandered about, they still had a few more hours left to go.
~8~
"Well, the house is still standing," Amy muttered as she and the Doctor entered the house later that day. She had wanted to immediately go back after Craig left, but it seemed like everyone at the center wanted to talk to the Doctor about something or another and lord knew the man could talk himself into an earache all on his own.
The Doctor beamed when he saw a small cat come down the stairs, meowing at him, and quickly scooped it up into his arms, "Have you been upstairs? Yes?"
"Doctor, now isn't the time to adopt a pet," Amy huffed, "We need to figure out what's going on."
"That's exactly what I'm trying to do, Pond," he remarked, petting the cat and speaking to it, "You can do it. Show me what's up there? What's behind that door? Try to show me."
"Doctor, you're talking to a cat," Amy reminded him.
"Shhh!" he put a finger to his lips, before focusing on the cat as it meowed, "Ohh, that doesn't make sense! Ever see anyone go up there? Lots of people? Good, good."
"What kind of people?" Amy asked, before rubbing her head, "Great, now I'M talking to the cat."
"I'm getting to that," he told her, looking back down when the cat hissed, "People who never come back down. That's very bad…" he trailed off when he heard a door creak in the hall to see Craig, "Oh, hello."
"I can't take this anymore," Craig said in lieu of a greeting, "I want you to go! Both of you," he turned and stormed into the flat, forcing the Doctor and Amy to rush after him. He grabbed the bag of cash they'd given him and shoved it back into the Doctor's arms, "You can have this back an' all."
"Hold on, hold, on," Amy shook her head, "The Doctor I can understand, but what have I done?"
"You're related to him," Craig gave her a look, "That's enough for me. I saw you both talking to a cat!"
"Lots of people talk to cats," the Doctor stated, tossing the bag away.
"Everybody loves you, you're better at football than me, and my job, and now Sophie's all 'Oh, monkeys, monkeys!'"
"What?" Amy looked utterly befuddled, "Monkeys, what?"
"And then..." Craig ignored her, pushing past them to the room he'd given them, throwing the door open to reveal the device the Doctor had built, "There's that!"
"It's art!" the Doctor defended, "A statement on modern society, 'Ooh, ain't modern society awful?'"
"It's rubbish is what it is," Amy muttered.
"Look, it's just not gonna work out," Craig told them, "You've been here three days, the three weirdest days of my life."
"Oh, come on," Amy scoffed, "They weren't that bad," and they weren't, if you looked at it on a scale of one to Doctor.
"Your days will get a lot weirder if we go," the Doctor defended.
"I thought it was good weird, but it's not, it's bad weird!" Craig huffed, "I can't do this anymore!"
"We can't leave this place. We're like you, we can't see the point of anywhere else. Madrid, hah, what a dump! We have to stay."
"No, you don't, you have to leave!"
"Look, Craig," Amy started, trying to defuse the situation, "We really can't just go. We um, we have nowhere else to go."
"I'm sorry, I am, but I need you to just get out."
The Doctor reached out and grabbed Craig by the lapels of his jacket when he tried to push them out, "Right! Only way! I'm going to show you something, but shh, really, shh! Oh, I am going to regret this. Ok, right...first, general background!"
"Doctor!" Amy cried out when the Doctor suddenly smacked his head to Craig's, both men stumbling back and gripping at their heads in more pain than a mere headbutt should have caused, "What did you do?"
"Mental transfer," the Doctor moaned, rubbing at his forehead.
Craig just gasped and pointed at him, "You're a..."
"Yes."
He pointed up, "From..."
"Shh!"
"You've got a TARDIS!"
"Shh!" this time it was Amy who hissed that, not wanting the 'man upstairs' to hear them.
The Doctor pointed at her and nodded, before gesturing to his face, "Eleventh! Right...ok, specific detail!" he grabbed Craig again and smashed their heads once more, sharing with him the exact reason they were there.
"You saw my ad in the paper shop window," Craig realized.
"Yes, with this right above it," he pulled the card the Ambassador had left them from his pocket to show him, "Which is odd, because Sadie hasn't written it yet."
"The Ambassador," Craig corrected almost instantly, his eyes widening a moment after he'd done that, "She's your…"
"Shhh!" the Doctor cut in, "Yes, and she's in my blue box. Time travel, it CAN happen."
"That's Amy Pond!" Craig pointed at her, as though he were only just meeting her now, "Your assistant."
"Oi, companion!" Amy huffed.
"And that's a scanner!" Craig turned his attention to the spinning device, "You used non-technological technology of Lammasteen."
The Doctor jolted forward to cover Craig's mouth with a hand, "Shut up! Argh! I am never, ever doing that ever ever again..." he tapped his earpiece, "Sadie!"
"The Ambassador!" she huffed over the device, now on speaker.
"Have you got those plans yet?"
"I had them hours ago but you put me on silent," she grumbled.
"I've worked some of it out with psychic help from a cat…"
"I was right, VERY different definitions of spy…"
"Yes, I know. Look, he's got a time engine in the flat upstairs. He's using innocent people to try and launch it. Whenever he does, they get burnt up, hence the stain..."
"From the ceiling?" Craig grimaced at the thought.
"Well done, Craig."
"And the TARDIS tries to throw itself into the Vortex as a result," the Ambassador sighed, "Doctor, about the second floor…"
"Hold on," Amy cut in, "The man upstairs is killing people?" she looked both disgusted and angry at that, "People are dying...people are dying...people are dying…"
The Doctor frowned, seeing Amy and Craig getting stuck in a time loop once more, "Sa…Ambassador?" he called into the earpiece.
"She's starting up again!" the Ambassador warned over a loud groan of the TARDIS.
"We need to stop him!" Amy finally finished as the loop ended.
"Doctor, if it only acts up when he tries to activate the engine…"
"Someone's up there," the Doctor realized.
Instantly the Doctor was out of the room, rushing with Craig and Amy after him to the main foyer.
"Doctor!" the Ambassador called.
"It'll be fine," the Doctor shouted back, heading for the stairs.
"No, Doctor…"
"Come on, come on," he muttered, "Someone's dying up there!"
"It's Sophie!" Craig gasped, causing the Doctor and Amy to look back to see him holding up Sophie's keys, "It's Sophie that's dying up there, it's Sophie!"
"Doctor, wait!" the Ambassador tried again.
He almost couldn't hear her over the sounds of the TARDIS grinding and Craig shouting, "What? Ambassador?"
"Doctor, there's no upstairs," she told him, "The plans, it's a one story building!"
"What?!" the Doctor looked between the down stairs and the door he and Craig were trying to push their way through.
"But we're at the upstairs," Amy argued, having overheard that.
The Doctor shook his head, grabbing the sonic and flashing it at the door to unlock it. Whoever was inside and targeting Sophie, he was going to reveal himself to them anyway, what did it matter if he showed the sonic anyway. He stopped short just a step into the room. It did not look like a flat past the normal-looking door, but a very advanced spaceship with a control panel in the center of it.
"…what?" Craig breathed.
"Doctor, what is this?" Amy asked as they slowly made their way in, looking around for Sophie.
"Oh, of course!" the Doctor realized, "The time engine isn't IN the flat, the time engine IS the flat! Someone's attempt to build a TARDIS."
"But that's impossible," the Ambassador spoke, "They're grown not built…"
"Someone clearly doesn't know that," Amy muttered.
"No," Craig shook his head, "There's always been an upstairs."
"Has there?" the Doctor countered, "Think about it!"
"Yes. No. I don't..."
"Perception filter," the Ambassador remarked.
The Doctor nodded, "It's more than a disguise. It tricks your memory."
Suddenly there was a scream, lines like lightning shooting out and pulling someone towards the control panel.
"Sophie!" Craig shouted, rushing to help her with Amy, the two reaching out to grab her arms, trying to pull her back from where the lightning was pulling her in, "Sophie! Oh, my God, Sophie!"
The Doctor raced forward to examine the panel, looking between it and Sophie, "Craig! It's controlling her. It's willing her to touch the activator."
"It's not going to have her!"
The Doctor crouched low, flashing the sonic across the panel, but he quickly stopped when Sophie screamed as she was forced to touch the panel, "Deadlock seal!"
"You've got to do something!" Craig cried out as he and Amy struggled to pull Sophie away from the panel.
But suddenly the device let her go and she collapsed into Craig's arms.
"What just happened?" Amy asked, helping Craig ease her down.
"Why's it let her go?" the Doctor stood and frowned at her.
"Doctor?" the Ambassador called, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, so far," the Doctor looked around, trying to see what happened that caused Sophie to be freed. But all he saw was a dried up skeleton in the corner. He moved over to it, wanting to examine it more, when a hologram suddenly flickered in front of him, of an old man.
"You will help me," it said.
"Right! Stop! Crashed ship, let's see…hello, I'm Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue."
"You've got to be kidding me," the Ambassador muttered in his ear.
But he ignored her, speaking to the hologram, "Please state the nature of your emergency."
"The ship has crashed," it reported, "The crew are dead. A pilot is required."
"You're the emergency crash program. A hologram. You've been luring people up here so you can try them out," he flicked the sonic on and flashed the hologram, changing it into a little girl, then a young man, and back to the old man.
"You will help me. You will help me. You will help me."
"Craig?" Sophie began to wake up, "Where am I?"
"Hush!" the Doctor called over, still focused on the hologram, "Human brains aren't strong enough, they just burn. You're stupid, aren't you? You just keep trying."
"17 people have been tried," the hologram said simply, "6,000,400,026 remain."
"Seriously, what is going on?" Sophie repeated as Craig helped her up.
"Pond," the Doctor snapped his finger and pointed at her.
Amy rolled her eyes, "Apparently the second floor is a space ship."
"Yes, one intent on slaughtering the population of this planet."
"It is NOT," the Ambassador nearly shouted in his ear, "It's a program, it doesn't have an intention. It's not doing this maliciously, it doesn't have the capacity to understand what it's doing. It's numbers and calculations. It's a program, Doctor, so shut it down, but don't you dare make it out like it's intentionally trying to kill everyone for the sake of a slaughter."
Before the Doctor could respond to that, the hologram spoke again, "The correct pilot has now been found."
"Yes," the Doctor sighed, rubbing his head, "I was worried you'd say that."
"He means you, Doctor, doesn't he?" Amy hesitated to speak.
"He's the only pilot there," the Ambassador remarked.
The Doctor grunted as the same lines of lightning shot out of the control panel and reached for him, trying to drag him towards it.
"The correct pilot has been found," the hologram repeated, "The correct pilot has been found."
"What's going on?" the Ambassador called out.
"It's got the Doctor!" Amy shouted.
"It's pulling me in!" the Doctor struggled to keep himself back, "I'm the new pilot!"
"Could you do it? Could you fly the ship safely?"
"No," the Doctor shook his head, "I'm way too much for this ship. My hand touches that panel, the planet doesn't blow up, the whole solar system does," he let out another grunt, managing to hold his hand back from touching the panel, but it was a near thing, only inches of space.
"The correct pilot has been found."
"No..." the Doctor panted, "Worst choice ever, I promise you. Stop this!"
"The TARDIS isn't happy either," the Ambassador warned him, the grinding and angry noises getting louder over the earpiece.
"It doesn't want everyone," the Doctor tried to work it out, "Craig, it didn't want you!"
"I spoke to him and he said I couldn't help him!" Craig told him.
"Why not?" the Ambassador called.
"It didn't want Sophie before but now it does," the Doctor struggled to think it through, "What's changed?" he groaned when it hit him, "No! I gave her the idea of leaving! It's a machine that needs to leave, it wants people who want to escape! And you don't want to leave, Craig, you're Mr. Sofa Man. Craig, you can shut down the engine. Put your hand on the panel and concentrate on why you want to stay!"
"Craig, no!" Sophie gasped, trying to reach out to stop him, but Amy pulled her back.
"Will it work?" Craig asked.
"Yes!" he shouted.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!"
"Is that a lie?"
"Of course, it's a lie!"
"It's good enough for me. Geronimo!" Craig slammed his hand down on the panel, which released the Doctor, but sent energy coursing through Craig as he screamed.
"Craig!" Sophie struggled in Amy's hold.
"Sophie, no!" Amy warned.
"Is it shutting down?" the Ambassador yelled, the grinding noise even louder.
The Doctor ignored her for the moment, rushing back to Craig's side, "Craig, what's keeping you here? Think about everything that makes you want to stay here! Why don't you want to leave?"
Craig winced at another round of pain, which had him shouting out, "Sophie! And I don't want to leave Sophie! I can't leave Sophie! I love Sophie!"
Sophie finally managed to pull herself out of Amy's hold, rushing over to Craig's side, "I love you, too, Craig, you idiot!" and slapping her hand down on the panel with his.
"Doctor?" Amy looked over at the panel which was starting to smoke, "Is it working?"
"I think so," he nodded.
"Honestly, do you mean that?" Craig was speaking to Sophie, neither of them seeming to notice the way the ship they were in had started to shake.
"Of course I mean it!" Sophie exclaimed, "Do you mean it?"
"I've always meant it. Seriously though, do you mean it?"
"Yes."
"But what about the monkeys?"
"Oh, my stars," the Ambassador huffed.
"Craig," the Doctor spoke with the same amount of exasperation, "The planet's about to burn! For God's sake, kiss the girl!"
"Kiss the girl!" Amy shouted, reaching out to touch both Craig and Sophie's shoulders and pushing them together.
Slowly, as the two kissed, they were able to lower their hands from the panel.
"Whatever you're doing, it's working," the Ambassador reported, "The TARDIS is calming, we're down to level 0…minus three! Yes!"
"Help me," the Doctor looked over at the hologram as it began to cycle through the images he'd seen before, "Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me."
"Alright, time to go," the Doctor tapped Craig on the shoulder to stop him.
"Did we switch it off?" Craig looked at him.
"Emergency shutdown, it's imploding, everybody out, out, out!"
They ran to the door as the hologram continued to repeat 'help me!', racing down the stairs and out of the house as the shaking grew worse. The Doctor pushed them all across the street for more safety, turning to watch as the perception filter dissipated, revealing the ship. But only a moment later it disappeared in the blink of an eye, the other neighbors walking around not even noticing.
"Look at them," Craig gaped, "Didn't they see that? The whole top floor just vanished!"
The Doctor merely smirked, "Perception filter. There never was a top floor."
"So is that it?" Amy asked, "Are we done? Can we leave now?"
The Doctor just chuckled and patted her shoulder.
~8~
The Doctor had only just stepped into the sitting room of Craig's house from the room he'd been renting, cleaning it all up and setting it back to rights as Amy had lectured him about. She had gotten to go back to the TARDIS the moment they heard the Ambassador setting the box down, but he had been stuck fixing the room first. He was just about to return the keys and leave when he spotted Craig and Sophie being quite cozy on the sofa, snogging really. He didn't want to interrupt, not when it had taken SO much doing to get them together in the first place. So he smiled to himself and placed the keys in the bowl on the side table, before heading for the door.
"Oi!" Craig called out, rushing over to him with Sophie and stopping him.
"What, you're trying to sneak off?" Sophie laughed.
"Yes, well, you were sort of...busy," the Doctor shrugged.
Craig turned and picked up the keys from the bowl, handing them back to the Doctor, making sure he dangled them so the Doctor could take them without needing to brush skin, "I want you to keep these. Thank you."
"Thank you," the Doctor smiled at them, "Cos I might pop back soon, have another little stay. Bring the Ambassador this time, oh you should meet her. She's lovely."
Craig chuckled at that, "No, you won't. I've been in your head, remember? But I still want you to keep them."
"Thank you, Craig."
"Thank you, Doctor."
"Sophie," he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, avoiding a handshake or a hug, "Now then. 6,000,400,026 people in the world. That's the number to beat."
"Yeah," Sophie laughed and smiled.
He pulled away and pointed between them, turning to head out of the house and across the street where the TARDIS was ready and waiting, "Hello, hello!" he cheered as he entered the box, seeing only the Ambassador there, "Pond?"
"Resting," she told him, "Apparently the worst three nights rest of her life."
"Well, that's fine," he moved to the console and reached out to flick on a button, "Back in time?" he looked at her from where she'd set the programs.
"I need to write that message for the paper shop," she shrugged, "You'd never have found Craig if not for that note."
He snapped his fingers and pointed at her, "Good thinking," he glanced up when the TARDIS made an odd noise, "Oh, rectifier's playing up again...hold on," he moved below the control level, "You write the note and I'll change that will."
"And it was a red pen?" the Ambassador called down to him.
"Yep!" the Doctor called, fiddling around under the console, before heading back up, skipping a step or two in his joy at helping Craig and Sophie get together. He slowed through, the soft smile on his face falling when he saw the Ambassador writing the note, comparing it with the one he'd found for reference.
Her hands were shaking.
"You alright?" he asked as he approached, cautious and slow, not wanting to spook her as he turned to lean on the console near her but not too close, "I'm sorry it took so long to get the TARDIS sorted. It couldn't have been easy, being trapped in here like that."
"I'm fine," she muttered, focusing on the note, "The TARDIS wasn't so bad."
He waited till she'd finished writing before reaching out to cover one of her gloved hands, "Then why are you shaking?" he asked her softly.
She pulled her hand back and turned to face him, "You were very kind to Craig," she said instead of giving him an answer, "Helping him with Sophie the way you did."
He nodded, not sure what to say to that, if she expected him to say anything at all.
"Why are you so…attached to humans?" she asked him, "You've always favored them, if the rumors about you are true, which they appear to be. Why? It's like you would rather be among them than your own people."
It was something she couldn't help but think about, being alone in the TARDIS. How she was alone. Just her and the box. And she could start to understand why he took A companion with him, it was lonely in the old box. But why humans? Why not another Time Lord? She knew he took one or two over his time, but why not MORE?
Another small voice in the back of her mind, which she forced silent, reminded her she'd only gotten a brief taste of what it must have been like for him after the War, alone, wondering if this was it, no one else around to help you.
"I do," he said simply, "I did," he added after a moment, "Before…everything," he looked away and she knew he meant the war, "I would always prefer to be around them than any other Time Lord. They were so different, and their lives were so brief that there was an importance to not wasting time. They weren't stuffy, rule sticklers who wore terrible hats either."
While she knew that last one was, hopefully, a joke to lighten the mood, it didn't really do much. It was a tiny bit insulting to her, "You realize I'm one of those stuffy, rule sticklers, yes?"
"Yes, but you don't have a hat."
"Doctor."
He rubbed his head, "I just…I wanted something new and different and they helped me see there was more to the universe than just our people. It's all well and good to observe, but I wanted to LIVE."
"But during the war?" she shook her head, "You still chose everyone else but your people. The one time we truly needed everyone, you refused."
He let out a breath, it was no secret he hadn't had the best relationship with the leaders of his people, even with some of his people themselves, it was something he DID regret, that he waited so long before trying to help. He could say all he wanted about trying to make it safer for the rest of the Universe, to keep the war from reaching them. But was it? Had his efforts really amounted to that much? Hadn't he just wasted all that time and effort with others than helping his people?
"After the war," he spoke, for he had no true excuse, "After I thought I lost everything…I realized how much I missed it all. Even the awful hats."
The Ambassador looked away, "You never realize what you had until you lose it."
"Truer words," he gave her a sorrowful smile. He waited a moment longer before speaking again, "I lost so much, every chance I had to make amends, to do the things I always said I'd do tomorrow. I don't want others to feel that. Like with Craig, if I could help him not waste time with Sophie, help him get something that made him happy…it helps."
The Ambassador nodded slowly at that, time and loss were the best teachers. The Doctor didn't seem like he'd actually realized how important his people were to him till he'd lost them. She cleared her throat, "If it's all the same to you, I'm going to go sleep now too, I think. I haven't gotten a chance to since this started."
"Of course," he nodded.
The Ambassador moved up the small steps that led to the hall, pausing in the doorway, hesitating, before she turned to look back at him, "Doctor," she called, waiting till he looked over at her, "If we get separated again…don't put me on silent."
The Doctor blinked, flushing a bit at how he kept tapping the earpiece to keep her from speaking in his ear and distracting him, "Of course," he repeated, crossing his hearts.
She nodded and turned, heading back into the halls, following the winding ways to the room she'd been given on the TARDIS. She entered it quickly and rested her back against the door, sliding down it a moment later and curling her arms around her legs. She closed her eyes as she rested her chin on her knees, the Doctor's question about whether she was alright repeating in her head.
If she was honest with him, she would have said no.
But she couldn't be honest with him, because being THAT honest was truly terrifying to her.
The last thing she wanted to admit to him…was that she'd missed him.
A/N: I'm so sorry this wasn't posted yesterday. It was my orientation day at my new job, mostly showing me around and getting paperwork sorted, not too fun or exciting, but time consuming :/ And then my mom practically dragged me to the mall to find some new outfits for it all :/ Even less fun lol, my mom does not make a good shopping partner for me lol :)
As for this chapter, I don't think the Ambassador missed the Doctor in the sense that she likes him and missed him being with her, it's too soon for that, but more she just lost everything and had him and then was without him and the connection that's lingering between her and the Doctor is sort of tugging at her :( I can see why she didn't tell him that though, he'd probably take it as a small sign of something that isn't there yet :(
Some notes on reviews...
Ooh, tricky what to say. On the one hand, I SHOULD say yes, school is important, pay attention to it. But on the other hand, I'm also the same person who decided to memorize the states/capitols/countries during my macro-economics classes and preferred doing the crossword during my taxation class so who am I to talk right? ;) (still, school's important ;))
I cannot wait till the Doctor's Wife episode, you have no idea how excited I am to finally see what the TARDIS thinks of Sadie };)
We got a small look into Sadie's head. During her time in the TARDIS it was more an eye-opener to her for how it was like for the Doctor after the war and a new understanding of why he takes companions. But also a bit of a push to her to come to terms with the fact that the bond between them is still there despite her efforts to ward against it. We're going to see a sort of aftermath of these revelations in the next few episodes. She'll be a bit more observant and thoughtful and it will relate very much to this episode :) I mostly focused on the Doctor in these last two chapters because there's only so much Sadie can think on while alone in the TARDIS before it gets repetitive, so I summed it up nearer the end and will explore it more in the next two episodes :) As for the final sanction, the Doctor does talk to Sadie about it at the start of the Vincent and the Doctor episode, he's able to tell her about what happened and we start to see her thoughts on it. She is starting to understand why he did what he did, but a large part of her is also going to be thinking 'it's all well and good you saved the universe, but the cost was OUR people.' The knowledge that all the children burned to death, that no one else was saved, it's going to weigh on her. A part of her, though she doesn't realize it yet, is going to be tightly holding onto this non-forgiveness of the Doctor's actions because it'll be a safety net of sorts. She'll think if she holds onto that 'I can't forgive him this' mentality, it'll keep her safe from developing more emotions for him that could tempt her to explore the bond she has with him. It's her way of keeping him at arms' length. So where other TLs forgave him, Sadie can't bring herself to for a few reasons ;)
I probably won't do a HP/DW crossover, though it would be interesting to see someone like Luna Lovegood interact with the Doctor ;) But you never know, I might change my mind one day ;)
I'm glad you like the slowburn :) It's going to take a while for her to process and then open herself up to the Doctor yup :(