As you can probably tell, this was originally two separate chapters. But they were both super short, so I combined them despite the different points of view. I got into Gravity Falls recently, so it feels super weird to write "Dr. Ford" now, given that Ford has several PhDs.

Disclaimer: | |)[] |\| [] -| [] \|/ |\| |) [] ( -| [] | _, \|/ |-| 0

Chapter 35: The Trouble with Traps

Into the room stepped a woman flanked by two-armed security guards. April stepped forwards, squinting, and even then, she could barely see her. April had the feeling that she had seen her before. She had seen her at the hospital, and she had seen her long before that.

And then the woman spoke, confirming April's suspicions.

"Hello, April," said Mrs. Rice.

o0O0o

April could think of a million and one things to say, but only one of them made it to her lips. "I'm an idiot."

"Sit down," Mrs. Rice said, her voice sharp and commanding. The two guards appeared to be carrying guns, and the only exit April could see was blocked. She was out of options, so she sat.

"You are Mrs. Rice, right?" April said. They're not going to kill you yet, she reminded herself. They let you find your way here for a reason, after all. They needed you to contact the Doctor.

"No, of course I'm not." Her voice sounded sarcastic, but April wasn't sure. Maybe she was wrong? It had happened before, especially when she could barely see the woman's face.

April turned the chair so that she could look Mrs. Rice in the eyes, or at least where she felt Mrs. Rice's eyes ought to be if she could see them. It felt vaguely uncomfortable, but she certainly wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of looking away. "Does Jeremy know what you're doing?"

"I don't know who you're talking about," Mrs. Rice said.

Okay, so maybe she doesn't. Or she could be lying. Either way, Jeremy's still involved.

April took in a deep breath. Curiously enough, her heart wasn't beating a mile a minute. Everything seemed surreal, sitting down in the too-white room with Jeremy's mom, her head still reeling from her earlier encounter with her own mother. "What do you want?"

"You know what I want you to do, April. Call Martha Jones, and tell her where you are."

April looked down, then back up again. She wanted to stand up—sitting down felt wrong when she desperately wanted to flee. "And if I don't, you'll shoot me?"

"Certainly not," Mrs. Rice said. "There are other, less pleasant methods of forcing you to call, which I am ready to resort to if necessary."

"So," April said. "Either I call Martha, and then you shoot me, or you mind-control me into calling Martha, and then shoot me. Either way, Martha gets called, and either way, you shoot me." Unless they had some other reason to keep me alive, April realized. I'm here as bait.

But they don't know what you know, said a voice inside of her head. Not like the non-words of the outside voice—her mother's voice?—from earlier, but a voice that came from April herself.

And I'm not going to tell them what I know, because that would be stupid. The knowledge is dangerous.

"Am I wrong?" April asked.

"If you cooperate, we will have no reason to waste our bullets on you," Mrs. Rice said patronizingly. "This isn't a story of heroes and villains; no one just kills because there's someone there." She's definitely a mother. And Jeremy's mother, since there's one person in the world stupid enough to have to be spoken to that way.

That's…not actually true. But definitely used to working with children.

"So," Mrs. Rice said. "What will it be, April?"

"How do I know you won't just shoot me?" April asked.

"What would we have to gain from killing you?"

"I don't actually know," April admitted. She wasn't scared, and that was scaring her. She should be terrified out of her mind, but all she felt was tired. "Seeing how the only things I know is that we're under Royal Hope Hospital and you're holding my mother here for some reason. So, for all I know, you would."

Think. What do you know?

They have my mom, and she's gone, well...she's only able to talk in terms of Doctor Who references and she seems to not be in her right mind. They're stationed under the hospital…Dr. Ford was working with them all along. Or maybe he was mind controlled or something, because they obviously can use mind control.

"Hang on," April said suddenly. "You're a…well, presumably a human organization based on twenty-first century Earth. How do I know that you can force me to do anything if I refuse? In fact, if you haven't already used your supposed mind control technology on me, you definitely don't have any. If you put me on the phone with the Doctor, you have no idea what I'm going to say. So, if you're willing to take that risk, you have to." April wasn't even sure what she was saying at this point—the words just came pouring out, an argument with no organization whatsoever.

Mrs. Rice closed her eyes for a moment. It reminded April of her mother. Don't think about that. Don't think about how you're going to die in minutes. Ignore it. "We know that you have…valuable information," Mrs. Rice said. "Our methods could risk damaging your mind."

"Like what happened to my mother," April said. She felt herself standing up angrily. "You—"

"Sit down," Mrs. Rice said coldly. "Your mind is younger, and a longer time has passed since you were cut off from the data supply. You might be more flexible, more able to adapt. You might not. We can perform this interesting experiment in the name of science. Or you can call Martha Jones and explain that you are under Royal Hope Hospital and need rescue—along with that delightful code of yours."

April sat down. Objectively, it would probably be better if her mind was scrambled like her mother's, unable to give out useful information. She was dangerous. Honestly, she'd be better off dead.

But it wasn't that simple. Harriet was still out there with information about Doctor Who, and presumably the others would find their ways here eventually. Jeremy might even be walking around with knowledge of Doctor Who as well. If April couldn't give them the information, there were other ways for Mrs. Rice and whoever she was working with to obtain it.

And April was currently in the middle of a stable time loop—she hadn't given any letters to Jeremy yet and she didn't even know what the second letter said. She wasn't certain what would happen to time if she was unable to write the letters, but there was at least a decent chance that it would be extremely bad.

"Okay."

"Was that so difficult?" Mrs. Rice asked patronizingly. April had always found Mrs. Rice a bit annoying—after all, she was related to Jeremy—but she had all in all seemed like a nice person. Now, though? April hated her. Was this the same Mrs. Rice, though, or an alternate version of her? It had to be an alternate version…unless the Doctor was right about there being no parallel universe. "Now make the call. I have better things to do than deal with stubborn teenage girls."

April looked down at the iPad, trying to gauge how convincing she needed to be. She wanted the Doctor, Martha, and Harriet to be as suspicious as possible, but she also didn't want Mrs. Rice to be suspicious either.

Harriet was smart, April figured, and knew her well. Even if April said her secret phrase, she might still be suspicious.

"Wait a second, how do you know about my phrase?" April asked.

"Stop asking questions and make the call."

Right, she's not telling me everything. Which makes sense. But how would she know about it? Has she been monitoring me?

April looked down at the iPad and began typing in Martha's number. Call.

The phone on the other end began to ring.

"Someone needs help. Doctors help people. So help me help her." Someone closed the doors in the back and within seconds they were rushing down the street towards the hospital.

"Turn on the sirens," Harriet said.

"I'm sorry, but we cannot—"

"Turn on the sirens!" Martha yelled. The sirens began to blare.

Harriet sat down as best as she could. She didn't know what she was doing—for all she knew she could be leading her friends in the entirely wrong direction. She said as much.

"This is our best lead," the Doctor said.

"If we're right, I think…I think this is a trap," Harriet admitted.

"Then we spring it," the Doctor said. Harriet smiled weakly. "Could've made it a bit easier, though, to find out where they took her. You know who it was, don't you?"

"Maybe," Harriet said.

"You're a great friend, you know," Martha said.

"What?" Harriet and the Doctor asked simultaneously.

"Harriet," Martha said, ignoring the Doctor. "You're blaming yourself for this for some reason, but it isn't your fault."

"I knew that she was in danger!" Harriet said. "Because of…" she looked at Martha. "Her knowledge of the future."

"How far are you in the future?" Martha asked curiously.

"2019," Harriet answered truthfully. She looked down. "I knew that she was in danger, but I just left her sitting there, and then of course she gets kidnapped! I don't know if we're going to the right place, and I don't know what we'll find when we get there."

"You're not the one who took her. You couldn't have known this would happen. If she had felt unsafe by herself, she could have come with you."

"She doesn't like people. That's why she was sitting there—she literally couldn't have gone into the crowd. But I just left her there."

"She's not your responsibility," Martha said. "I know you want to protect her or something, but she can take care of herself. I mean, you're younger than her."

Harriet snorted. "Everybody thinks that. I'm actually almost a year older, but we never act like it. She's the mature one—well, unless you start talking about Jeremy Rice or basically any boy. And she's the responsible one. Except, now she goes rushing into danger—and I have to be the responsible one, like I'm supposed to."

"A year isn't that much," Martha said.

"It feels like it should be," Harriet said. "I always thought April would be the cautious one, but it turns out it's me. And I can't even be good at that."

"Who figured out where April is?" Martha asked.

"I could be wrong."

"Could be right."

"I wasn't even the smart one in my friend group," Harriet said. "That was always April. I was the brave one, the impulsive one. Except now I can't be that, because April needs someone to make sure she doesn't get herself killed trying to save the world."

"Just because April's smart doesn't mean you aren't too," Martha said. She looked over at the Doctor, who was talking loudly with one of the paramedics, and leaned in. "He's a genius—an insufferable alien genius. Probably has an IQ in the two hundreds. And look at me. Am I an idiot?" Harriet shook her head. "Now, April's not an alien, and her IQ isn't in the two hundreds, but the point holds. She's smart—and you're smart too."

"I—thank you," Harriet said. "I shouldn't be worrying about my problems. We should be thinking about where April is and how to find her without alerting everyone."

"I think that's what he's working on," Martha said, looking at the Doctor. Suddenly, her phone began to ring. "I don't have time for spam calls."

It could be Francine, warning Martha. Or it could be April. She definitely shouldn't pick it up. Or she had to. "It could be April," Harriet said.

"Why would she…" Martha shrugged and accepted the message, turning the phone on speaker.

"Martha," April's voice said, on the other end, sounding slightly panicked. Harriet had to stop herself from grabbing the phone.

"Doctor!" Harriet called. He was over by the phone in an instant.

"April, where are you?" Martha asked.

"I'm under the Royal Hope Hospital," April said. Harriet grinned triumphantly, but the expression quickly dropped from her face. "I—I, um, Dr. Ford injected something into me, and I woke up here."

Harriet leaned in so that she could speak into the phone. "How are you contacting us?"

"There were, there was a communications room," April said, stumbling over her words. "I found it and…" There was a pause. "Harriet, Thomas the Train danced to the electric violin on seventy-sixth avenue."

"What?" Martha asked.

"April," the Doctor said. "We're coming for you. Just stay there and keep yourself alive."

"I think—I think I hear someone coming. I'm on level negative four, in the communications room, I—" The call ended.

There was a moment of silence.

"How would she get into the communications room?" The Doctor asked.

The passwords. "I know how she would do it," Harriet answered. "We…well, we had a bunch of passwords and we didn't know when we would need them. I can't tell you how. But that's how she would have gotten in."

"What was the thing about—"

"About Thomas the Train?" Harriet asked. Martha nodded. "It's a code that she invented a while ago, to prove it's her saying this and no one's forcing her to."

"She might not know if she has," the Doctor said. "Or they might know about the code."

"So, we're just going to leave her there?" Harriet asked. "We can't just—"

"Of course not," the Doctor scoffed. "But there's a chance that she's wrong about being under the Royal Hope Hospital."

"It's our best shot," Martha said.

"It is," the Doctor agreed. "You two have to wait outside."

"No way," Martha told him. "Wherever you go—"

"Listen," the Doctor said. "This is one of two things. If it's a trap for me, then it's better if neither of you gets involved. I'll get April out, and then I'll escape. Possibly both at the same time. We'll see what happens. And if it's about April's…knowledge, then we can't risk them getting you as well, Harriet."

"You're not going into danger without me," Martha protested.

"I need you to protect Harriet," he said, grabbing her phone and typing a number into it. "If I don't come out, call UNIT for help. They'll do their best to rescue us, and they'll keep you safe."

"Give Harriet my phone," Martha said.

"You do realize I'm here, right?" Harriet asked.

"Listen," the Doctor said. "Stay outside, and don't follow me in. And when I get out, I'll take you on one more trip. Anywhere in the universe. Just let me deal with this."

"No," Martha said. "I'm not doing this. One more trip. It's not fair. I'm not just a passenger, someone you take along for a treat. You can't say 'stay' and then have me sit, waiting for a treat like a dog. I'm coming with you, and if it means I never go on 'one more trip' again, so be it."

"Okay," the Doctor said. Martha handed her phone to Harriet. "What are you doing?" He asked in surprise.

"You said okay," Martha answered.

"I meant—Martha. I need your help, and I would love if you travel with me. For real. No more 'one more trip,' just like you said. But if you're going to travel with me, I need you to listen when I tell you you'll be more use outside. If I tell you to hide, you have to hide. If I tell you to wait outside, you have to wait outside."

"If you tell me to leave you and save myself, I have to do it," Martha said, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not here to follow orders—and I'm certainly not here to watch Dumbledore die. God, that's a terrifying thought. You as Dumbledore."

Harriet had the distinct impression that she was missing something.

"I'm not asking you to follow orders," the Doctor said. "I'm asking you to trust me on this. You will be far more help if you stay outside."

Martha looked at him for a moment, then nodded.

"Don't I get a say?" Harriet asked.

"Do you want to help April?" The Doctor asked.

Harriet looked out the window. They were approaching the Royal Hope Hospital.

She couldn't just sit here and hope, not knowing what was happening to her friend. But if the Doctor was certain it was best for her to stay here, maybe he was right.

How could Harriet know? The April that had written the letters hadn't given her any advice.

Harriet had two options, and one would cause an argument. April might not be able to afford any delay.

"I understand," Harriet said, as the ambulance came to a stop.