Author's Note: These chapters may have been based on a Fallout Boy song that seemed to fit...

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, unfortunately. He belongs to the BBC.

Chapter 24: There's a Room in a Hotel in New York City…

The Doctor was back to visiting Lara and Billy once each week – not only one week in their time, but one week in his time as well. The main reason for this was the TARDIS. She had made clear her position on the issue of his feelings for Lara – she would allow him a week of solo travel, and no more. After a week passed in the Doctor's time, if he did not return to Lara and Billy's apartment to summon them for an adventure, the TARDIS began to plague both his dreams and his waking self with the same images as if on a loop.

Lara, dressed as she was when they first met, leaned over the Doctor as he tinkered with the TARDIS. "The clients needed me. Helping them is the only thing that can distract me from my panic attacks, anyway."

The Doctor looked scathingly at the hologram, which immediately flickered into the Doctor himself. "Don't be afraid to love."

Oh for Rassilon's sake!" the Doctor exclaimed, throwing up his hands in agitation. "Alright! I'll go!"

He was beginning to feel as though he was no longer in control of this situation.

Lara, meanwhile, was only just starting to recover from her journey to Xerxes. It had been horrible to see all that death, and Lara felt that it had helped her understand why the Doctor so desperately wanted her to change back into a human. He usually only took her on the "fun" trips, but trips like Xerxes were more normal for him than he liked to admit – she could see that, now.

Worse, just as he seemed to be coming around to the idea of her being Gallifreyan, she had begun to have her first seeds of doubt about the idea. Still, like with therapy, the idea of making a difference in the lives of so many made the difficulties and the tragedies pale in comparison. If anything, learning more about what it meant to become Gallifreyan had made her more resolute, not less.

Lara POV

"New York City, 1996!" exclaimed the Doctor. "It's the hey-day of TRL with Carson Daly, and still before the two towers fell!" Lara rolled her eyes at his excitement. She was thrilled to be in New York City, however the surroundings did not look like New York City at all. The street the TARDIS had parked on was almost deserted, though a car whizzed by from time to time. It was nighttime, and the buildings and shops crammed in on either side of the wide street were dark and abandoned. The only light other than the street lights came from a building near the end of the street.

The Fallout Hotel looked busy, and several cars were parked in the lot. There were no valets, however, and no noise coming from inside, not even cheesy elevator music. It gave Lara an uneasy feeling. Quietly, she asked, "Doctor? Why are we really here?"

The Doctor turned, looking arrested, but grinned. "Distress call. Very mysterious! Came in this morning, from this time and place."

"It came on the TARDIS phone?" Billy asked.

"Yup!" the Doctor exclaimed, popping the p.

"And we're gonna go check it out?" Lara clarified.

"Yup!" the Doctor answered, grinning.

Lara rolled her eyes. "After this we're going to Times Square," she said.

The Doctor didn't answer, but carefully opened one of the double doors to the Fallout hotel, holding it open for Billy and Lara to follow him. The lobby was entirely abandoned, and eerily silent. On the outside the Fallout hotel looked modern, but on the inside it looked as though it jumped out of the early 1900's. The tables were a deep, polished wood, and the red wooden couches looked stiff and uncomfortable.

Lara realized with a start when she looked back at the Doctor that the door had vanished. "What the heck?" yelled Billy, who had also seen it.

"Yes, I thought that might happen," the Doctor said. Billy turned toward him, glaring, but Lara just rolled her eyes again. The Doctor shrugged by way of explanation. "Abandoned, creepy hotel, looks like it's from a different century? The door was gonna slam shut behind us and lock. The door disappearing is just another version of that."

"So what now?" Billy asked.

"Allon-sy!" the Doctor yelled.

They had been walking for hours, and they were trapped. Lara wasn't sure who had sent the distress call, because there was literally no one around. The rooms were all locked shut, and there were no keys in sight. The Doctor, Billy, and Lara had even attempted to open the doors by force, but none would open. Even the sonic screwdriver seemed helpless against all of the actual rooms, although it did allow them to enter a few linen and cleaning closets along the way. The Doctor had scanned over every imaginable surface of the hotel with the sonic screwdriver, but everything appeared normal apart from the room doors being deadlock sealed and there being no doors to the outside.

Food was freely available on a refreshment counter, however there were no cooks in sight. Actually, the refreshments seemed to reappear in all of the dishes as soon as their backs were turned. "It won't let us in, and it won't let us out," Billy said, "But it gives us food and water… what does it want us to do, walk around until we die of boredom?"

Finally, after 12 hours of searching, the three decided to bed down for the night. Billy and Lara made their beds out of some pillows and blankets they found in a broom closet. The beds were made side-by-side in the hallway right next to the lobby, while the Doctor kept watch. Lara rarely slept, but she at least tried to lie down for awhile each day to put Billy at ease, and to feel more normal. Today, however, she felt unnaturally tired, and fell into a deep sleep almost at once.

When Lara woke up a short while later, she knew immediately that something was wrong. First, she registered through her bond that Billy was no longer by her side. Second, she looked up, facing the open lobby, and realized with a start that the door to the outside had reappeared. Finally, Lara whipped around, and was horrified by the sight that met her eyes. Two doors had opened, on either side of the long hallway. An eerie green light seemed to glow from inside each of them. On the left stood Billy, mesmerized, and slowly approaching one of the doors. Across the hall on the right stood the Doctor, in a similar predicament. "Stop!" Lara shouted, but neither seemed to hear her. She was already on her feet, darting after both men. Lara called to both men verbally, then called to Billy through her bond, but both men remained unmoved. Finally, with a last look at the Doctor, Lara slipped inside the room behind Billy, only seconds before the door shut.

Billy POV

Life was perfect. Why had he ever been worried? What a funny dream! Lara, a Gallifreyan? What had he been thinking! And imagine, imagine if his head hurt, all the time, like it did in the dream… what a terrible life! He was so lucky, and life was so perfect…

"That's not true, this isn't real, you know it's not!" said a voice in his head suddenly.

"Shut it," he told the voice, forming barriers in his head like Lara had taught him.

Lara… Lara was standing in front of him, beautiful and curvaceous and completely human. "Hey sexy, what's for dinner?" she asked. He suddenly felt an uncharacteristic pang of hurt, and it made him feel ashamed, though he didn't know why.

"She's not me, I'm me, in your head, listen, listen through the bond! We're better than this, you're better than this!"

Why did the voice continue? It was so annoying! And so totally wrong! Clearly, Lara was right in front of him-…"

The strongest feeling yet, of fear, washed over him then, and it staggered him. "Tell her she's not real, Billy! Tell her to leave you alone, and come back to me! Your life depends on it!"

But the Lara in front of him was undressing slowly, and staying with her seemed like a much better option than listening to the voices in his head.

He was wet. Why was his shirt wet? He hadn't been out in the rain.

"Billy please!" Still, the voice in his head would not stop. "Tell her to go away, just tell her you don't believe her! I love you, please! It's always been you, you idiot! If I have to choose, it'll always be you! I love you!"

Finally, the voice in his head became so loud that it blinded him, and the love and fear coming from the voice exploded through his senses. There was only one course of action now, because the voice was completely, totally, overwhelmingly - …"

"Lara!" And with a sickening sound like a plug being removed from a drain, Billy woke up. Reality came crashing down upon him, and he sat up straight. He instinctively put his arms around Lara, who was lying on top of him, her hands on his temples, eyes wide and wet.

"What in the hell?" he asked her, and whipped around slowly. He had been sitting on a regular-looking hotel bed. At the head of the bed, however, rather than pillows, was a gigantic, olive green tentacle. The tentacle seemed to come up through the bed and maybe even through the floor. As Billy watched, it turned brown and began to rot, eventually going limp. There was a brief pause, and then the entire room shook. Billy grabbed Lara and made for the door, closing it behind him with a slam and falling haphazardly to the floor.

"What the hell was that thing?!" Billy screamed to Lara, as the hotel finally stopped shaking.

"No time!" Lara said, jumping to her feet and grabbing Billy's hand again. "The Doctor!"

Billy was then pulled into the room across the hall, now unlocked.

Both Billy and Lara stopped short as they saw the Doctor lying prone on yet another bed, with a green tentacle attached to either of his temples.