Disclaimer: I do not Own Doctor Who
Chapter 27: The Nightclub
"Amy, Winston Churchill!"
-The Doctor
"And what's this one do." Rose pointed to a lever on the side of the console. The original end had been replaced by a ping-pong ball held on by Sellotape.
The Doctor had lifted one of the grates below the TARDIS and was underneath. They'd been stuck in the Vortex for a few days now as the Doctor patched it up. It had been hit by a stray bullet during their trip to Colonial America.
"They get one shot." The Doctor had grumbled as he pulled wires from the centre, "One shot before they have to reload. And they hit my TARDIS."
Amy had just shaken her head, glad that they hadn't been shot. She could also cross it off the ever-growing list of time periods that Rory wasn't.
The List was growing longer and longer. Two dozen different time periods and not a sign of him. Although how the Doctor could get the records of people alive during 1128 was beyond her. She'd learned a long time ago not to question how he did things.
So while the Doctor fixed the console, Rose had been pointed to random buttons and controls and asking what they did. Amy didn't understand a word of what he said when he answered, but he liked to talk, and Rose liked to listen to him.
He grinned up at her, "That controls the Quantum Baryon Conduit which-"
But Amy never got to find out what the Quantum Baryon Conduit did, because at that moment the TARDIS jerked wildly and she fell to the floor on her hands and knees.
"What the hell was that?" Amy yelled, but the TARDIS was still shuttering and shaking. The Doctor pulled himself out of the hole he's been sitting in, pulling off the wires that he had messed around his neck.
"Follow!" The Doctor yelled, turning controls until the TARDIS shuddered, "It's sending off an emergency signal."
"What is?" Amy yelled.
"The ship that just hit us!"
Amy stared at him, "Doesn't the TARDIS have shields to prevent that kind of thing."
The Doctor shrugged nervously, grabbing the console as the TARDIS shook, "I may have disabled them to fix the Emergency Temporal field which was overloading because of feedback from the-"
"Shut up and drive!" Amy glared at him, and he laughed, getting excited.
The wires above the console sparked, Rose ducked yelling, "What's the emergency?"
"It's mauve!" He yelled as he tried to regain control of the ship.
"Mauve?" Rose and Amy asked, confused.
"The universally recognized colour for danger!"
Amy and Rose exchanged looked, "What happened to red?" Rose asked him
He scoffed, "That's just humans! By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing." He gestured to the monitor which had a view if the ship they were following, "It's got a very basic flight computer - I've hacked in, slaved the TARDIS. Where it goes, we go."
"How safe is it?" Rose asked.
"Totally." The Doctor's answer was accompanied by the explosion of a part of the TARDIS console. "Okay, reasonably. Should have said reasonably there."
Amy grabbed a railing as they jerked again. "Less talking, more driving!"
"I am!"
"Oh please! I can drive better than this and I only passed my driving test because I was wearing a skirt!" Amy saw Rose try to cover her laugh with a cough.
The Doctor was to distracted by whatever was on the screen, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks - getting away from us."
"What exactly is this thing?" Rose asked him
"It's mauve and dangerous," he replied instead on answering,
"That clears it up!" Amy smack him.
"And it's about 30 seconds from crashing into the middle of London!
When they'd finally materialized, Amy half ran out of the TARDIS, thankful that they hadn't actually crashed.
"Do you know how long we can knock around space without having to bump into Earth?" The Doctor followed Rose out into the London alleyway without a care in the world.
"Five days?" Rose guessed, looking around the alley absentmindedly, "Or is that just when we're out of milk?"
"Of all the species in all the universe and it has come out of a cow."He wrinkled his nose. Then looked around the alleyway, "Must have come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago. Maybe a month."
"A month?! We were right behind it!" Rose exclaimed.
"It was jumping time tracks all over the place," The Doctor defended, "We're bound to be a little bit out. Do you wanna drive?"
"Yes, now that you mention it," Amy stepped in. Her Doctor was very protective and would barely let her touch the console. Maybe this one would let her. She'd always wanted to drive!
Rose snickered, "I wouldn't. She's not wearing a skirt."
"Cheeky," Amy glared at her playfully. Rose grinned widely, her tongue peaking between her teeth, before turning her attention back to the Doctor. Rose had been extra friendly to Amy since she died, and she could still see the guilt that would spike up in her eyes now and then.
Rose brought the conversation back to the Doctor, "So how much is a little?"
"A bit." He answered, distracted.
"Is that exactly a bit?" Rose raised an eyebrow at him.
"Ish."
"What's the plan, then?" Rose steered the conversation away, looking giddy, "Are you gonna do a scan for alien tech or something."
Amy sighed, "No that'd be too easy. The Doctor never does anything easy."
"It hit the middle of London with a loud bang," The Doctor glared at them like they were thick, "I'm gonna ask." He held up his psychic paper.
"'Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids'," Amy read off the paper, then wrinkled her nose, "Is that even a real thing?"
He looked at the Physic paper, shrugging, "It's never failed me before."
"Not very Spock though, is it?" Rose complained. "Just asking?"
The Doctor ignored her, moving to a door listening, "Door - music - people. What d'you think?" He asked them.
"I think you should do a scan for alien tech." Rose tip in her two cents. Amy agreed with her, but if something had landed with a loud bang then it might be simpler just to ask.
"Can't hurt to ask first though." Amy sighed, agreeing with the Doctor who pointed at her triumphantly.
Rose groaned audibly, "Come on you two! Gimmie some Spock! For once, would it kill yah?"
"It might." Amy smirked, "With the Doctor you never know."
"Exactly!" The Doctor grinned before pulling out his sonic, "Why risk it?" Rose rolled her eyes. The Doctor's eyes wandered down to her chest with a raised eyebrow, "Are you sure about that T-shirt?"
Rose pulled on her Union Jack T-shirt. Amy didn't see anything wrong with it, but Rose suddenly seemed self-conscious, "To early to say. I'm taking it out for a spin."
The Doctor nodded slightly, his eyes lingering, before he coughed and turned back to the door with his sonic.
"Muuuu-mmy."
Amy frowned and turned to look into the alley. At first she thought she'd imagined it, but then she looked back to see that Rose had turned as well. They both exchanged nervous looks.
Behind them the Doctor cracked the lock.
"Come on, if you're coming. Won't take a minute." He walked through the door, and Amy shook her head following him.
Rose stayed behind, and Amy assumed she was going to investigate the creepy voice.
She'll be fine. Amy assured herself. It's probably nothing.
They walked down a dark corridor towards the music. Amy wondered what kind of club this was. A classy one for sure, nothing like the kind's she had been in. A man who looked like a waiter popped out of somewhere and they followed him.
When they came out into the open, Amy immediately spotted what was wrong.
She knew that this wasn't modern London. Thinking about it she didn't know why she expected it to be. The clothes they were wearing were very stylish. A high-class club of some kind then. Looking to around the 1940s.
She shifted uncomfortably. Very close to 1938 then. She wondered if her older self was wandering around somewhere? Well if she was, it would probably be in New York. She would have stayed there to avoid running into the Doctor.
Sometimes it scared her how much she had planned out her other life. The One she was supposed to be living, with Rory. The one she still might have the chance to live, one day. She had never been this comfortable with the idea of a normal life before this. She was reminded of when Rory had died in the dream world. She'd never known how much she loved him until it was gone.
And now it was like that all over again. With the prospect of never having a normal life, she had suddenly realized that it was the only thing that she wanted.
The Doctor didn't seem to notice the time discrepancy and he walked closer to the stage where a singer was entertaining the room. Amy tried to get his attention, but was blocked by a large blonde man in a solider's uniform.
"Hey there, doll," The man smiled at her, flirtatious yet polite, "Don't think I've seen you here before."
She looked him up and down. He was cute, just her type really, but she didn't have the time. She flashed her wedding ring, "Sorry buddy, I'm taken."
The man seemed put out, but walked over to another girl who was much more receptive to his flirting.
Wait. Amy whipped around, doing a double take of his uniform. Oh crap, how could she have forgotten about this?
A Solider.
1940s.
And a Cylindrical metal thing falling to London with a loud boom.
"Oh, no." Amy groaned.
The girl on stage finished her song, and before Amy could grab the Doctor he ran on the stage and grabbed the microphone.
"Excuse me! Excuse me!" He quickly caught the audience's attention, tapping the speaker with his finger a few times, "Could I have everybody's attention for just a mo? Be very quick, eh..hello!" He waved cheerfully into the unimpressed crowd, "Eh...might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently."
Amy rubbed her forehead in exasperation. This was going to go down as well as...well, as well as a German bomb during the blitz.
She spotted a propaganda poster on the wall and waved, trying to get the Doctor's attention, but either he couldn't see her or he was ignoring her. Probably ignoring her. Typical.
All around the room people started to laugh. Gently at first, but then into huge bellows. Amy waved more frantically
"Sorry, have I said something funny?" He asked them confused. This just caused them to laugh harder. "It's just, there's this thing I need to find, would've fallen from the sky a couple of day's ago."
Above them a siren rang out. An Air-raid siren. Amy swallowed nervously. Rose was still outside. Everybody in the room stood up and calmly started to evacuate like it was routine, which it probably was.
"Would've landed quiet near here.." The Doctor continued, frowning at the people as they left, probably thinking them very rude. Amy jumped up and down, but the Doctor just looked up at the ceiling in confusion. Oi, for a 900 year old Time Lord he could be a bit thick sometimes. "With a very loud..."
"Doctor!" Amy yelled once most of the people had left and she wouldn't draw as much attention. He looked over at her, where she was frantically pointing at the poster. He face cleared into realization that this was probably going to be harder than it seemed.
"Bang."
"Well, that went well," Amy noted as they walked towards the back door, "You gonna do that scan for alien tech?"
"Probably," He grumbled, put out that his plan didn't work.
"Oh, don't worry." Amy patted his arm soothingly, "Rose'll still be impressed."
He gave her an unamused expressed and then walked a few steps before slowing, "You think?"
Amy laughed at his hopeful expression and pushed the door open.
"Rose!" The Doctor called as they walked outside, rounding around the corner to were the TARDIS was parked.
Amy noticed very quickly that Rose wasn't there. She looked down the other side of the alley, a very bad feeling creeping up, "Where is she? You think she went back into the TARDIS?"
The Doctor huffed, turning to a stray cat sitting on a dustbin. He picked it up and pet it, "You know...one day. Just one day, maybe...I'm gonna meet someone who gets the whole 'don't wander off' thing."
"What am I? Spare parts?" Amy quipped, and he grinned at her.
Then a phone rang.
They both jumped, then turned to the source of the noise. Amy blinked, slowly walking towards the TARDIS, which was ringing.
The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and put the cat down. He followed her and they both stood in front of the TARDIS, staring at the sign on the front of the door. Behind it, a soft ringing echoed down the alleyway. The Doctor opened the sign to reveal a phone.
"How can you be ringing?" He spoke to it, "What's that about? Ringing?"
"I though that wasn't a real phone." Amy pointed out.
He took out his sonic screwdriver, buzzing it over the phone, "It's not. What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?
"Don't answer it!" Both Amy and the Doctor turned to see a girl standing at the end of the alley. Her dark hair done in braided pigtails, she looked only a few years older than Rose. "It's not for you."
"Who's it for then?" Amy asked the creepy girl, confused, "You?"
The girl swallowed nervously, not answering, "I'm tellin' yah - don't answer it."
"How can it be ringing?" The Doctor asked the girl, turning back to the phone, "It's not even a real phone. It's not connected, it's not-" He froze. Looking back Amy saw why.
The Girl had vanished.
"Well that's not disconcerting or anything." Amy groaned.
The phone continued to ring.
The Doctor stared at the phone in concentration, then against the warnings he picked up the ear piece and held it to his ear with a skeptical grin.
"Hello?...This is the Doctor speaking?...How may I help you?" Suddenly the grin faded from his face and a worried shock followed, "Who is this? Who's speaking?...Who is this?"
"What is it?" Amy's voice shook. Something had spooked the Doctor. Reluctantly he handed her the phone and she raised it to her ear. "Hello?"
"Are you my mummy?"
Amy froze. It was a child's voice. The same voice she'd heard in the alleyway earlier. She swallowed. "How are you calling? This phone's a dummy."
"Muuuuu-mmey." Was the only response she got. More than a bit creeped out, Amy pulled the phone away from her ear and hung up. Her and the Doctor exchanged looks. Something strange was going on here.
The Doctor opened the TARDIS door and poked his head in, "Rose? Rose, are you in there?"
Behind them something crashed. The Doctor pulled his head out and looked down. Catching his eye Amy knew they were thinking the same thing. The creepy girl.
Quickly he grabbed her hand and they ran out of the alleyway, into the street, and towards the noise.
-Ash
