Travelling with the Raggedy man

by The Time Lord Oracle

Amy Pond and her cousin Chelsea Willows were 7-years old when the newly regenerated 11th Doctor crashed into their lives. They meet him again when they were adults and they join him in the TARDIS for adventures in time and space. But Chelsea is somewhat wary of the eccentric man-child Doctor, and with cracks popping up all over time and space, it's gonna be an interesting time.

1. The Eleventh Hour

Travelling with the Raggedy Man

The Eleventh Hour

Doctor Who is copyright to the BBC. I own nothing except my OC. Thanks to Maethorial Artemis for beta-reading this chapter for me.

In the bedroom of a house in a quiet Gloucestershire village in the spring of 1996, a little ginger-haired girl sat at the bottom of her bed praying. "Dear Santa, thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish, and Chelsea says thank you for the videos. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you. But honest, it's an emergency. There's a crack in my wall." She cracked an eye open to look at the wall on her left. The wall had a glowing W-shaped crack imbedded in it. Another little girl, this one dark-haired, was standing by the crack, watching it uneasily. The ginger-haired girl returned to her prayers. "Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack, but... we know it's not, because, at night, there's voices. So please, please, could ye send someone to fix it? Or a policeman. Or..."

Suddenly, a strange wheezing and groaning noise came from outside, followed by a loud crash. Both girls rushed the window, the dark-haired girl picking up a torch from the bedside table on the way. They looked out of the window to find the garden in bits and a large blue box was lying on it's side in the shed's place. Both girls' eyes fell on a sign above the box's doors which proclaimed the box to be police. "Wow, that worked fast." the dark-haired girl breathed.

"Thank you, Santa." the ginger-haired girl smiled, then she and the dark-haired girl threw on cardigans and wellies and rushed outside to investigate.

By the light of their torches, the girls approached the overturned blue box. The doors suddenly opened and a grappling hook came flying out of the box, latching itself to a wheelbarrow. The girls watched as a pair of hands appeared at the edge of the box followed the head of a soaking wet man. "Can I have an apple?" he asked, "All I can think about, apples. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new, never had cravings before." He then pulled himself up and straddled the edge of the box. "Woah, look at that!" he commented, looking down into the box.

With the man's full body on view, the girls could see that he was quite gangly and appeared to be in his mid-twenties with floppy brown hair, green eyes and a prominent chin. He was dressed in a tattered blue dress shirt, a brown tie, brown pinstripe trousers that had clearly seen better days, and white converse high tops. Both shirt and trousers didn't quite fit him properly, like they were meant for someone taller and thinner. "Are you ok?" the dark-haired girl asked, noticing that smoke was rising from the box.

"Just had a fall." the man replied, putting both legs over the side and sitting on the edge of the box, "All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

"You're soaking wet." the ginger-haired girl pointed out.

"I was in the swimming pool." the man replied

"But you just said you were in the library." the dark-haired girl pointed out, wandering how a box that small could have a swimming pool and a library.

"So was the swimming pool." the man replied lightly.

"Are you a policeman?" the ginger-haired girl asked

"Why? Did you call the police?" the man asked back

"Did ye come about the crack in my wall?" the ginger-haired girl tried.

"What cra...?" the man began, but suddenly gave out a yell of pain and fell to his knees on the ground.

"Are you alright?" the dark-haired girl asked him worriedly.

"No, I'm fine, it's ok." the man waved her off, "This is all perfectly norm..." He opened his mouth and a wisp of golden-orange energy wafted out into the air, much to the bemusement of the two girls.

"Who are you?" the ginger-haired girl asked.

"I don't know yet. I'm still cooking." the man replied, looking at his hands which were glowing too. "Does it scare either of you?" he asked the girls.

"No, it just looks a bit weird." the ginger-haired girl replied while the dark-haired girl shook her head.

"No, no, no. The crack in your wall." the man elaborated, "Does it scare either of you?"

"Yes." the ginger-haired girl replied while the dark-haired girl nodded.

The man promptly jumped to his feet. "Well then, no time to loose." he said hurriedly, "I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off." He strode away with purpose only to smack headfirst into a tree and fall flat on his back.

"You ok, mister?" the dark-haired girl asked him.

"Early days." the Doctor replied, "Steering's a bit off."

~8~

The girls led the Doctor into the kitchen. "If you're a doctor, why does your box say 'police'?" the ginger-haired girl asked, offering him an apple.

The Doctor didn't reply. He just took the apple and had a bite of it before promptly spitting it out again. That's disgusting." he grimaced, "What is that?"

"An apple."

"Apples are rubbish. I hate apples."

"You said you loved them a moment ago." the dark-haired girl pointed out.

"No, no, I love bananas." the Doctor replied, "Bananas are good. Gimme a banana."

"We don't have any bananas." the ginger-haired girl told him.

"What?!" the Doctor stared, looking absolutely scandalised at that, "What house doesn't have bananas. Bananas are good! I'll have a yoghurt instead, then. Yoghurt's my favourite. Gimme yoghurt." The dark-haired girl ran to the fridge and produced a yoghurt. The Doctor ripped the pot open and and gulped it down before promptly spitting it out in the sink. "I hate yoghurt." he said, "It's just stuff with bits in."

"But you said it was your favourite." the dark-haired girl reminded.

"New mouth, new rules." the Doctor shrugged, wiping the remnants of the yoghurt off his mouth, "It's like eating after cleaning ya teeth, everything tastes wro-argh!" he groaned, having a momentary spasm.

"What is it? What's wrong with you?" the ginger-haired girl asked worriedly.

"Wrong with me?" the Doctor said, suddenly sounding grouchy, "It's not my fault. Why can't either of ya gimme decent food? You're Scottish, fry something." he ordered the ginger-haired girl.

~8~

The Doctor dried himself off with a towel provided to him by the dark-haired girl while the ginger-haired girl fried some bacon rashers on the hob.

"Ah! Bacon!" the Doctor grinned as the plate of bacon was placed on the table in front of him. He took a fork-full and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed on it for a few seconds then spat it out in disgust. "That's bacon?" he grimaced, "Are you trying to poison me?"

The dark-haired girl cooked some baked beans while the Doctor looked on. "Ah, you see, beans." he said. When the beans were ready, he took a forkful of them and promptly spat it out in the sink. "Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans." he groaned.

~8~

Next, the ginger-haired girl tried a plate of bread and butter. "Bread and butter, now you're talking." the Doctor said. He took a bite, then grabbed the plate, went over to the back door and tossed the plate away. "And stay out!" he growled and returned to the kitchen.

The two girls looked in the fridge. "We've got carrots." the ginger-haired girl suggested.

"Carrots? Are you insane?" the Doctor stared, "No, wait, hang on." He went over to the fridge and started rifling through it. "I know what I need... I need... I need... Fish fingers and custard." He produced a box of fish fingers and a carton of custard.

The two girls could only look at each other in bewilderment.

~8~

The Doctor was soon happily tucking into his bizarre combo while the girls treated themselves to bowls of ice cream. When he'd finished with the fish fingers, the Doctor lifted the bowl of custard up and drank the contents, leaving him with a custard moustache. Both girls giggled at the sight. "Funny." the ginger-haired girl tittered.

"Am I?" the Doctor asked, wiping the custard away, "Good. Funny's good. What're your names?" he asked the girls.

"Amelia Pond." the ginger-haired girl replied.

"Chelsea Willows." the dark-haired girl pipped in.

"Ah, those are brilliant names." the Doctor grinned, "Amelia Pond, Chelsea Willows, like names in a fairy-tale. Are we in Scotland, Amelia?" he asked, noting Amelia's Scottish accent, "Or England, Chelsea?" He noticed that Chelsea had an English accent.

"England." Chelsea replied.

"I had to move to England. It's rubbish." Amelia complained.

"So what about you mums and dads?" the Doctor asked, "Are they upstairs? Thought we'd have woken them by now."

"I don't have a mum and dad." Amelia sighed, "Just an aunt."

"My mum." Chelsea clarified, "We're cousins."

"Well, you've both got more than I've got now." the Doctor sighed, a deep sadness in his eyes. "So, your mum, where is she?" he asked Chelsea, going cheerful again.

"She's out." Chelsea replied, "And my dad lives in London now."

"And they left you both all alone?" the Doctor stared, appalled that two children who looked no older than seven or eight at the most had been left home alone.

"We're not scared." Amelia said bravely.

"Course you're not." the Doctor chuckled, "You're not scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of box, man eats fish custard, and look at you both, just sitting there. So you know what I think?"

"What?" both girls asked together.

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall." the Doctor replied knowingly.

~8~

Once they'd finished their impromptu late night feast, the girls took the Doctor to Amelia's bedroom, where the crack stood prominently in the wall. "You've had some cowboys in here." the Doctor remarked as he moved closer to the crack to examine it, "Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."

Amelia and Chelsea both stood in the doorway, Amelia holding an apple in her hand. "I used to hate apples, so my mum put faces in them." she said and handed the Doctor an apple with a smiley face carved into it.

"Sounds good, your mum." the Doctor remarked, tossing the apple into the air and catching it, "I'll keep it for later." He put the apple into his trouser pocket and turned back to the crack in the wall. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it." he observed, "So here's the thing, where's the draught coming from?" He reached into his other trouser pocket and produced a small silver metal cylindrical object with a blue light at the end and ran it along the crack, apparently scanning it. "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey." he muttered, checking the readings, "You two know what this crack is?" he asked the girls.

"What?" Amelia asked

"It's a crack." the Doctor said rather obviously, running his fingers along the crack, "I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, cos' the crack isn't in the wall."

"So where is it, then?" Chelsea asked uneasily

"Everywhere. In everything." the Doctor answered mysteriously, "It's a split in the skin in the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together... right here in the wall of this bedroom." He pressed his ear against the wall. "Sometimes, can you hear..."

"Voices?" Amelia cut in, "Yes."

The Doctor picked up an empty glass from the bedside table and pressed it against the wall, his ear at the other end. Through the glass, he could hear a deep booming voice say; "Prisoner Zero has escaped."

"Prisoner Zero?" the Doctor frowned

"Prisoner Zero has escaped. That's what we heard." Amelia confirmed, "What does it mean?"

"Prisoner Zero has escaped." the voice repeated

The Doctor moved away from the wall. "It means that, on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner." he said, "D'ya know what that means?"

"What?" both girls asked

"You need a better wall." the Doctor replied and moved the desk out of the way. "The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way." he told the girls, "The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or..."

"Or what?" Chelsea asked uneasily

"You know when grown-ups tell you everything's gonna be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?" the Doctor asked

"Yes." Amelia answered wearily.

"Everything's gonna be fine." the Doctor said smugly and aimed his light-up tube at the crack. He switched the tube on and the crack widened, revealing a dark prison cell on the other side.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped." the voice announced from somewhere in the cell.

The Doctor stepped closer to the crack. "Hello?" he called out, "Hello?"

Suddenly, a giant eyeball appeared in the crack and peered at the trio. "What's that?" Chelsea stared, she and Amelia gripping each other's hands tightly.

A small ball of light flew out from the crack and zoomed into the Doctor's breast pocket, causing him to double over against the bed. The crack slammed shut, leaving an unblemished wall with not trace of a crack ever being there. "There." the Doctor grinned proudly as he recovered, "You see, told you it would close. Good as new."

"What was that thing?" Amelia asked, "Was that Prisoner Zero?"

"No, I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard." the Doctor replied, "That was an Atraxi. Level 20 civilisation. Efficient, if a bit stupid. They've sent me a message." He reached into his breast pocket and produced what appeared to be a black bus pass that was glowing blue inside. "Psychic paper, takes a lovely little message." he explained to the girls and opened the paper. "'Prisoner Zero has escaped.'" he read out, "But why tell us? Unless..."

"Unless what?" Amelia asked uneasily

The Doctor looked around the room. "Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here." he pondered, "But he couldn't have. We'd know." He went out into the hall, the girls following. "It's difficult." the Doctor said, looking around the hallway with a confused look on his face, "Brand new me, nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing... in the corner..." He turned slowly, trying to focus on something. "Of my eye." Suddenly, an ominous-sounding bell started to toll. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor cried and he took off downstairs like a hurricane, a confused Amelia and Chelsea following him.

~8~

The Doctor raced outside. "I've gotta get back in there!" he fussed, hurrying over to the blue box, "The engines're phasing, she's going to burn!"

"But... but it's just a box." a confused Chelsea said, "How can it have engines?"

"She's not a box, she's a time machine." the Doctor told her as he freed the grapping hook and gathered up the rope.

"What, a real one?" Amelia asked in disbelief, "You've got a real time machine?"

"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilised." the Doctor replied, "Five minute hop in the future should do it." He looped the rope through the box's door handles.

"Can I come?" Amelia asked

"Me too!" Chelsea pipped in

"Not safe in here, not yet." the Doctor told them, "Five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back." He hopped onto the edge of the box and prepared to jump inside.

"People always say that." Amelia sighed bitterly

The Doctor jumped back down and looked into Amelia's face. "Am I people?" he asked, "Do I even look like people? Trust me, I'm the Doctor."

Amelia smiled at that. "Five minutes, we're gonna hold you to that." Chelsea told the Doctor as he climbed back onto the box.

The Doctor gave the girls one last look. "Geronimo!" he whooped as he jumped into the box. Amelia and Chelsea heard a splash come from somewhere inside the box before the doors shut and it disappeared right before their eyes, accompanied by the same wheezing and groaning sound that they'd heard earlier.

The girls ran back into the house, rushed upstairs to their bedrooms, hastily threw on some clothes, packed their suitcases and ran back downstairs to wait for the Doctor's return.

~8~

The TARDIS materialised back in the garden the right way up and the Doctor raced out, fanning away the last of the smoke from the fires his regeneration had caused. "Amelia! Chelsea!" he yelled, seeing that the girls were nowhere to be seen, "I worked out what it was. I know what I was missing! You've both gotta get out of there!"

He sprinted over to the house and tried his sonic screwdriver on the door. It took several tries as being exposed to radiation at the Naismith Mansion, then the Doctor's regeneration energy, and then dunked in a pool twice had taken it's toll on the sonic.

Finally he succeeded and dashed into the house, not noticing that it was broad daylight. "Amelia?" he called as he ran upstairs, "Chelsea, are you both alright? Are you there?" He stopped outside a door at the top of the stairs and soniced the lock. "Prisoner Zero is here. Prisoner Zero is here!" he called out, "Do you understand me? Prisoner Zero is..." He heard a creaking sound coming from behind him and he turned round to see a cricket bat come flying towards him and everything went black.

~8~

When the Doctor came to, he found himself sitting in front of a radiator down the hall from the door, while two young women stood in front of him. One was a redhead in a police officer's uniform with a rather short skirt, while the other was dark-haired and dressed more casually in a hoodie, jeans and trainers. The police woman was talking into her radio; "White male, mid-twenties, breaking and entering. Send me some back-up, I've got him restrained." Then she saw that her captive was awake. "Oi, you! Sit still!" she barked.

"Cricket bat." the Doctor groaned, "I'm getting cricket bat."

"You were breaking and entering." the police woman said simply

The Doctor tried to stand but found that he was handcuffed to the radiator. "Well, that's much better." he said lightly, "Brand new me, whack on the head. Just what I needed."

"D'ya wanna shut up now?" the police woman said fiercely, "I've got back up on the way."

"Hang on, no, wait... you're a police woman." the Doctor rambled

"And you're breaking and entering." the police woman retorted, "You see how this works?"

"But what are you two doing here?" the Doctor questioned, "Where're Amelia and Chelsea?"

Both women shared looks at the mention of those names. "Amelia Pond and Chelsea Willows?" the police woman asked.

"Yeah, little Scottish girl and a little English girl." the Doctor replied, nursing his sore forehead, "Where are they? I promised them five minutes but the engines were phasing. I suppose I must've gone a bit far. Has something happened to them?"

"Those girls haven't lived here in a long time." the dark-haired woman said quietly.

"How long?" the Doctor asked worriedly

"Six months." the police woman told him

"No, no, no! I can't be six months late." the Doctor snorted in disbelief, "I said five minutes. I promised." The police woman just turned away and reached for her radio while the dark-haired woman leaned against the wall, watching the Doctor closely. "What happened to them?" the Doctor asked, getting worried, "What happened to Amelia Pond and Chelsea Willows?"

Neither woman answered. The police woman spoke into her radio again; "Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up, this guy knows something about Amelia Pond and Chelsea Willows."

The Doctor's gaze went past the police woman to the door at the end of the hallway. "Do you live here?" he asked the dark-haired woman.

"No. She does." the woman replied, gesturing to the police woman.

"But she's police." the Doctor blustered

"Yes, and this is where I live." the police woman retorted, "You got a problem with that?!"

"How many rooms?" the Doctor asked

"I'm sorry, what?" the police woman snorted

"On this floor. How many rooms on this floor? Count for me now."

"What for?" the dark-haired woman narrowed her grey-green eyes at him.

"Because it will change your lives." the Doctor replied

The police woman rolled her eyes but complied nonetheless. "Five." she said and listed off each door lining the hallway. "One, two, three, four, five."

"Six." the Doctor corrected

"Six?" the police woman scoffed

"Look." the Doctor instructed

"Look where?"

"Exactly where you don't want to look. Where you never wanna look, the corner of your eyes. Look behind you."

The two women turned slowly and their eyes promptly widened when they saw the door the Doctor had been trying to open. "That's... that is not possible." the police woman spluttered, "How's that possible?"

"How could we not see that?" the dark-haired woman breathed

"There's a perception filter round the door." the Doctor told them, "Sensed it last time I was here. Should've seen it."

"But that's a whole room." the police woman said in shock, "That's a whole room I've never even noticed."

"The filter stops you." the Doctor told her, "Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding. You need to uncuff me now!"

"I don't have the key. I lost it." the police woman waved him off, both she and the dark-haired woman moving slowly towards the door.

"How can you have lost it?!" the Doctor burst out, "Stay away from that door!" Both women ignored him and continued to walk towards the door as if they were magnetically attracted to it. "Do not touch that door!" the Doctor hollered as the police woman put her hand on the doorknob. "Do not open that..." The police woman opened the door and she and the dark-haired woman slowly entered the hidden room. "Why does no one ever listen to me?!" the Doctor grumbled, "Do I just have a face that nobody listen to? Again..." He rummaged through his trouser pockets to try and find his sonic then he remembered that he'd been holding it in his hand when he'd been knocked out. "My screwdriver, where is it?" he called out to the women, "Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?"

The hidden room was dusty with old boxes on the floor, the curtains were barely there and the walls had large spots of water damage. "There's nothing here." the police woman said, looking around.

"Whatever's there stopped you seeing the whole room." the Doctor called back, "What makes you think you can see it? Now, please, just get out!"

Just then, something caught the dark-haired woman's eye. "That thing you were looking for... silver, blue at the end, right?" she called

"My screwdriver, yeah." the Doctor called back

"It's in here."

"Ah, must've rolled under the door."

"Yeah. Must have." the police woman answered back, seeing the sonic lying on a table in the middle of the room and covered in goo, "And then it must've jumped up on the table."

"Get out of there!" the Doctor hollered, "Get out of there!"

The dark-haired woman carefully picked up the sonic and hurried into the bathroom to clean the sonic off while the police woman stayed in the hidden room and looked around, getting the feeling that there was someone else in the room with her.

The Doctor saw her shadow circling the room. "What is it?" he called, "What're you doing?"

There's nothing here..." the woman began, "But..."

"Corner of your eye." the Doctor called back.

"What is it?"

"Don't try to see it." the Doctor warned, "If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you. Don't look at it! Do not... look." Then he heard the police woman scream. "GET OUT!" he yelled. The police woman came hurrying out of the hidden room while the dark-haired woman came out of the bathroom cleaning the sonic off with a bit of loo roll. They both ran back down the hall to join the Doctor. "Gimme that!" he said, snatching the sonic from the dark-haired woman and using it to lock the door on the hidden room. Then he tried to use it to undo his handcuffs but it just stuttered and blinked feebly. "Oh, what's the bad alien done to you?" the Doctor moaned, realising that the goo had exacerbated the wear on the sonic.

"Will that door hold it?" the police woman panted

"Oh, yeah, yeah, course!" the Doctor retorted sarcastically as he fiddled with his malfunctioning sonic, "It's an inter-dimensional multi-form from outer space, they're all terrified of wood!"

Suddenly, a bright yellow light shone around the edges of the door. "What's that? What's it doing?" the police woman asked

"I don't know, getting dressed?" the Doctor grumbled, "Run. Just go. Your back up's coming, I'll be fine."

"No one's coming." the dark-haired woman told him

"I heard her on the radio." the Doctor countered, "She called for back up."

"I was pretending." the police woman told him, "It was a pretend radio."

"You're a police woman!"

"I'm a kissogram!" she retorted and removed her hat, letting her long copper hair fall free. At that moment, the door to the hidden room burst open to reveal a man in blue overalls holding the lead to a large Rottweiler. "But it's just..." the ginger-haired woman began.

"No, it isn't." the Doctor countered, "Look at the faces."

The women looked and saw that the man was growling and snarling while the dog was making no movement at all. "What the hell?" the dark-haired woman stared

"It's all one creature." the Doctor explained, "One creature disguised as two." The man and dog turned in unison, proving his point. "Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, didn't you?" the Doctor goaded, "Mind you, where did you get that pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How'd you fix that?"

The man just growled at them and opened his mouth to reveal sharp pointed teeth then began to advance towards them.

"Stay boy!" the Doctor commanded, and the man halted his advance. "Apparently we're safe." the Doctor continued, "Them and me, we're safe. Wanna know why? She sent for for back up."

"I didn't send for back up." the ginger-haired woman reminded

"I know, that was a clever lie to safe our lives." the Doctor said flatly, then turned back to the man. "Ok, yeah. No back up. And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had back up, then you'd have to kill us."

Then, the booming voice of the Atraxi sounded from outside; "Attention, Prisoner Zero. The Human residence is surrounded. Attention, Prisoner Zero. The Human residence is surrounded."

"What's that?" the dark-haired woman asked

"That would be back up." the Doctor told her and turned back to the man. "Ok, one more time. We do have back up and that's definitely why we're safe."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the Human residence or the Human residence will be incinerated." the Atraxi announced

"Well, safe apart from, ya know, incineration." the Doctor said flatly. Prisoner Zero just turned and walked into one of the rooms while the Doctor resumed his struggles with the sonic. "Work, work , work, c'mon!" he grunted, whacking it on the floor. Finally, the sonic buzzed into life and the Doctor used it to unlock his handcuffs. "Run!" he urged, jumping to his feet. He grabbed the dark-haired woman's hand who in turn grabbed the ginger-haired woman's hand and they all legged it downstairs and out the house. "Kissogram?" the Doctor question as he locked the door with his sonic.

"Yes!" the ginger-haired woman grunted

"Why'd you pretend to be a police woman?" the Doctor asked her

"You broke into my house!" she retorted, "It was this or a French maid. What's going on? Tell us! Tell us!" she demanded as the Doctor lead them both to the TARDIS.

"An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house." the Doctor rambled, "Any questions?"

"Yes." both women said together.

"Me too." the Doctor shrugged and went to unlock the TARDIS, but his key wouldn't turn. "No, no, don't do that, not now!" he groaned, "She's still rebuilding, not letting us in!"

The dark-haired woman looked up at the window to see Prisoner Zero looking down at them from an upstairs window. "Come on, we need to get outta here." she urged.

"No, wait, hang on, wait, wait, wait. The shed." the Doctor waved her off, running up to the garden shed, "I destroyed that shed last time I was here, smashed it to pieces."

"So there's a new one." the ginger-haired woman waved him off, "Let's go."

"But the new one's got old." the Doctor countered, "It's 10 years old at least." He sniffed the woodwork before running his finger along it and licking that finger. "12 years." he realised, "I'm not six months late, I'm 12 years late." He rounded on the ginger-haired woman.

"He's coming." she blustered, trying to change the subject.

"You said six months." the Doctor pressed, "Why did you say six months?"

"We've got to go."

"This matters." the Doctor persisted, "Why did you say six months?"

"Why did you say five minutes?!" the ginger-haired woman snapped, her accent slipping from an English one to a Scottish one.

"What?" the Doctor blinked as the penny dropped. The ginger-haired woman was in fact an adult Amelia Pond.

"Come on." Amelia urged

"What?" the Doctor repeated, still stunned at the revelation.

"Oh, come on!" the dark-haired woman urged, grabbing both of them by their arms and leading them away.

~8~

The women led the Doctor down the road towards a village green. "You're Amelia." the Doctor blustered.

"You're late." Amelia said bitterly

"Amelia Pond, you're the little girl!"

"I'm Amelia, she's Chelsea, and you're late!" Amelia fumed

"Oh, you're Chelsea." the Doctor said to the dark-haired woman.

"Yes, I'm Chelsea and you're bloody late." Chelsea replied bitterly

"What happened?" the Doctor blustered, still in shock.

"12 years." Amelia continued to fume.

"Which one of you hit me with a cricket bat?" the Doctor asked

"I did!" Amelia snapped

"A cricket bat."

"12 years and four psychiatrists."

"Four?"

"I kept biting them."

"Why?" the Doctor asked obviously

"They said you weren't real." Amelia grunted

Suddenly, they heard the booming voice of the Atraxi coming out of the speakers of a nearby ice cream van; "Prisoner Zero will vacate the Human residence or the Human residence will be incinerated."

Amelia stopped in her tracks. "No, no, no, come on... What? We're being staked out by an ice cream van?!" she groaned.

The Doctor headed over to the van. "What's that?" he asked, "Why're you playing that?"

"It's supposed to be Clare de Lune." the baffled ice cream man replied.

The Doctor picked up the radio and listened to the Atraxi's threat being repeated over and over again, then he noticed a jogger looking at their MP3 in confusion and realised that she was getting the message too. Chelsea checked her phone and heard the message too. "What's going on?" she frowned.

The Doctor didn't reply. He just ran towards a nearby house, the two confused women following. They entered the house to find an elderly woman flipping through TV channels. On every channel was the Atraxi eyeball, their threat being repeated. "Hello!" the Doctor greeted, "Sorry to burst in, we're doing a special on television faults in this area." He glanced at Amelia's costume. "Also crimes. Let's have a look." He took the remote and flipped through channels.

"I was just about to phone. It's on every channel." the woman remarked, then she noticed the two younger women. "Hello, Amy, Chelsea. Are you a police woman now, Amy?"

"Well, sometimes." Amy shrugged uncomfortably

"I thought you were a nurse."

"I can be a nurse."

"Or, actually, a nun."

"I dabble." Amy squirmed

The woman then decided to spare her from further embarrassment. "Amy, who is your friend?"

"Who's Amy?" the Doctor questioned, "You were Amelia."

"Yeah, now I'm Amy." the ginger shrugged

"Amelia Pond. That was a great name." the Doctor bemoaned

"Bit fairy-tale." Amy muttered, looking away.

The Doctor turned to Chelsea. "And are you still Chelsea?"

"I was last time I checked." Chelsea shrugged, "What's going on? Tell us."

Before the Doctor could answer, the elderly woman interrupted. "I know you, don't I?" she asked the Doctor, "I've seen you somewhere before."

"Not me. Brand new face." the Doctor replied, pulling some funny faces, "First time on." He turned to Amy. "And what sort of job's a kissogram?"

"I go to parties and I kiss people." Amy shifted uncomfortably, "With outfits. It's a laugh."

"You were a little girl five minutes ago." the Doctor chastised

"You're worse then my aunt!" Amy rolled her eyes

"I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt." the Doctor retorted, "And that is not how I'm introducing myself." He turned to Chelsea. "Please don't tell me you're a kissogram too."

"No, I am not!" she replied indignantly, "I work in a photocopier's if ya must know."

The Doctor picked up a radio and soniced it. The Atraxi's threat played over it in French, German and several other languages. "Ok, so it's everywhere, in every language." the Doctor thought out loud, "They're broadcasting to the whole world." He went to the window, opened it and peered up to the sky.

"What's up there?" Amy asked, "What're you looking for?" All she saw on the way over here was a clear blue sky.

The Doctor pulled his head back inside. "Ok, planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core..." he rambled to himself, "They're going to need a 40% fission blast." A young man entered the house carrying a laptop back and the Doctor walked over to him, still rambling. "But they'll have to power up first, won't they? So assuming a medium-size starship, that's 20 minutes." He stood on tiptoes, measuring his new height compared to the young man. "What d'you think, 20 minutes? Yeah, 20 minutes. We've got 20 minutes."

"20 minutes to what?" Amy asked

The man eyed the Doctor closely. "Are you the Doctor?" he asked

"He is, isn't he?" the elderly woman laughed, "He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor. All those cartoons you did when you were little." she said to Amy, "The Raggedy Doctor, it's him!"

"I know." Amy muttered

"Cartoons?" a bemused Doctor said, flopping down on the settee.

"Gran, it's him, isn't it?" the young man asked, "It's really him!"

"Jeff, shut up!" Amy hissed

"Doctor, you said we've got 20 minutes." Chelsea said, "But 20 minutes to what?"

"The Human residence." the Doctor replied, "They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet. Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship and it's gonna incinerate the planet. 20 minutes to the end of the world."

~8~

The Doctor, Amy and Chelsea walked out onto the village green. "Where is this place?" the Doctor asked, "Where am I?"

"Leadworth." Amy replied

"Where's the rest of it?" the Doctor questioned, looking around at the rather dull-looking village.

"This is it."

"Is there an airport?"

"No."

"A nuclear power station?"

"No."

"Even a little one?"

"No."

"Nearest city?"

"Gloucester, half-an-hour by car."

"We don't have half-an-hour." the Doctor scowled, "Do we have a car?"

"Fraid not." Chelsea mumbled

"Well, that's good! Fantastic, that is." the Doctor grumbled, "20 minutes to save the world and all I've got is a post office. And it's shut! What is that?" He pointed at something up ahead.

"It's a duck pond." Amy replied as the Doctor rushed ahead to examine the pond.

"Why aren't they any ducks?" he asked

"I don't know. There's never any ducks."

"Then how'd you know it's a duck pond?"

"It just is." Amy grumbled, "Is it important, the duck pond?"

"I don't know." the Doctor burst out, "Why would I know?" He suddenly gave a grown of pain and dropped to his knees.

Are you alright?" Chelsea asked him, kneeling down in front of him, "What's wrong?"

"No, no, I'm alright." the Doctor waved her off, "Just finishing settling in."

Suddenly, the sky darkened and they all looked up. "What's happening?" Amy asked, "Why's it getting dark?" It was 11:00 in the morning, nowhere near sundown. The sky then returned to normal, but the sun appeared to be a burning shade. "So what's wrong with the sun?" Amy wandered

"Nothing." the Doctor replied, standing up, "You're looking at it through a forcefield. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere, now they're getting ready to boil the planet." Then he saw everyone on the green aiming their phone cameras at the sky. "Oh, and here they come, the Human race." he scowled, "The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone."

"This isn't real, isn't it?" Amy blustered, "This is some kind of big wind-up."

"Why would I wind you up?" the Doctor asked

"You told us you had a time machine."

"And you both believed me."

"Yeah, and then we grew up." Chelsea said quietly

"Oh, you never wanna do that." the Doctor said, then suddenly smacked his forehead. "No, hang on, shut up, wait! I missed it." He smacked his forehead again, earning him confused looks from the two women. "What did I see?" he muttered, turning to face the green, "I saw... what did I see?" He scanned the people on the green closely with his superior Time Lord vision. His eyes fell on a young man in surgical scrubs who had his camera phone out like everyone else, but he wasn't aiming his at the sun, he was aiming it at a man and his dog, Prisoner Zero. The Doctor turned to the two women. "20 minutes, I can do it." he said confidently, "20 minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye or stay and help me."

The response wasn't what he was expecting. Amy glared at him while Chelsea looked like she'd been slapped in the face. She turned on her heel and began to walk away, her head hung low.

"What's the matter with her?" the Doctor frowned

"Her dad died last year." Amy told him sharply and went after her cousin, putting a comforting arm around her.

"I didn't know that." the Doctor mumbled and hurried after them. "Chelsea, I'm sorry." he began, "I didn't know about ya dad."

"Just leave me alone." Chelsea mumbled numbly, looking down at her shoes.

"Look, I'm sorry, but 20 minutes, the world ends. Come on, we stop it together." the Doctor encouraged

"You heard her... go away!" Amy told him sharply, "This joke isn't funny. Who put you up to it? Was it Mels, was it? I am going to kill her next time I see her!"

"This isn't a joke." the Doctor insisted, "I only wish it was."

"Who are you?" Chelsea asked him quietly, still not looking at him.

The Doctor took a breath, realising that they were getting nowhere. He reached into his trouser pocket and produced the apple with the smiley face on it. "Catch!" he said, tossing it to the women and Amy caught it. "I'm the Doctor, I'm a time traveller. Everything I told you both 12 years ago is true. I'm real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if I don't stop it, everything you've ever known is over."

"We don't believe you." Amy narrowed her eyes at him

"Just 20 minutes." the Doctor encouraged, "Just believe me for 20 minutes. Look at the apple. Fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you both know it's the same one. Chelsea, I'm sorry about ya dad, but I need all the help I can get. Both of you, believe for 20 minutes."

Chelsea took a breath and lifted her head. "Alright. What do we do?" she asked

"Stop that nurse!" the Doctor said and ran across the green to the nurse. When he reached him, the Doctor snatched his phone off him. "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and his dog. Why?" he asked hurriedly

"Amy?" the nurse blinked as Amy and Chelsea reached them.

"Hi!" Amy greeted, then turned to the Doctor. "This is Rory, he's a... friend.

"Boyfriend." Rory corrected

"Kind of boyfriend." Amy persisted

"Amy!" both Rory and Chelsea scolded together.

"Man and dog, why?" the Doctor interrupted sharply. Now was not the time for Human domestics.

"Oh, my God, it's him!" Rory blinked as he looked at the shabbily dressed man.

"Just answer his question, please." a rather embarrassed Amy said

"It's him, though. The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor." Rory blustered

"Yeah, he came back." Amy said simply

"But... he was a story." Rory continued to bluster, "He was a game."

The Doctor lost patience and grabbed Rory by his lapels. "Man and dog, why?" he demanded, "Tell me now."

"Hey, get off him!" Chelsea cut in, pulling the Doctor's hands off Rory.

"Thanks, Chels." Rory nodded, then turned back to the Doctor. "Because he can't be there." he said, "Because he's..."

"In a hospital, in a coma." Rory and the Doctor said in unison.

"Yeah." Rory mumbled

"Knew it." the Doctor grinned, "Multi-form, you see. Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed, a psychic link with a dormant mind." He heard a snarling from behind and turned to face Prisoner Zero, who was standing a few feet away. "Prisoner Zero." the Doctor said calmly, walking towards him.

"What, there's a Prisoner Zero too?" Rory blustered.

"Yes." Amy rolled her eyes.

Chelsea meanwhile had noticed something in the sky. "Look!" she called, and everyone followed her gaze to see a blue snowflake-shaped spaceship with a giant eyeball in the centre descend from the sky and hover nearby, the eyeball swivelling back and forth as if it was looking for something.

"See, that ship up there is scanning for non-terrestrial technology." the Doctor told Prisoner Zero calmly, taking his sonic out of his pocket, "And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." he finished smugly, holding the sonic above his head.

The Doctor switched the sonic on and chaos erupted in the area. Streetlights blew out, car alarms blared and a nearby fire engine began to drive itself, the hapless firemen chasing it. Chelsea, Amy and Rory could only watch the mayhem in bemusement while Prisoner Zero snarled angrily.

"I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" the Doctor gloated and lowered the sonic to aim it at a phone box which blew in a shower of sparks. Unfortunately, this proved to be a bridge too far for the damaged sonic and it promptly exploded too, causing the Doctor to drop it. "No, no, no, don't do that!" he growled, bending to pick up the sonic, which was now little more more than a charred and mangled lump of metal, almost completely unrecognisable as a sonic screwdriver.

"Look, it's going." Rory said, and the Doctor turned to see the Atraxi ship flying away.

"No, come back, he's here!" the Doctor shouted after it, "Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is here!" But of course, it was no use and the ship was soon out of sight. "And I thought the Judoon were thick!" the Doctor grumbled, perplexed at how the Atraxi had failed to spot the mayhem his sonic had caused with an eyeball that big.

Seeing that he was in the clear, Prisoner Zero grinned smugly and evaporated into a mist that disappeared down a drain. "Doctor!" Amy called, having seen this, "The drain. It just sorta melted and disappeared the drain."

"Well, of course it did." the Doctor grumbled

"So what do we do now?" Chelsea asked

"It's hiding in Human form." the Doctor replied, "We need to drive it into the open. No TARDIS, no screwdriver, 17 minutes. Come on, think. Think!" he muttered, pacing back and forth and racking his brain to think of a plan B.

So, that thing, that hid in my house for 12 years?" Amy questioned, somewhat disturbed at the thought that an alien fugitive had been right under her nose all those years.

"Multi-forms can live for millennia." the Doctor replied, "12 years is a pit stop."

"So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do?" Amy asked accusingly, "The same minute?"

"They're looking for him, but followed me." the Doctor told her, "They saw me through the crack, got a fix. They're only late cos' I am."

"What's he on about?" Rory stared

"He's saying that aliens are trying to destroy us... again." Chelsea told him

The Doctor turned to Rory. "Now, sport, gimme your phone." he demanded

"How can he be real?" Rory moaned, "He was never real."

"Phone, now, give me!" the Doctor persisted impatiently

Rory handed his phone over. "He was just a game." he moaned to Amy, "We were kids. You made me dress up as him."

The Doctor looked at the photos on Rory's phone. Most of them showed random people standing around the village. "These are all come patients?" he asked

"Yeah." Rory nodded

"No, they're all multi-form." the Doctor corrected, "Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."

"But what about the dog?" Chelsea questioned, "The dog can't be in a coma too."

"The coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog." the Doctor told her. Then, he had a brainwave. "Laptop!" he exclaimed and pointed at Amy. "Your friend, what was name? Not him." He jerked a thumb at Rory. "The other one, the granny's boy."

"Jeff." Amy confirmed.

"He had a laptop in his bag, a laptop." the Doctor said, "Big bag, big laptop. I need Jeff's laptop. You two, get to the hospital." he ordered Amy and Rory, "Get everyone out, clear the whole floor. Phone Chelsea when you're done. Chelsea, you're with me."

"Your car, come on." Amy said to Rory and dragged him away to where his Mini was parked.

"Ames, be careful." Chelsea called to them. She would've preferred to go with them, but it was a bit of a squeeze in Rory's Mini, so she hurried off after the Doctor. "So, what're ya gonna do?" she asked him as they hurried across the green towards Jeff's house.

"Something clever." the Doctor replied, "Just wait and see."

~8~

Jeff was lounging on his bed with his laptop when the Doctor suddenly burst in. "Hello." the Doctor said hurriedly, "Laptop, give me!" He crossed the room and began to wrestle Jeff's laptop out of his grip.

"No, no, no, no, wait, hang on!" Jeff protested, trying to hang on but the Doctor was physically stronger.

"It's fine, give it here." the Doctor said as he wrestled the laptop away and sat down at the bottom of the bed. "Blimey!" he exclaimed as he saw what was on the screen, "Get a girlfriend, Jeff."

Chelsea had entered the room by that point and Jeff immediately looked at her in a leering way which she noticed. "Not gonna happen, Jeff." she told him flatly, "I've just come out of a relationship and I'm no hurry for another one."

"Gran!" Jeff called to his grandmother, who appeared in the doorway behind Chelsea.

"What're you doing?" Jeff's grandmother asked the Doctor, who was typing rapidly on the laptop.

"The sun's gone wibbly, so right now, somewhere out there, there's going to be a big video conference call." the Doctor replied hurriedly, "All the experts in the world panicking at once, and d'ya know what they need? Me. Ah, and here they are. All the big boys: NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo space centre, Patrick Moore..."

"Ooh, I like Patrick Moore." Jeff's grandmother said dreamily

"I'll get you his number, but watch him, he's a devil." the Doctor said, moving to the desk with the laptop.

"You can't just hack in a call like that." Jeff pointed out

"Can't I?" the Doctor grinned smugly, flashing his psychic paper at the webcam, which introduced him as U.N.I.T's scientific advisor.

"Who are you?" one of the experts demanded, "This is a secure call. What're you doing?"

"Hello. I know, you should switch me off." the Doctor said, "But before you do, watch this." He began typing at lightening speed.

"It's here too, I'm getting it." one of the experts said.

"What is that?" Chelsea asked the the Doctor

"Fermat's theorem." the Doctor replied, "The proof, and I mean the real one, never seen before. Poor old Fermat." he mused, "Got killed in a duel before he could write it down. My fault, I slept in." He turned back to the laptop. "Oh, and here's an oldie but a goodie, why electrons have mass. And a personal favourite of mine, faster than light travel with two diagrams and a joke. Look at your screens. Whoever I am, I'm a genius. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas pay attention." He took out Rory's mobile and typed something into it very fast.

"Sir, what're you doing?" the first expert asked

"I'm writing a computer virus." the Doctor replied, "Very clever, super fast and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on. Why am I writing it on a phone? Never mind, you'll find out. Ok, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, radar dish, even smoke signals if ya have to. Any questions?"

"Who're your lady friends?" Patrick Moore asked, looking at both Chelsea and Jeff's gran.

"Patrick, behave!" the Doctor scolded

"What does this virus do?" the second expert asked

"It's a reset command, that's all." the Doctor replied, "It resets counters, it gets in the Wi-Fi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default to zero at exactly the same time. But, yeah, I could be lying, why should you trust me? I'll let my best man explain." There was silence. "Jeff, you're my best man." the Doctor prompted

"Your what?" Jeff spluttered

The Doctor closed the laptop partway and turned to Jeff. "Listen to me. In 10 minutes, you're going to be a legend. In 10 minutes, everyone on that screen is going to be offering you any job you want. But first, you have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff. Right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today's the day you save the world."

"Why me?" Jeff asked

"It's your bedroom." the Doctor shrugged, "Now go, go, go." He grabbed Chelsea's hand and they left the room, then the Doctor poked his head back in through the door. "Oh, and delete your internet history." he advised and hurried away.

"You realise there's no way to get to the hospital on foot in 10 minutes." Chelsea pointed out as she and the Doctor left the house, "You're gonna need a car."

"Oh, we can do better than a car." the Doctor smirked, pointing to the fire engine from earlier, which had come to rest nearby.

"Oh, no." Chelsea groaned, realising what the Doctor was thinking.

"Oh, yes." the Doctor grinned, taking her hand and pulling her towards the fire engine.

~8~

The fire engine was soon speeding towards the Royal Leadworth Hospital. The Doctor drove while Chelsea sat in one of the passenger seats. They were both silent, with Chelsea fidgeting with her hoodie apprehensively. Seeing her discomfort, the Doctor spoke up: "So, you said you worked in a photocopier's."

"Yeah, in London." Chelsea mumbled

"Ah, London, lovely." the Doctor commented, "Some friends of mine live in London. So, uh, how long have you lived in London?"

"Since about a year after you left us." Chelsea said quietly, "Mom decided that we should be split up, so I was sent to live with dad in London." Her voice cracked at the mention of her father.

"What happened?" the Doctor asked cautiously

"Canary Wharf happened." Chelsea sighed, her eyes glazing over in sadness at the memory, "We were running. A woman got hit by one of those Cyberman things and dad stopped to help her, then one of those flying pepper pot things picked him off right in front of me."

"I'm sorry." the Doctor said sympathetically, "I was there, in the battle. I couldn't save anyone." he sighed glumly, remembering all those innocent people caught in the crossfire between the Cybermen and the Daleks. For him, it had been five years since that terrible event and looking back, he realised that it had been his fault. He swallowed hard then spoke again; "But not this time. I promise you, Chelsea Willows, I'm gonna save the world. Trust me, I'm the Doctor." He flashed her his best attempt at a winning smile.

"I've heard that before." Chelsea mumbled quietly, but not quietly enough.

"I did try to get back in five minutes, I really did." the Doctor told her earnestly, "But my TARDIS was damaged. My own fault, held off my regeneration for too long. I'm sorry I'm late. I really am."

Chelsea considered his words. "Amy's the one you really should be apologising to." she said, "She had it worse. She had to stay here in Leadworth and face all the ridicule and scorn. Everyone thought we were just imagining you. Only Rory and another friend of ours believed us. Everyone else used to say, 'Oh, look. There go crazy little Amelia Pond and Chelsea Willows.' I got away from it all, but Amy didn't. That's why she changed her name."

"I'll make it up to ya both, I promise." the Doctor said sincerely, "But first I've gotta save the world."

Just then, Chelsea's phone rang and she answered, putting it on loudspeaker. It was Amy. "Chels, we're at the hospital but we can't get through."

"Look in the mirror." the Doctor called.

"Ha-ha! Uniform!" Amy realised, "Are ye both on your way? You're gonna need a car."

"Don't worry. I've commandeered a vehicle." the Doctor called and promptly turned the sirens on.

"We're nearly there, Ames." Chelsea said into the phone, "See ya in a bit. Be careful." She hung up and turned to the Doctor. "Ya know, it's just my luck. I came down to Leadworth for the week to get away from aliens and now they've come here too. Honestly, it's gotten worse these last few years. I mean, just the other month an entire hospital got taken to the moon and back."

"Ooh, is it 2008?" the Doctor asked, realising that she was referring to the incident at the Royal Hope Hospital, which his previous incarnation had been involved in.

"It was the last time I checked." Chelsea replied flatly

"Time travel. Been a bit busy." the Doctor shrugged, "Since you've already had the Royal Hope Hospital and Harold Saxon, the rest of this year's gonna be fine once I've sorted this out. Doctor's honour." And they continued their driver towards the hospital.

~8~

At the hospital, Amy and Rory stepped out of the lift onto the floor where the coma ward was located. The corridor was in a state of disarray, with stretchers and tables overturned, scrubs lying everywhere and surgical utensils scattered about. Standing in the middle of the corridor was a woman holding hands with two little girls. "Officer." she called.

"What happened?" Amy asked as they approached

"There was a man. A man with a dog. I think Dr Ramsden's dead, and the nurses." the woman said.

Amy phoned her cousin's mobile. "Are you in?" the Doctor asked

"Yep." Amy answered "But so is Prisoner Zero."

"Get outta there, Ames!" Chelsea warned

Rory looked at the woman as she continued speaking and noticed that her mouth wasn't moving, but one of the girls' mouths was, yet the voice was that of the woman's. Then he remembered that this very woman was one of the coma patients. "He was so angry." the woman's voice continued, "He just kept shouting. And that dog, the size of the dog, I swear it was rabid." Amy and Rory backed away, realising that this was Prisoner Zero. "Oh, I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I?" Prisoner Zero said, realising their mistake, "I'm always doing that. So many mouths." The woman opened her mouth to reveal sharp pointed teeth. Rory recoiled in horror, while Amy swallowed grimly.

"Amy?" Chelsea's voice said over the phone, "Amy, what is it? What's happening? Are you alright?"

Amy didn't answer, she and Rory legged it down the corridor into an empty ward. Amy slammed the doors shut and Rory shoved a discarded broom between the handles to brace them shut, then they both backed into the centre of the ward. "We're in the coma ward." Amy said into the phone, "But it's here, it's getting in."

"Which window are you in?" the Doctor's voice asked

"First floor on the left, fourth from the end." Amy replied, not sure what was so important about that.

At that moment, the doors burst open to reveal Prisoner Zero. "Oh, dear. Little Amelia Pond." it sneered, "I've watched you grow up. 12 years, and you never even knew I was there. Little Amelia Pond, waiting for her magic Doctor to return, but not this time, Amelia." And it bared it's teeth menacingly.

Then, Amy's mobile beeped and she looked at it to see the message 'Duck!' displayed on screen. Then she heard the distinctive wail of an emergency services' siren and she and Rory hit the deck just as the ladder of the Doctor's fire engine burst through the window. The Doctor climbed up the ladder and joined Amy and Rory, Chelsea following a moment later. "Right!" the Doctor grinned, "Hello! Am I late?" He looked at a clock on the wall. "No, three minutes to go. So still time."

"Time for what, Time Lord?" Prisoner Zero sneered.

"Take that disguise off." the Doctor ordered, "They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies."

"The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire."

"Ok. You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time." the Doctor pointed out, "Do it again, just leave."

"I did not open the crack." Prisoner Zero said

"Somebody did." the Doctor countered

"The cracks in the skin of the universe." Prisoner Zero said, "Don't you know where they came from? You don't, do you?" It switched to a sing-song little girl's voice. "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know. Doesn't know! Doesn't know!" It switched back to the woman's voice. "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Chelsea asked the Doctor quietly.

The Doctor was about to tell her that he had no idea when he heard a clicking sound, drawling his attention back to the wall clock. "And we're off!" he said cheerfully, "Look at that." He pointed to the clock, which now read 0:00. "Yeah, I know, Just a clock, whatever. But d'you know what's happening right now? In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word all over the world, quantum fast. The word is out. And d'you know what the word is? The word is zero."

Chelsea pulled out her phone to see 0:00 displayed on screen.

"Now me..." the Doctor continued, "If I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able to track a simple old computer virus to it's source in, what, under a minute?" He produced Rory's mobile from his pocket. "The source, by the way, is right here." A searchlight shone through the window. "Oh! And I think they just found us!"

"The Atraxi are limited." Prisoner Zero scowled, "While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me."

"Yeah, but this is the good bit." the Doctor smirked, "I mean, this is my favourite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here. Oh, and being uploaded..." He pressed the phone's send button. "Right now. And the final score is; no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare. Who da man?" he crowed, throwing his arms out. Amy furrowed a brow at him while Rory and Chelsea both looked at him as if he'd gone loony. "Oh, I'm never saying that again! Fine." the Doctor said sheepishly.

But Prisoner Zero wasn't ready to admit defeat just yet. "Then I shall take a new form."

"Oh, stop it, you know you can't." the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Takes months to form that kind of psychic link."

"And I've had years." Prisoner Zero gloated and began to glow.

Amy's eyes suddenly rolled into her head and she fell unconscious, Chelsea and Rory managing to catch her before she hit the floor. "Amy!" Chelsea cried, "What the hell have you done to her?!" she demanded to Prisoner Zero, who was glowing all over.

The Doctor knelt down beside the unconscious ginger. "You've got to hold on, Amy. Don't sleep. Please." he urged.

"Look." Rory said, pointing to Prisoner Zero, who had now taken the Doctor's form.

"Well, that's rubbish." the Doctor snorted, "Who's that supposed to be?"

"That's you." Chelsea told him

"Me?" the Doctor blinked, "Is that what I look like?"

"You don't know?" Rory frowned, baffled as to why the Doctor had apparently never seen his own face

"Busy day." the Doctor waved him off and stood to face his doppelgänger. "Why me, though? You're linked with her. Why're you copying me?"

"I'm not." Prisoner Zero said in 7-year old Amelia's voice, and a facsimile of her walked out from behind the facsimile of the Doctor. "Poor Amy Child. Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've been."

"No, she's dreaming about me because she can hear me." the Doctor said and turned back to the unconscious Amy. "Amy, don't just hear me, listen." he instructed gently, "Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see? Remember you went inside, we tried to stop you, but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Amy, dream about what you saw."

"No!" Prisoner Zero screeched as it glowed, "No!" It transformed into a slimy eel-like creature with needle-like teeth.

"Well done, Prisoner Zero." the Doctor smirked, "A perfect impersonation of yourself."

The Atraxi searchlight locked onto Prisoner Zero. "Prisoner Zero is located." the Atraxi announced, and a forcefield appeared around Zero. "Prisoner Zero is restrained."

"Silence, Doctor." Zero spat as it began to be beamed aboard the Atraxi ship outside, "Silence will fall." It disappeared completely and the Atraxi ship flew away.

"The sun, it's back to normal, yeah?" Rory asked the Doctor, who was fiddling with Rory's phone. "That's.. that's good, yeah? That means it's over?"

Then Amy awoke, much to the relief of her cousin. "Oh, Amy. Thank God!" Chelsea breathed, "Are you alright?"

"What happened?" Amy groaned as she sat up.

"He did it. The Doctor did it." Rory told her, relieved that she alright.

"No, I didn't." the Doctor said as he fiddled with the phone.

"What're you doing now?" Chelsea asked him.

"Tracking the signal back." the Doctor replied. "Sorry in advance." he said to Rory.

"What for?" Rory asked

"The bill." the Doctor said, and held the phone up to his ear. "Oi, I didn't say you could go!" he said sternly into it, "Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully-established level 5 planet, and you were gonna burn it! What, did ya think no one was watching? You lot, back here, now!" He hung up and tossed the phone back to Rory. "Ok, now I've done it." He strode purposefully out of the room.

"Uh, did he just bring them back?" Rory blinked as Chelsea helped Amy to stand and they followed the Doctor. "Did he just save the world from aliens, and then bring all the aliens back again?" Rory blustered as he brought up the rear.

"Where're you going?" Amy asked as they walked through the hospital corridors.

"The roof." the Doctor replied, then stopped in his tracks. "No, hang on." He spun round and walked into a male changing room

"What's in here?" Chelsea asked as she and Amy followed the Doctor into the room.

"I'm saving the world." the Doctor replied, sifting through clothes, "I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy." Seeing Prisoner Zero's doppelgänger of him had made him realise how much his previous incarnation's clothes didn't suit him. "Time to put on a show."

"He's just summoned aliens back to Earth." Rory complained as he joined them, "Actual aliens, deadly aliens, aliens of death... and now you're taking your clothes off." he squirmed as the Doctor pulled his shirt off. "Amy, Chelsea, he's taking his clothes off."

"Wait outside if it embarrasses you." the Doctor said casually, pulling his shoes off.

Rory turned and made for the door. "Are you stealing clothes, now?" he moaned, "Those clothes belong to people, you know." He paused when he saw that Amy hadn't budged. "Are you not gonna wait outside?" Rory asked her

"Nope." Amy smirked as she watched the Doctor begin to undo his trousers.

"Oh, yes you are." Chelsea said, taking Amy's arm and escorting her to the door, "C'mon, Ames, let's give the man some privacy."

"Aw, come on, Chels, don't be a spoilsport." Amy moaned.

"Don't be a tart." Chelsea retorted as she and Rory frog-marched a reluctant Amy out of the room.

~8~

A few minutes later, the quartet stepped out onto the roof. The Doctor was now dressed in a pinkish-red dress shirt, navy blue trousers with red braces, black boots, a gold wristwatch and a number of ties were draped around his neck. "So this was a good idea, was it?" Amy asked him, "They were leaving!"

"Leaving is good. Never coming back is better." the Doctor replied simply. In the years since the Sycorax, he'd come round to Harriet Jones' view that simply leaving wasn't good enough. He had to make sure that the Atraxi would never threaten Earth again. "Come on, then!" he said flippantly as he strode over to where the Atraxi ship was waiting, "The Doctor will see you now!"

The eyeball disconnected from the ship and scanned the Doctor. "You are not of this world." the Atraxi stated.

"No, but I've put a lot of work into it." the Doctor replied and tried on a tie. "What d'you think?" he asked no one in particular.

"Is this world important?" the Atraxi important.

"Important?" the Doctor stared, "What's that mean, important?" He tossed the tie over his shoulder and Rory caught it. "6 billion people live here, is that important? Here's a better question: is this world a threat to the Atraxi?" He discarded another tie which Amy caught. "Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?"

The Atraxi projected a hologram of Earth with scenes from the planet's history. "No." they stated after a moment.

"Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?"

"Ok, one more. Just one. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here." the Doctor said, and the Atraxi hologram showed some of the many lifeforms the Doctor had encountered in his many travels through the centuries.

Chelsea shivered as she saw the Cybermen and Daleks, remembering the Battle of Canary Wharf. Then she saw a giant red spider-like creature, followed by a floating green blob-like creature, then an alien that looked like a potato with a face, followed by an alien that she recognised from the attempted invasion on Christmas Day 2005. After that was a webbed sea creature, a giant plant-like creature and a skeleton in a spacesuit among many others.

"Oh, there have been so many." the Doctor said, "And what you've got to ask is... what happened to them?" The hologram then showed the Doctor's previous incarnations. While this was playing, the Doctor took the opportunity to finish off his new outfit by donning a red bowtie and a tweed blazer from a bundle of jackets that Rory had been carrying for him.

Chelsea looked at the men in the hologram. First was an elderly man with a stern expression but a mischievous glint in his eyes. Next was a dark-haired man in a bow-tie and baggy jacket, followed by a dapper grey-haired man in a velvet smoking jacket. Then came a curly-haired man in an impractically long multi-coloured scarf, followed by a blonde man in Edwardian cricket player's clothes and a curly-haired man in a hideous multi-coloured coat. Then came a small man in clothes with question marks on them, followed by a long-haired man in Victorian gentlemen's clothes. Then came a man with rather prominent ears wearing a leather jacket and finally a tall brown-haired man in a brown pinstripe suit and long coat. Chelsea could've sworn she'd seen those last two men walking around in London at various points in the last few years.

At this point, the Doctor's present incarnation strode purposefully through the hologram. "Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically... run!" he said simply.

The Atraxi took the hint and the eyeball went back inside the ship, which then flew away very quickly. Amy laughed at that while Chelsea and Rory breathed sighs of relief. "Is that it, then?" Chelsea asked, "They gone for good now? Who were they, Doctor?" Upon receiving no answer, she and the others turned round to see that the Doctor had disappeared.

Rory drove the two women back to Amy's house and they arrived just in time to see the TARDIS dematerialise right in front of them. Both Amy and Chelsea felt pangs in their hearts at the memory of watching this very thing happen 12 years ago and how they'd waited all night for the Doctor to return, which he never did. Both women wandered if the Doctor would ever return again.

~8~

The world moved on from Prisoner Zero and Chelsea returned to London in due course, where the rest of 2008 passed without incident until Christmas Day, where a spaceship resembling the Titanic had a near miss with Buckingham Palace. 2009 proved rather more eventful, with the march of the Adipose, the ATMOS crisis, the Dalek invasion and all of Humanity turning into Harold Saxon for a day at Christmas. Chelsea was there for it all but lived to tell the tale and in June 2010, she was back in Leadworth for Amy and Rory's wedding.

The night before the wedding, Chelsea was in bed when she was woken up by the sound of the TARDIS materialising. She leapt out of bed and looked out of the window to see the blue box standing in the back garden. She quickly threw on an old t-shirt and a pair of jogging bottoms and trainers then rushed into the hallway, where she met Amy, who had also been woken by the sound of the TARDIS. Both women dashed out of the house to find the Doctor lounging against the TARDIS.

"Sorry about running off earlier." he said, "Brand new TARDIS, bit exciting. Just had a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in. She's ready for the big stuff now."

"It's you." Amy breathed, "You came back."

"Course I came back." the Doctor said casually, "I always come back. Something wrong with that?"

"And you kept the clothes."

"Well, I just saved the planet, the whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge. Yeah, shoot me! I kept the clothes."

"Including the bow tie." Amy raised a brow

"Yeah, it's cool." the Doctor defended, "Bowties are cool."

"Are you an alien?" Chelsea spoke up. She'd researched the Doctor over the last two years and found stories of a mysterious man calling himself 'the Doctor' popping up all throughout history.

"Yeah." the Doctor confirmed

"Ok..." Amy said slowly, thinking the Doctor was joking.

"So what d'you think?" the Doctor asked

"Of what?"

"Other planets. Wanna check some out?"

"What d'ya mean?" Chelsea asked suspiciously

"It means... Well, it means... come with me." the Doctor replied, "Both of you."

"Where?" Amy asked

"Wherever you like."

"All that stuff." Amy began, "The hospital, spaceships, Prisoner Zero..."

"Oh, don't worry. That's just the beginning. There's loads more." the Doctor said smugly

"Yeah, but those things, amazing things, all that stuff..." Amy tailed off as the Doctor nodded cockily. "That was two years ago." Amy snapped angrily.

The Doctor's face fell. "Oh. Oops." was all he could say.

"Yeah, I'll say." Chelsea remarked dryly.

"So that's..." the Doctor began

"14 years!" Amy growled

"14 years since fish custard." the Doctor sighed, "Amy Pond, Chelsea Willows, the girls who waited, you've both waited long enough."

"When we were kids, you said there was a swimming pool and a library." Amy said more calmly, "And the swimming pool was in the library."

"Yeah. Not sure where it's got to now." the Doctor shrugged, "It'll turn up. So... you girls coming?"

"Amy.." Chelsea began, about to remind her cousin about her impending nuptials, but Amy held a hand up to stop her.

"No." the ginger told the Doctor

"Me neither." Chelsea added

"You both wanted to come 14 years ago." the Doctor reminded

"Yeah, well, we've both grown up since then." Chelsea shrugged

"Don't worry." the Doctor smirked, "I'll soon fix that." He snapped his fingers and the TARDIS' doors opened, bathing the two women in an aqua glow from within. Their curiosity getting the better of them, Amy and Chelsea wandered inside the box and were rendered speechless by what they saw.

The inside of the TARDIS comprised of a vast dome-shaped room, far bigger than what the outside implied, with silver-grey walls, aqua lighting, a hexagonal console in the centre of the room with two monitors displaying a strange alien language and a transparent glass column sprouting out to the ceiling with more alien text at the top of the column, while two smaller auxiliary consoles were built into the railings around the console with seats at either end of them, and there a raised walkway around the perimeter of the room, while stairs lead down to more rooms, seemingly going on for miles. Amy wandered around in wonder while Chelsea promptly ran out of the box and did a circuit around it just to make sure she wasn't imagining it. During her research of the Doctor, she'd heard tales of a bigger-on-the-inside box, but to actually see it with her own eyes was still quite an experience.

The Doctor watched the reactions with amusement. "Well?" he said when Chelsea had come back in, "Anything either of you wanna say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all."

"I'm in my nightie." was all Amy could say

"Oh, don't worry. Plenty of clothes in the wardrobe." the Doctor waved her off, "And possibly a swimming pool." He turned to Chelsea. "What about you?" he asked her, "You got anything to say?"

"It's true." Chelsea breathed, "All the stories, they're true. It really is bigger on the inside."

"Ah, that's more like it." the Doctor smirked, then moved to the console, eager to get going. "So... all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will... where do both of you wanna start?"

Amy snapped out of her awe. "You are so sure we're both coming."

"Yeah, I am." the Doctor said smugly

"Why?"

"Cos' you're the Scottish girl in the English village, and I know how that feels." the Doctor told her

"Oh, you do." Amy raised a brow

"All these years living here most of your life... and you've still got that accent. Yeah, you're coming."

"And what about Chelsea?" Amy countered, "She's not Scottish and she lives in London now."

"Ah, well, she's here's now." the Doctor countered

Chelsea snapped out of her own awe and remembered something; "Amy, remember tomorrow you're..."

Amy held a hand up to stop her. "Can you get us back for tomorrow morning?" she asked the Doctor.

"She's a time machine." he replied, "I can get you both back five minutes ago. Why, what's tomorrow?"

"Nothing." Amy said hastily, "Nothing. Just... ye know, stuff." She looked to Chelsea and motioned for her to keep quiet, causing her to narrow her eyes at Amy, concerned that Amy was trying to get out of her wedding.

"Alright, then. Back in time for stuff." the Doctor shrugged, deciding not to press the issue. Just then, a bleeping sounded from the console, meaning the Doctor's brand new sonic screwdriver had finished programming in it's software. "Ah, it's ready." the Doctor said and pulled the new sonic out of the console's charging slot. This new sonic was similar to his previous one, but with gold metalwork instead of silver, wave amplifiers around the emitter head and a fluid link running along the handle to a user recognition ring. He gave the sonic a quick test, flashing it's blue light around the room then slipped it into his jacket's inside pocket. "Back in business." he grinned.

"Why us?" Amy asked him suddenly

"Why not?" the Doctor countered

"No, seriously. You are asking us to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. Why us?"

"I dunno, fun?" the Doctor shrugged, "Do I have to have a reason?"

"People always have a reason."

"Do I look like a people?"

"Yes."

"Been knocking around for a while, my choice." the Doctor replied, "But I've grown tired of it." His previous incarnation's recent actions on Mars resonated with him and he had decided that he needed to have companions again to stop him from going too far again.

"But why specifically us?" Chelsea asked him, "I've read about you, Doctor. You've had all sorts of people travelling with you, but why d'ya want us?"

"Because I ruined both your childhoods." the Doctor told her earnestly, "I promised I'd make it up to both of ya, and this is me making it up to you."

"That's it?" Amy asked, "Just that?"

"Just that. Promise." the Doctor replied. Then, he noticed a small flickering line on the monitor nearest to him, a line that looked eerily similar to the crack from Amy's bedroom.

"Ok." Amy said slowly, neither she or Chelsea noticing the line.

"So, are you both ok, then?" the Doctor asked, switching the monitors off, "Cos this place, sometimes she can make people feel a bit... you know."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Amy waved him off, "It's just... there's a whole world in here, like you said. It's all true. I thought... well, I started to think that maybe you were just a madman with a box."

"Amy Pond, there's something you'd better understand. You too, Chelsea Willows. It's important, and one day your lives may depend on it. I am definitely a mad man with a box." the Doctor said, deadly serious, "Ha-ha, yeah!" He then started dashing around the console, firing up the instruments ready for departure while the two women watched him in amusement. "Goodbye, Leadworth. Hello, everything!" the Doctor cheered as he pulled the lever to send them off into the Time Vortex, ready to resume his travels in space and time with his new companions.

Author's notes: Ok, I'm back with a new story. I've been a bit quiet on Fanfiction lately as I've been concentrating on uploading the Themii series to AO3, but I thought I'd have a go at doing a story with a new OC. Originally I was going to do a Star Wars OC fic, but after reading DarkSideofParis' Alex Locke series, I fancied doing a Doctor Who series 5 OC fic. Couple of things to note, as with A Cracked Fairy-Tale, I've used the series 7-10 TARDIS interior instead of the series 5 one, as I dislike the series 5 interior intensely. Another change is that the Doctor's new sonic screwdriver is based on River Song's sonic. I made this change as I'm not too fond of 11's sonic and it occurred to me that they missed an opportunity by not giving 11 River's sonic, so I did just that. In case you're wandering what Chelsea looks like, I picture her as looking like Ashley Greene, but speaking with an English accent instead of American. So, hope you like the new story and hopefully see ya next time!