Chapter 21

Amy arrived at the Diogenes club and found Mycroft sitting in his usual place. She took a seat in front of him.

"Why am I here, exactly?" Amy spoke first.

"Why was Captain Jack Harkness visiting my brother?" Mycroft got right to it.

Amy eyed him suspiciously, "he hacked into Torchwood."

"And they denied him access, yes..."

"Wait, how do you know this?"

"I was there," Mycroft outright stated.

"Where?"

"Torchwood," Mycroft pressed his lips tight.

Amy immediately became nervous and Mycroft obviously picked up on this.

"Does Sherlock know? About any of it?" Mycroft asked.

'Does Mycroft know?' Amy thought to herself as she found herself in an uncomfortable position. Mycroft used the silence as a no to his question and used his own deducing skills to his advantage to answer Amy's.

"Yes, Amy, I know what you're thinking and I do know. All of it," Mycroft sighed. "Everything about your precious Doctor, time travel, the TARDIS, and, of course, your daughter."

Amy's mouth gaped opened, and a bit of air escaped her lungs. She immediately felt as if she was experiencing heart palpitations. It was literally as if her body stopped functioning so as not to hear what Mycroft was going to say. But it was not to be.

"You have an interesting past, Amy Williams. Though that's not to say that you're the first time traveller I've met, but you are the first to be in cohorts with my brother," Mycroft spoke calmly. "There were and are many, and some don't even know it yet."

"Uh ... wh- ...y-" Amy tried to form words but failed.

She remembered Mycroft saying that he occupied a "small" position in the British government, but clearly, this wasn't true. Sherlock was right – Mycroft may as well be the British government.

"Don't worry Mrs. Williams. There's nothing to worry about. It's all confidential. How is your daughter?" Mycroft hit a nerve in Amy.

"Y-you. What?!" Amy was almost yelling.

Amy took a breath and calmed herself down, "No. I. You. You're not respecting any of my privacy."

"I think that privacy was taken away when you began working with Sherlock Holmes."

"Is this why you wanted me here? To expose the fact that you apparently know about me?"

"No, I wanted to ask," Mycroft paused for a moment. "Have you read the newspaper?"

"I'm sorry," Amy leaned forward in utter confusion and her voice began getting louder and louder. "We were just talking about my past and the fact that you know about bloody time travel and THE DOCTOR. Why are we talking about the newspaper?"

"Amy, please."

"Yes! I've read the newspaper! What?! Is there a column about some alien, or something?" Amy leaned back in a huff.

"Do you believe what's written about Sherlock?" Mycroft asked calmly.

"No! I don't read that. It's all rubbish. Tabloids, the gossip columns, that kind of newspaper. I've learned to avoid reading about oneself. It's not good for anybody," Amy waved him off, but sat up with a sense of realization. "Why?"

"Something's going to happen, and if I know my brother, he will do something drastic. I wanted to ask ..." Mycroft paused. "Do you know what will happen? In the future?"

"What did you mean other time travellers?" Amy asked, ignoring the question.

Mycroft sighed and looked away momentarily, probably thinking about what to reveal and what to keep a secret, "There are others like you. And we've also been keeping surveillance on them."

"Who?" Amy wanted this information that the Doctor never revealed to her.

"You've met most of them," Mycroft stated plainly.

Amy was gobsmacked, "what? When!?"

Mycroft picked up his suitcase and took out a folder, and he took out a surveillance photo of Amy in Cardiff signing an autograph for a fan, "Do you remember her?"

Amy looked closely, "Her name... Rose?"

"You are correct. You see the man behind her?"

Amy looked even more closely, and then Mycroft spoke, "that's the Doctor."

Amy dropped the picture, stunned at what Mycroft said, "What?"

"Not the one you know. An earlier representation," Mycroft gave the folder and its contents to Amy. "Each photo has a Doctor's companion that you've bumped into or had an interaction with."

She looked through each photo, taking a look at each name and trying to remember the scene. There was Donna the temp at Scotland Yard, Martha the doctor at St. Bart's, and of course, Jack Harkness.

"Why didn't he tell me?" Amy whispered to herself.

"Each of his companions have left, do you think it's really in him to relive 900 years worth of memories? It's painful," Mycroft responded to the question she didn't quite think he would answer.

"So why didn't you ask Jack? Or whichever time traveller you also happen to know?" Amy crossed her arms, going back to the earlier question.

"They don't know either. And they have no way of teleporting to the future. But your daughter does."

"She won't tell me."

"I know," Mycroft looked down. "But is there anyway you've picked up on something? Anything from when you last saw Melody?"

"You really need my help, don't you?"

Mycroft stared at her with ice in his eyes. She realized that Mycroft and Sherlock had the same look when she asks if they need help – a sort of reluctance that would never be spoken out loud.

"Can you tell me that Sherlock knows nothing of my past, at least, for now?"

Mycroft nodded.

"Can you tell me what Sherlock is doing?"

Mycroft laughed, "Who knows what's going inside that brain. I'm sure even God doesn't even know."

"I told him that he'll change the game, whatever game that Moriarty is playing, doing whatever means necessary to achieve his victory," Amy scanned Mycroft for any reaction. "He has something planned, I think, but I don't know what it is. Do you know ..."

"You think that because Sherlock and I are family, he'll tell me everything? We're not that kind of family," Mycroft chuckled. "There is a reason why I've asked if you've seen the future."

"He'll need your help. Like how you need mine right now," Amy stared straight into his eyes without breaking her glance.

Mycroft narrowed his eyes. Whether or not that confirmed that Sherlock did in fact ask of if Mycroft couldn't believe that Amy would go so far as to say that Sherlock would need help was a mystery to him.

"You are right. Knowing your brother," Amy swallowed – it was hard to picture them as brothers growing up together – and continued. "He will probably do something drastic. I can't anticipate what it'll be, not even my own daughter will tell me, but can you promise me that if he comes to you for help, you'll agree to help him?"

"You really care about my brother, don't you?" Mycroft tilted his head slightly to one side – the same way Sherlock does. "You've known him for less than a year."

"Well, I believe in him. There's not much more that can be said," Amy's phone beeped – there was a new development in the case. "Well I'd love to stay and chat, but your brother and John are apparently fugitives. They were arrested and escaped, now hiding in someone's flat."

Mycroft rolled his eyes and sighed.

"That's all you have to say about that?" Amy was irritated by his response.

"He's done worse."

"Really, Mycroft?"

"I'm sorry, Amy, but this doesn't change the fact that my brother, well, Sherlock is never going to change, which is why I will promise to help him, but only because I doubt he'll ask for help."

Amy stood up, ready to leave.

"Mrs. Williams," Amy turned around before Mycroft continued. "What if I told you that the Doctor was alive? The Doctor that you know. And that he would show you Sherlock's future if I asked him for you?"

"Don't you dare lie to me. Unlike you, I was there. I watched him die. So don't you dare," Amy said with pure hatred in her voice.

"I need to know."

"No, you of all people shouldn't meddle with anyone's future, no matter what it'll be," Amy said with her back towards Mycroft and her hand on the doorknob.

"The universe brought you to all of these people. They know the Doctor. You could take the chance to see into Sherlock's future."

Amy opened the door and left the Diogenes club. She made her way outside the building and she felt the cool air against her hot skin. She took in a few deep breaths and tried to concentrate, but her mind was jumbled with her interaction with Mycroft.

'What the hell just happened?' She thought to herself.

She instinctively pulled out her phone and looked at the text message. She immediately deleted it. A cab was driving down her way and she hailed it.

"221 Baker Street, please."

The cab ride back wasn't particularly long, but it gave her plenty of time to think. She could see the potential of cab rides and why Sherlock was so keen to use them. Amy replayed Mycroft's words in her mind. When she opened her eyes, she found that she was at Baker Street. She paid the cabbie and stepped out and looked around. There was one car waiting by the curb, and by the looks of it, it was Lestrade's. She opened the door, and walked up to Sherlock and John's flat. The door was open and she could see Lestrade pacing about, and Sally speaking to him. Lestrade was the first to catch her eye.

"Amy!" Lestrade walked up to her.

Amy looked at Lestrade and then at Sally. Both of them looked tired and stressed.

"Have you any idea of where Sherlock or John is?" Lestrade asked.

Before Amy could speak, Sally interrupted, "She's not going to tell us. She's friends with them."

"Amy?"

"No, I don't know. I haven't heard from them since your first visit. What happened?" Amy sounded convincing enough to evade the suspicions of Donovan.

"We had them in cuffs, but they escaped," Lestrade explained.

"Them?" Amy asked as if she were clueless with what happened.

"Sherlock and John."

"Why?" Amy looked at him incredulously.

"Sherlock's a suspect in the case, John punched the Chief Superintendant in the nose," Lestrade stifled a smile at the latter.

Sally's phone started to ring, so she left the room to go and take the call. Lestrade leaned in close to Amy.

"I'm sorry it's come to this, Amy," Lestrade quietly apologized.

Amy nodded, "Do you believe what they're saying about him?"

Lestrade hesitated, and Amy realized that doubt slowly crept into his mind. Sally came in as Amy took a seat in Sherlock's chair.

"Sir, we have to go back to the station," Sally said.

"Alright," Lestrade said. "Good bye, Amy."

She watched them as she left, and as soon as she heard the door closed, she immediately got to work. She looked for anything that she could find that would mean clues to where Sherlock and John were. John was cryptic enough with the text – he literally just said they were 'at a flat, waiting for her to come'. He wasn't helpful enough to provide a name, but she at least knew it was a woman's flat. Amy looked at the table and sorted through the papers until she came upon something particular, something she said she wouldn't read because it wasn't good for anyone. It was the same copy that she saw sitting underneath a pile of papers at the Diogenes club. It was on the front page of the Sun: 'Sherlock: the Shocking Truth' by Kitty Riley. With a photo right beside Kitty's name, she now found it even easier to find her. On the computer, Amy made a quick search and got an address in less than 5 minutes. In less than twenty minutes, she found herself standing outside the door of Kitty's flat.