"Come on old girl. Someone's in trouble."
"What about this has you so skittish?"
"Calling space capsule, this is the Doctor in the TARDIS. Can anyone hear me?"
A bell tolling. A deafening alarm buzzing. A blinding flash.
Dayle awoke on a Monday morning in Shawn's motel room. It was raining. She sat and smoked, feeling sorry for herself. Got ready and went to work before Shawn could wake.
Dayle tossed in her sleep and turned over, mumbling.
"What on earth are you doing in my hallway? What the HELL has happened to you?"
"I don't know any professors. Is she supposed to live in this apartment building?"
"My neighbor is a nurse. Let's just pop over and see if she might be of any help..."
Dayle was awoken on a Tuesday by her friend Clari's three year old son. She was excited. She'd get to see Savannah today, spend time with her at the library. First, she should attend an NA meeting though.
Dayle regained consciousness all at once, like being startled awake from a dream of falling. She couldn't recall the details of her dream but found herself recalling instead the words from a book on parallel universes she'd read a full three years ago in a booth at Waffle House.
"There's no such thing as a road untraveled. Yet each such road- each reality- is hidden from all others."
She tried to sit up and realized she was in the woods and it was dark. And worse, her hands were tied together tightly in front of her. She was bound at the ankles too. She shook her head trying to clear it and that was when the pain hit her.
"Oh god." She groaned. She raised her arms in a futile gesture, trying to touch her face. She could tell she was bleeding and her nose throbbed. She wondered if it was broken. The side of her head hurt as well. She attempted to sit fully upright, managed to scoot herself to lean against a tree.
She remembered the disgusting creature in Melody's apartment then and gasped. "Motherfucker cold cocked me." she muttered bitterly.
Just then, a growl came from off to her right. A gargly whisper, "Dayle Mossssss..." the Zygon hissed.
Dayle swung around to face the creature. He was even more ghastly than she could have imagined and she was truly terrified. But she'd sooner die than let this bastard know it. She straightened her back, made a disgusted face. "Arc I presume?" she said calmly.
Arc's expression was difficult to read, seeing as he was an alien being that Dayle had never seen before (at least not in his true form). But she was satisfied to detect a bit of surprise that she knew his name.
"So you and your Time Lord did your homework." he whispered ominously. "Is that why you followed me into this universe?"
Dayle played dumb. "I don't know what you mean. I've always been in this universe. I'm a nurse and I have a lovely apartment that I share with my fiance Jesse. No Time Lords here."
The Zygon chuckled, a wet gargly sound like a backed up drain and Dayle threw up in her mouth a little. The Doctor had failed to mention how fucking disgusting these things were.
"You are not the Dayle of this universe." Arc hissed confidently. "You reek of the Time Lord with whom you share a bed."
Dayle blushed despite herself but recovered quickly. She set her jaw and got straight to the point. "What the hell do you want with me?"
Arc was silent for a moment, perhaps deciding how much to tell her. Finally he whispered simply "The Focusing Amplifier. I want it."
Dayle felt her heart skip a beat but maintained her poker face. "Well that's just too goddamn bad, isn't it? We threw it into the black hole and it was destroyed."
Arc took a few steps closer to where she sat on the ground. He loomed over her threateningly. She closed her eyes, wondering if he would hit her again.
"Not the Focusing Amplifier from our universe." He hissed impatiently. "The Focusing Amplifier from this one."
Dayle opened her eyes and looked up at him when she realized he wasn't going to get violent. Cleared her throat. "And what makes you so sure there even is one in this universe?"
The Zygon smiled a frightening smile. "I was told by a good friend when I first came to this universe. When I first escaped, thanks to you."
Dayle couldn't help but laugh. "You mean to tell me, you been hanging around in some old broad's body for three years looking for this thing? And you still ain't found it?"
Arc growled angrily and Dayle immediately regretted her mocking tone. As much as she wanted to be a badass, she knew this huge red fucker could end her and she might never get to see her girls again.
Arc didn't lay a finger on her. Instead he explained in his gargly whisper, "When I first got here, I was gravely injured. It took months to recover. And then I started to keep an eye on Dayle. I would visit her in her apartment as Mrs. Anderson. Got to know her. And scanned for Tregannon technology. I soon realized, it was not in her possession."
Arc reached down then and caressed her forehead with his three clawed hand affectionately. She winced. "And I also realized that she is not telepathic like you."
Dayle looked at him, swallowed nervously. "So what do you want from me then?" Her voice was hollow.
"When the two of you first arrived, I was afraid that I would be detected, and swiftly defeated. That the Time Lord would take me back through the wormhole, turn me in for my crimes. I didn't know then how... distracted he was. Now your arrival seems a gift." He smiled his horrible smile once more. "You will help me find it." The certainty with which he said this last part unsettled Dayle most of all.
"So what are we doing? Getting the Focusing Whatsit from my mom so you can link to Dayle telepathically like last time?" Dayle B wondered. She and Jesse were crowded into a jumpseat together holding tightly to each other's hands. It was the first time for both of them to take a trip in the TARDIS and they were at once excited and nervous.
Melody was still somewhat beside herself. The Doctor glanced at her, sitting on the floor against one wall, looking traumatized. He sighed. Perhaps she shouldn't have come along after all.
He turned to Dayle B. "No that can't work. The Focusing Amplifier was able to enhance Dayle's telepathic abilities of knowing when it was in her possession. A Time Lord's telepathy works a bit differently and cannot be enhanced by Tregannon Technology in the same way. The connection worked only because her psionic energy reached out to me."
He really didn't know why he needed to see the other Focusing Amplifier. Perhaps it was merely because it had seemed so important to Dayle. And because he trusted her instincts.
"Right. To Lenore Byers' house, 1860 Shadow Pines drive." He pulled a lever and the TARDIS began to dematerialize.
"Will we be back by tomorrow?" Melody suddenly asked nobody in particular. Her voice sounded odd.
Dayle B looked at the Doctor like Why the hell did you bring her? He made an apologetic face.
Melody continued. "Because tomorrow is Manicure Monday and my nails are quite a sight."
The Doctor froze at her words. "Wait a mo. Melody say that again." He took several steps toward her, looked at her expectantly.
Melody looked at him, confused. "Uhh... tomorrow is Manicure Monday...?"
The Doctor's eyes got wide. "And the day after is Yoga Tuesday, correct?" She nodded numbly.
He clapped his hands, "Of course!" He spun around, pointing. "Dayle B, when I came here three years ago, it was on Yoga Tuesday, am I right?"
Dayle B looked at him like he'd lost every last one of his marbles. "Yeah... I think so." She stared at him blankly, awaiting further explanation.
"And I was only in your flat, only in this universe for that one day, correct?" He was getting excited.
Dayle B still had no idea where this was going. "You healed so fast I thought I was losing my damn mind. But you arrived late Tuesday morning and left late Tuesday night, yes."
"Don't you see?" he shouted, gesturing like he'd just made the most obvious point in the world.
Jesse and Dayle B looked at each other. "Uh... nope." Jesse said. "Yeah, not seein it." Dayle B said.
"Dayle A woke up the morning after dreaming of the explosion in a motel room. She went to work that day, had an altercation with a customer. I saw the whole thing. THEN, the next night she dreamed about me meeting Melody in the hallway. She awoke the morning after that dream at her friend's home. She attended a meeting and that's where she encountered Zygon River, then on to the library to meet her daughter. That was Tuesday. She and Savannah always met up at the library on Tuesdays." He rubbed his hands together, looked at Dayle B meaningfully.
Now she got it. And she looked mystified. "Wait a minute. Are you telling me, she dreamed about the explosion before it happened?" She shook her head. "Dayle's gift doesn't work that way. She can't see into the future."
"No she can't. But the TARDIS has done extensive scans on this universe, on its composition of space time. And time here does indeed run parallel to time in my universe. So if it was Monday in that universe, it would have been Monday in this universe. So how then did Dayle see the neutron star collision a full day before it happened? How did she see me meeting Melody in your hallway, the night before I even arrived?"
Dayle B looked blown away. She looked at Jesse who could only shrug.
The TARDIS was rematerializing. The Doctor checked the scanner. They had landed in someone's back garden. He turned the screen toward Dayle B.
"Yep." She nodded. "This is mom's house." She stood and grumbled. "Man, this is gonna be some bizarre shit for her to take in." She and Jesse made their way to the door of the TARDIS.
The Doctor helped Melody to her feet, guided her out the door with a gentle hand on her lower back.
They stepped out into the dark backyard. Dayle B's mother was standing on her back patio, illuminated by the porch light. She was blonde and fair skinned like her daughter and though well into her 50s, she was still a beautiful woman. Though she looked thoroughly troubled, inexplicably, she didn't look the least bit surprised to see them there.
She crossed her arms, called out "Dayle honey. Why don't you and your friends come in before it starts raining."
Dayle B looked confused but they all did as they were told, made their way up the back steps, past her mother.
Lenore nodded slightly as the Doctor passed. "Doctor." She acknowledged softly.
Dayle B spun around, floored. She looked at the Doctor who had a slight grin on his face.
The Doctor put his hands on her shoulders, looked into her eyes. "You're right. Dayle A can't see into the future. But I expect we know someone else who can."
