The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday – Chapter 25
Disclaimer: Doctor Who does not belong to me at all.
A/N: Here's the second chapter for The Eleventh Hour. It may be slightly longer than the last chapter, because I still have around 48 minutes to work with, which will make this chapter and the next one slightly longer. Okay, so it has taken me a week long to update. This will probably be the case from now on. Sorry, guys, I had actually finished the chapter awhile ago, but I had so much work to do the past week that I just sort of forgot about it.
Notes on Reviews:
LilGreenearth97: I'm so glad you liked the chapter. They are cute, aren't they?
NightsEternalDream: Rhea does have a soft side when it comes to the Doctor, and some of his companions. She was quite sweet to Amy in the chapter as well. Amy will have a bond with Rhea, not just with the Doctor. Rhea was quite maternal, I agree, and I think she'd agree that children (and maybe the Doctor, very grudgingly, though) are her weaknesses. Rhea has definitely left an impression on Amy.
grapejuice101: Oh, I think Rhea's relationship with Amy will definitely be interesting ;)
Kate Elizabeth Black: Spoilers! I do have a plan for The Big Bang. It will be quite angsty what happens to Rhea in that episode, but sorry, it won't be for awhile. I don't think your idea is cheesy at all, it's quite interesting actually, but you'll just have to wait and see what happens to Rhea.
Aka-Baka Hoshi: I really do love those two episodes. There will be quite a lot of teasing between the Doctor and Rhea, and some bickering as well. Sorry, Rhea won't be going with the Doctor in The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang, I have a different plan for her :)
Warnings: Swearing, sexual innuendo.
The Eleventh Hour: The Escapist
Now wearing a black coat over her nightgown and a red beanie, Amelia ran back to the same spot where the TARDIS had disappeared and shoved the suitcase to the ground, taking a seat on it, and waited. She didn't even notice the shadowy figure dart past the kitchen window and disappear.
The TARDIS appeared back in Amelia's back garden. The doors opened and the Doctor and Rhea emerged through the billowing smoke, their hands held over their noses and mouths.
"Amelia!" Rhea shouted as they ran to the house.
"Amelia, I worked out what it was. I know what I was missing! You've got to get out of there!" He tried the screwdriver on the lock of the door. The light went faint and the Doctor attempted it a few more times before it worked.
"Amelia!" The Doctor shouted as they ran up the stairs.
"Amelia, are you all right?" Rhea called out. "Are you there?"
The Doctor immediately went to the strange door that had troubled him before and tried to open it with the sonic screwdriver. "Prisoner Zero is here. Prisoner Zero is here! Prisoner Zero is here!" The Doctor repeated constantly. "Do you understand me? Prisoner Zero is..." The Doctor turned and was hit on the head with a cricket bat.
However, Rhea spun around just as the bat was swinging for her head and caught it in one hand. She stared at it for a second and followed it to the red-headed woman in a skin-tight police uniform holding it. She raised an eyebrow.
"Do all English policewomen use bats nowadays? Where's your gun?" Rhea asked her.
"You were breaking and entering." The woman said, through gritted teeth.
"I feel bad for the general public if cops are going around beating criminals with a freaking baseball bat." Rhea said, dryly. "Give me that!" Rhea gave a forceful yank and pulled the bat right out of the woman's grip and tossed the object to the floor, kicking it out of her reach. "You could hurt someone with that." She said, pointedly.
"That was the point." The woman said, sarcastically.
"Yeah, well, not anymore." She looked down at the Doctor, who was lying unconscious at her feet. She looked back at the woman. "Where's Amelia?"
The woman tensed. "Amelia? Amelia Pond?"
"Yes," Rhea said, impatiently. "Amelia, the little red-headed Scottish girl that was just here. We promised to come back and get her in five minutes… which sounds like kidnapping, doesn't it?" Rhea paused, sheepishly. She stared at the woman's vivid red hair and was reminded of Amelia's ginger locks. She glared at the woman, her form tense and angry. "Unless you're her aunt. Are you her aunt? If you are, who the hell leaves a seven-year-old girl alone at home at night?" She demanded, crossing her arms.
"I'm not her aunt." The woman snapped. She pulled the handcuffs off her belt and made for the Doctor's prone form.
Rhea stepped in front. "You can tie him to the radiator and that's all. One, because I'm curious about who you are, you're definitely not a policewoman, and two," Rhea snorted. "You wouldn't be able to do much damage anyway."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I wouldn't let you." Rhea said, flatly. "You'd be dead before you could touch him."
The Doctor slowly came to, and, as his vision cleared, he saw Rhea and a red-haired female police officer, wearing a very short skirt, leaning against the banister of the stairs, the latter speaking into her radio.
"White male, mid-20s, accomplice, dark-skinned woman, mid-20s, breaking and entering. Send me some back-up, I've got the male restrained." She switched off the radio and saw that the Doctor was awake. "Oi, you! Sit still."
The Doctor groaned, his head pounding. "Cricket bat. I'm getting cricket bat."
"You were breaking and entering." The officer said.
The Doctor tried to stand and was suddenly yanked back against whatever he was leaning on. He saw that he was, indeed, handcuffed to a radiator. He looked over at Rhea, who was staring at him with an unreadable look on her face.
"Did you let her do this?" The Doctor asked, incredulously.
"Oh, calm down, it'll take me a few seconds to get you out of those anyway." Rhea said, rolling her eyes. She looked over at the officer. "We have a deal. She was only allowed to restrain you. We are breaking and entering."
"Oh, yeah, because you're such a follower of the law." The Doctor grumbled.
"Watch it, time boy." Rhea warned.
"Well, that's much better. Brand-new me, whack on the head. Just what it needed." The Doctor growled.
"Do you want to shut up now?" The officer said, sharply. "I've got back-up on the way!"
Rhea snorted. "Oh, yeah, because that scares us?"
"Hang on, no, wait, you're a policewoman." The Doctor said, eyeing the uniform.
"And you're breaking and entering. You see how this works?" The officer said, sarcastically.
"But what are you doing here? Where's Amelia?"
"I already tried asking her that." Rhea added.
"Amelia Pond?" The woman tensed, just like she had when Rhea had mentioned the little girl's name before.
"Yeah. Little Scottish girl. Where is she?" The Doctor asked. "I promised her five minutes but the engines were phasing. I suppose I must have gone a bit far. Has something happened to her?" He asked, worriedly.
Rhea straightened and returned the same worried look to the Doctor.
"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time." The officer said, lowly, her face expressionless.
The Doctor frowned. "How long?"
The officer paused. "Six months."
"No, no, no! I can't be six months late! I said five minutes. I promised." The Doctor sniffed.
Rhea exhaled. "Oh, god, your driving." She hissed at the Doctor, who had the nerve to look sheepish. "That poor girl, she must have waited all night!"
The officer tensed, marginally, enough to catch Rhea's attention, who frowned, and walked away, reaching for a radio for the second time.
"What happened to her? What happened to Amelia Pond?" The Doctor called after the officer.
"Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up, these two know something about Amelia Pond."
The Doctor's and Rhea's eyes went past the officer's to the same suspicious door from their last visit. Rhea frowned. Her attention was deviated again by the red-haired officer. That hair, that specific shade of red, it's very familiar. Rhea's eyes widened. Amelia's hair was that colour! This woman is either related to Amelia… or, and this is the worst case scenario and I hope to God it isn't true, is Amelia. Something dropped into Rhea's stomach, forcing her to close her eyes.
"I need to speak to whoever lives in this house now." The Doctor insisted.
"I live here." The officer said.
"But you're the police."
"Yes, and this is where I live. You got a problem with that?!" The officer asked, snarkily.
"How many rooms?" The Doctor asked her, suddenly.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"On this floor." Rhea added. "How many rooms on this floor? Count them for us now."
"Why?" The officer asked, frowning at them both.
"Because…" The Doctor started, dramatically. "It will change your life."
"Five." The officer answered. She pointed to each one. "One, two, three, four, five."
"Six." Rhea corrected.
"Six?"
"Look." The Doctor said.
"Look where?"
"Exactly where you don't want to look. Where you never want to look, the corner of your eye. Look behind you." The Doctor said, lowly.
The officer slowly turned and saw the door directly behind her. "That's... That is not possible. How's that possible?" She whispered.
"There's a perception filter round the door. Sensed it the last time we were here. Should've seen it."
"But that's a whole room." The officer protested, looking back at them both. "That's a whole room I've never even noticed."
"The filter stops you. Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding. You need to uncuff me now!"
The officer, ignoring the Doctor, slowly began to walk down the hall towards the room that she had only now discovered. "I don't have the key. I lost it."
"How can you have lost it?!" The Doctor shouted. "Stay away from that door!" The officer kept walking. Rhea followed the woman, deciding to keep an eye on her, at least until she figured out who the officer was. "Rhea, don't you dare." The Doctor growled, leaning forward, making a swipe with his right hand to pull her back, but it was in vain.
The officer put her hand on the doorknob.
"Listen to me! Do not open that..."
She twisted it.
"Why does no-one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to?"
"Yes." Rhea answered, not looking back at him, before she slowly entered the room with the officer. "Again."
The Doctor frantically searched his pockets. "Rhea, my screwdriver, where is it?"
The inside of the room was dusty, as if hadn't been cleaned in years. There were old boxes on the floor, the curtains were torn and barely there and the walls were stained with water damage. However, surprisingly, there was a table sitting in the middle of the room.
"Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?"
"There's nothing here." The officer said, impatiently.
"Whatever's there stopped you seeing the whole room." The Doctor paused. "What makes you think you could see it?" His face turned angry. "Now, Rhea, please, just get the hell out of there!"
"Your sonic screwdriver…" Rhea started, spotting something sitting on the table.
"Yeah."
"It's here." The officer said, staring at the exact same spot that Rhea was.
"Must have rolled under the door."
"Yeah." Rhea swallowed hard. "Must have." She stared at the screwdriver on the table, covered in some sticky slime. "And then it must have jumped up on the table..."
"Get out of there!" The Doctor shouted.
Rhea went to pick up the screwdriver.
"Get out!"
Rhea and the officer backed away towards the window.
"What is it? What are you doing?"
"There's nothing here, but…" The officer protested.
"Corner of your eye." The Doctor said, slowly.
"What is it?" Rhea asked.
"Don't try to see it." The Doctor said, sharply. "If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you. Don't look at it. Do not… look"
Rhea and the officer turned around and saw something alien and eel-like, covered in slime and smiling a Cheshire smile, full of sharp teeth.
The officer screamed.
"Get out!" The Doctor shouted.
Rhea grabbed the motionless policewoman's hand and pulled her out of the room, slamming the door behind her, and down the hall towards the Doctor. She threw the Doctor the sonic screwdriver, who immediately tried to use it on the door, locking it behind them them.
"What's the bad alien done to you?" The Doctor muttered, when it wouldn't work.
Rhea swore and rushed over to the Doctor at the radiator and yanked a bobby pin out of her hair, tearing out a strand or two in the process. She straightened the pin and jammed it into the keyhole, twisting it around until she heard the click of the handcuffs becoming undone. She pulled away and stood up, turning her attention towards the door.
"Will that door hold it?" The officer asked, panicking.
Rhea looked over at her. Oh, please don't let her be who I think she is.
"Oh, yeah, yeah, course! It's an inter-dimensional multi-form from outer-space… they're all terrified of wood." The Doctor said, the sarcasm brimming in his voice.
The officer looked down and glared at him.
A bright light flashed behind the door, seeping through the edges.
"What's that? What's it doing?" The officer asked.
The Doctor wiped the screwdriver clean with his fingers. "I don't know, getting dressed?" He shrugged. "Run. Just go. Your back-up's coming, we'll be fine."
"There is no back-up." The officer sighed, giving up the charade.
Rhea groaned. I hate it when I'm right.
The Doctor looked up, surprised. "We heard you on the radio, you called for back-up."
"I was pretending. It's a pretend radio." The officer said, hurriedly.
"You're a policewoman." The Doctor said, bemused.
Rhea rolled her eyes. "Oh, of course she's not!" She snapped. "How many policewomen have you seen that wear miniskirts? They're not exactly practical. You can't actually do that much in them."
"I've seen you-" The Doctor protested.
"Hush, mystery man." Rhea shushed the Doctor, flushing as she guessed what he was about to say, and turned to the not-officer. "So, what are you then?"
"I'm a kissogram!" She growled, rolling her eyes, throwing her hat away and letting her vivid ginger locks fall free onto her shoulders.
"Is 'kissogram' a Britishism for stripper?" Rhea asked, turning away from the redhead and back towards the door.
"What? No!" The girl shouted.
"Are you sure?" Rhea asked, gently.
Before the girl could argue, the door to the strange room slammed open, falling into the hallway, to show a bald man in blue overalls holding the leash to a large Rottweiler. He stepped, purposefully, forward into the hall.
"But it's just…" The woman started.
The Doctor shook his head, standing up and placing himself slightly in front, so that Rhea and the woman were behind him. "No, it isn't. Look at the faces."
The man growled and barked, while the dog remained impassive.
"What? I'm sorry, but what?" The woman asked, her eyes wide, as she stared at the Doctor.
"It's all one creature. One creature disguised as two." The Doctor explained, as the man and the dog turned their heads at once. "Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, did you?" They were now looking straight at the three. "Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?" It snarled.
The multi-form advanced on the Doctor, Rhea and the woman, and opened its mouth, showing the same sharp teeth that Rhea and the woman had seen on the eel-like creature.
"Stay, boy!" The Doctor ordered and the creature halted its advance. "Her and us, we're safe. Want to know why? She sent for back-up." He said, pointing at the woman.
"I didn't send for back-up!" The woman protested, not understanding what the Doctor was trying to do.
Rhea groaned.
"I know, that was a clever lie to save our lives." The Doctor hissed at the woman. He turned to the creature. "Okay, 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!"
"Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. 'The human residence is surrounded." A loud, disembodied voice echoed through the hall.
"What's that?" The woman asked Rhea.
"That would be back-up." Rhea answered.
"Okay, one more time. We do have back-up and that's definitely why we're safe." The Doctor said to Prisoner Zero.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"Safe, apart from, you know, incineration." Rhea said, swallowing.
The creature turned into one of the other rooms down the hall.
As the voice repeated its warning, the Doctor grabbed Rhea's hand and turned to the woman. "Run." He pulled Rhea along. "Run!" The Doctor pushed the woman and followed her down the stairs.
The Doctor, Rhea and the woman ran outside and the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver on the back door, locking it.
"Kissogram?" The Doctor clarified.
"Yes!" The woman said, impatiently.
"Why'd you pretend to be a policewoman?" The Doctor asked, curiously.
"You broke into my house! It was this or a French maid!"
"See," Rhea said, shaking her head. "That sounds like a stripper to me. Policewomen, French maids, schoolgirls, nurses, secretaries, they're very common sexual fantasies." Rhea said, blithely.
The Doctor looked over at her, smirking. "You'd know."
Rhea smiled, seductively, at him. "Is that a spoiler?"
"Maybe, maybe not." The Doctor gazed at her with dark eyes. "Do you want to find out?"
"Name the time and place, honey." Rhea purred, sliding up to him and curling her fingers in his blue shirt.
"I'm not a stripper!" The woman said, stamping her foot.
"There's nothing wrong with being one." Rhea said, soothingly. "It's a very empowering profession, it allows you to get some control over your life and you get some confidence out of it as well. However," Rhea hesitated. "It is an incredibly degrading job and it can be harmful to your self-esteem. And we should talk if the reason for your choice in profession is as a result of child abuse or sexual assault."
The woman let out an angry scream. She exhaled and calmed herself down. "What's going on? Tell me! Tell me!"
The Doctor and Rhea rushed 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. Any questions?" The Doctor asked, turning to the woman with a smile.
"Yes."
"Me too." The Doctor jammed the key into the TARDIS, but it wasn't working. "No, no, don't do that, not now!"
"What? What is it?" Rhea stroked a hand along the door. "What's wrong with her?"
"She's still rebuilding, not letting us in!"
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
The woman turned her attention back to her house and saw the creature, still in the form of the man and the dog, watching from the window, barking at them.
"Come on." The woman said, grabbing the Doctor and Rhea by the arm.
The Doctor and Rhea pulled, themselves, resisting. "No, wait, hang on, wait, wait, wait." He noticed something sitting off to the side of where the TARDIS had landed. "The shed." He ran to the shed.
"It can't be six months." Rhea said, slowly. Her fears were starting to come true and she was dreading the actual moment when it would be proven. "We destroyed that shed the last time we were here."
"We smashed it to pieces." The Doctor agreed.
"So there's a new one. Let's go." The woman said, lightly, her eyes darting between them.
Rhea narrowed her eyes at the woman. Oh, please don't be Amelia.
"But the new one's got old. It's ten years old at least." He sniffed the wood before rubbing his finger along it and giving it a taste.
"Doctor!" Rhea said, part disgusted and part scandalised.
"12 years." The Doctor said, suddenly, looking at Rhea. "We're not six months late, we're 12 years late." He rounded on the woman and started walking towards her.
Rhea groaned.
"He's coming." The woman said, in a panicked voice.
"You said six months. Why did you say six months?" The Doctor demanded.
"We've got to go."
"This matters. This is important." The Doctor said, urgently. "Why did you say six months?"
"Why did you say five minutes?" The woman shouted the hurt obvious in her suddenly strong Scottish accent.
The Doctor's eyes widened and Rhea's eyes closed in regret. "What?" He breathed.
"Come on!" Amelia shouted, pulling Rhea and the Doctor behind her, as they stumbled through the slightly high and thick grass and away from the house.
"What?" The Doctor shouted, his eyes wide as his hand tightened around Rhea's, who reflexively clutched his.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
Amelia stormed up the village road as the Doctor and Rhea rushed to catch up to her.
"You're Amelia." The Doctor said, stopping and facing her.
"Yes, I think we've established that." Rhea said.
"You're late." Amelia snapped, still walking.
"Amelia Pond, you're the little girl." Rhea clarified.
"I'm Amelia and you're late." She hissed.
"What happened?" The Doctor asked.
"12 years."
"You hit me with a cricket bat!" The Doctor said, accusingly.
"12 years." Amelia said, as if that completely explained her actions, and, it did.
"I am never speaking to you again." Rhea told the Doctor.
"A cricket bat." The Doctor repeated.
"12 years and four psychiatrists." Amelia hammered the point.
Rhea winced. "Four?" One psychiatrist is bad enough.
"I kept biting them." She said, sheepishly.
Rhea frowned. "Why did you bite them?" She asked, carefully, a part of her dreading the answer.
Amelia turned to her, a sad look brimming in her eyes. "They said you weren't real."
Rhea didn't say anything.
Instead, she wrapped an arm around the woman's shoulders and rubbed her shoulder, comfortingly. Amelia Pond, I am so sorry.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated." The voice came over the speakers of an ice-cream van.
"You've got to be kidding me." Rhea said. "So, what, the ice-cream truck's joined in on the neighbourhood watch?" She asked, sarcastically.
The Doctor and Rhea headed for the van, followed by Amelia.
"What's that? Why are you playing that?" The Doctor asked the driver, slamming his hands against the ledge of the window.
"It's supposed to be Claire De Lune." The vendor stammered.
The Doctor picked up the player and listened.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat, Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated." The message kept repeating.
The Doctor stepped away from the van and saw a jogger with a MP3 player receiving the message as well as a woman hearing it over her mobile.
"Doctor, what the hell is going on?" Rhea asked.
The Doctor grabbed Rhea and they both jumped over a low white fence into a pretty front garden. Amelia ran around to the front.
The Doctor and Rhea entered the front door, closely followed by Amelia.
"Hello! Sorry to burst in, we're doing a special on television faults in this area." The Doctor said, quickly, to an old woman sitting on her couch, with her remote pointed at a television screen, showing a very large, blue and familiar eye.
"Hello!" The Doctor said to the old woman with a smile. "Sorry to burst in, we're doing a special on television faults in this area."
Rhea looked down at Amelia's uniform once she joined them. "Also crimes." She said, cheerfully.
"Let's have a look." The Doctor said, taking the remote from the old woman.
"I was just about to phone. It's on every channel." The woman told them. She turned around and saw Amelia, looking at her, sheepishly. "Hello, Amy, dear." She paused, gazing at Amelia's clothing. "Are you a policewoman now?" She asked, hesitating.
"Well, sometimes." Amelia hedged.
The woman frowned. "I thought you were a nurse."
Rhea smothered a laugh. Amelia Pond, you naughty thing. But then she realised the reasons why Amy may have decided to become a kissogram in the first place and rubbed her eyes, wearily.
"I can be a nurse."
"Or, actually, a nun." The woman said, staring at the girl in question with suspicion.
"I dabble." Amelia said, with an embarrassed laugh.
The woman decided to ignore that mystery for the moment and looked at the Doctor and Rhea, and then Amelia again, with a smile. "Amy, who are your friends?"
"Who's Amy? You were Amelia." Rhea said, staring at her.
"Yeah," Amelia made a face. "And now I'm Amy."
"Amelia Pond… that was a great name." The Doctor said, incredulously.
"Bit fairytale." Amelia said, sharply.
"I know you, don't I?" The woman asked Rhea, interrupting their little argument. "I've seen you both somewhere before."
"Not me." The Doctor shook his head. "Brand-new face…" He stretched his mouth as wide as he could, which made a cracking noise. "First time on." He turned to Amy. "And what sort of job's a kissogram?"
"I go to parties and I kiss people." Amy cleared her throat. "With outfits. It's a laugh." She said, sounding as if she were justifying the job to herself.
"You were a little girl five minutes ago." The Doctor said, angrily. Rhea reached over and patted him on the shoulder, trying to calming him down.
"You're worse than my aunt." Amy growled.
"I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt." The Doctor said. He paused. He turned to the woman. "And that is not how I'm introducing myself."
The Doctor picked up a radio and used the sonic screwdriver on it. They could hear the same message about Prisoner Zero in French, German and a whole bunch of other languages before it turned off.
"Okay, so it's everywhere, in every language. They're broadcasting to the whole world." He walked over to the window, stuck his head out and looked up.
"Doctor, I don't like this. Why would they be broadcasting to the whole world if Amy's house was the 'human residence'?" Rhea asked the Doctor, quietly, leaning against the wall next to the window.
The Doctor turned to face her for a second, but she couldn't see him. His hand reached out and squeezed hers. I'll solve this, I promise. They were unsaid words but Rhea got all she needed to know from his hand.
"What's up there? What are you looking for?" Amy asked.
The sky was a clear blue with a few white clouds. Nothing all that interesting or suspicious.
The Doctor pulled himself away from the window and started pacing. "Okay, planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core... They're going to need a 40% fission blast." A young, tall, handsome man walked in through the front door and the Doctor walked up to him. "But they'll have to power up first, won't they? So assuming a medium-sized starship, that's 20 minutes." The man was tall, so the Doctor stood on his toes to meet his height, and then back down again. "What do you think, 20 minutes?" He turned to Rhea, who shrugged.
"Honey, you're the good one at this." Rhea said.
The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, 20 minutes. We've got 20 minutes."
Amy's eyes darted between the two. "20 minutes to what?" She asked, worriedly.
"Are you the Doctor?" The man suddenly asked. "And… Rhea?" He said, turning to her.
"They are," The old woman suddenly joined in. "Aren't they? He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor. And her! She's his Golden Girl!"
"His?" Rhea choked. "I'm not 'his'." She turned to Amy. "You called me 'Golden Girl? Seriously?" She chuckled and turned to the Doctor. "I have a feeling that's going to be written on my tombstone. Here lies Sunehri Adwani, the Doctor's Golden Girl." She said, sarcastically.
"Don't talk about your tombstone." The Doctor growled.
Rhea rolled her eyes. "His." She muttered to herself.
"All those cartoons you did when you were little. The Raggedy Doctor, the Golden Girl, it's them." The old woman said, gleefully.
"I know." Amy said, softly, the red rising in her cheeks.
"Cartoons?" The Doctor asked, bemused, as he sat down on the couch.
"Gran, it's them, isn't it? It's really them!" The man said, excitedly.
"Jeff, shut up!" Amy hissed at him. "20 minutes to what?" She asked the Doctor and Rhea.
The Doctor's eyes were on the "eye", that was still on the television, broadcasting its warning repeatedly.
"The human residence. They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet." The Doctor paused, leaned over and pressed a kiss to Rhea's forehead. "You brilliant girl!" He murmured against her skin. "Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship and it's going to incinerate the planet. 20 minutes to the end of the world."
"It's like Groundhog Day with you, all the time, isn't it?" Rhea asked, crossing her arms over her chest and fixing him with a glare.
"Kind of, sorry." He said, sheepishly.
The Doctor, Rhea and Amy walked down a village road in the opposite direction of a boy running down the road with a toy helicopter.
"What is this place? Where are we?" Rhea asked, looking around at the very bland town. She wasn't used to small towns. She had grown up in San Francisco and moved to Palo Alto while studying her degree. Small towns were just too quiet for her. She lived for the noise in big cities, anything else just made her feel uneasy. She supposed it was the Indian in her.
"Leadworth." Amy answered.
The Doctor frowned. "Where's the rest of it?"
"This is it."
"Is there an airport?" The Doctor asked.
"No."
"Not even a little one?" Rhea asked.
"No."
"Nearest city?" The Doctor asked.
"Gloucester, half an hour by car."
The Doctor shook his head. "We don't have half an hour."
Rhea turned to Amy. "Do we even have a car?"
"No."
"Well, that's good! Fantastic, that is." The Doctor said, his voice edged with sarcasm. "20 minutes to save the world and I've got a post office. And it's shut!" The Doctor said, frustrated. "What is that?" The Doctor shouted, eyeing a small pond in the distance.
"It's a duck pond." Amy replied, staring at him, oddly.
The Doctor ran up to it, Rhea and Amy following him. He turned around to face Amy. "Why aren't there any ducks?" He demanded.
Amy shook her head. "I don't know. There's never any ducks."
Rhea frowned. "Then, how do you know it's a duck pond?"
"It just is. Is it important, the duck pond?" Amy asked, incredulously.
The Doctor spasmed, as if he were having a seizure. He clutched his chest, his face twisting. "I don't know. Why would I know?" His knees buckled and he fell to the ground. Rhea knelt beside him, clutching his arms with her own, annoyed and terrified. "I'm not ready, I'm not done yet." He muttered to her, another burst of pain spreading throughout his very new and raw body.
"You should have rested." Rhea whispered, worriedly, gripping his arms tightly to keep him steady. "This stress isn't helping you. Is it like an aftershock of your regeneration? It wasn't exactly a good one." Rhea remembered the state of the TARDIS after the Doctor had finished regenerating. The TARDIS had been in shambles. She didn't exactly relish the idea of going back and seeing what had become of her gorgeous girl, especially after seeing the Doctor like this.
Everything around them suddenly went dark and chilly and Rhea, the Doctor and Amy looked up.
"What's happening? Why's it going dark?" Amy asked, worriedly.
The sun appeared to be grey and flickering before turning all orange and fiery, almost close to normal.
"Doctor, what's wrong with the sun?" Rhea asked the Doctor.
"Nothing. You're looking at it through a force-field. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere, now they're getting ready to boil the planet." The Doctor said, casually.
"Honey, that's not a good thing." Rhea said, slowly, as if she were explaining this to a child.
The Doctor stood and looked at the green, where the rest of the village's population stood, staring at the strange sun and taking pictures, furiously, with their phones. "Oh, and here they come, the human race. The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone!" The Doctor muttered.
Amy paled. "This isn't real, is it? This is some kind of big wind-up." She said, looking between the two, anxiously.
Rhea narrowed her eyes at the woman. "Why would we wind you up?"
"You told me you had a time machine." Amy said, slowly.
"And you believed us." The Doctor said.
"Then I grew up." Amy whispered.
The Doctor groaned. "Oh, you never want to do that."
"Speak for yourself." Rhea muttered.
"No, hang on, shut up," Rhea glared at the Doctor, her hands on her hips. "Sorry. Wait!" He amended his words, paling as he realised what he had just said. "I missed it." He smacked his forehead, sharply. "I saw it and I missed it." He smacked again, leaving a large red mark. "What did I see? I saw... What did I see?" The Doctor's voice lowered.
"You're fucking bipolar." Rhea growled. "And yes, that is my professional opinion."
The Doctor ignored her and thought back to everything he remembered seeing, from the chain fence, people taking photos, a woman in the phone box, to a blonde-haired man in scrubs, facing away from the sun and taking a photo of a familiar man and a dog. The Doctor turned to face the man in question before looking at a clock.
"20 minutes. We can do it. 20 minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help us." The Doctor told Amy.
"No." Amy murmured.
The Doctor's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm sorry?"
"No!" Amy shouted in the Doctor's face and grabbed him by the tie.
"Wait, Amy, what are you doing?" Rhea shouted, rushing after them as Amy dragged the Doctor over to a nearby car, slammed him against the door. She shoved his tie into the door just as the driver was stepping out and locked it behind her.
The Doctor attempted to move forward but was pulled back by his tie. "Are you out of your mind?" He hissed.
"Who are you?" Amy demanded, leaning forward.
"You know who we are." Rhea said, quietly.
"No, really, who are you?" Amy asked, staring Rhea, intently, in the eye.
"Look at the sky! End of the world, 20 minutes." The Doctor said, clearly agitated.
"Better talk quickly, then!" Amy said, through gritted teeth.
"Amy, I am going to need my car back." The driver said, slowly, staring at the trio with a great deal of confusion.
"Yes, in a bit. Now go and have coffee." Amy said, frustrated.
"Right, yes." The driver left them.
Rhea dug into the Doctor's pockets, marvelling when her fingers scraped across strange objects, rejoicing when she came across a smooth, round surface. She pulled out the same apple that seven-year-old Amy had given the Doctor, with the smiley face carved into it.
"Catch." She told Amy and tossed it to her.
Amy looked at what was in her hands with wonder.
"My name's Rhea and this is the Doctor. We're time travellers." Rhea said, slowly and gently. "Everything we told you 12 years ago is true. We are real. Amy, oh, Amelia Pond, I am so sorry you ever believed that we weren't real. I can imagine what your life has been like for the last twelve years." She reached out and cupped Amy's face in her hand, seeing the beginning of tears in the red-headed girl's eyes. "What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let him go now, everything you've ever known is over."
Amy shook her head. "I don't believe you." Her childhood imaginary friends, that she had spent so long convincing herself were exactly that, imaginary, were suddenly real, and had come back after twelve years, and now they had twenty minutes until the end of the world.
The Doctor reached out and gripped her wrist. "Just 20 minutes. Just believe us for 20 minutes." The Doctor pleaded. "Look at it. Fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you know it's the same one."
She stared at the apple and then back at the Doctor and Rhea.
"Amy, believe us for 20 minutes." Rhea said.
Amy pursed her lips and pressed the unlock button on the remote she was holding. "What do we do?" She asked both of them.
"Stop that nurse!" The Doctor said, quickly, and took off, rushing up to the man in the scrubs and taking his phone as he walked right past him. "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?" He asked Rory, peering at the phone.
"Amy?" The man looked confused as Rhea and Amy caught up to them two men.
"Hi!" Amy greeted the man. "Oh, this is Rory, he's a... friend."
"Boyfriend." Rory corrected.
"Kind of boyfriend." Amy said, sheepishly.
"Amy!"
Rhea groaned. Okay, so not the time for couples' drama. "Look, it's nice to meet you, Rory. Man and a dog, why?" Rhea asked Rory, snapping her fingers in front of his face, furiously, trying to make him focus.
But it only served to do the opposite. "Oh, my God, it's them." Rory said, his jaw gaping and his eyes wide as he stared at the Doctor and Rhea.
"Just answer his question, please." Amy hissed.
"It's them, though. The Doctor and Rhea. The Raggedy Doctor and his Golden Girl."
Rhea threw her hands up in the air. "I'm not 'his'!" She objected, completely missing the Doctor's grimace.
"Yeah, they came back." Amy said, embarrassment creeping into her voice.
"But they were a story. They were a game." Rory protested.
The Doctor growled, frustrated by the slow turn of events. He grabbed Rory by the front of his scrubs and pulled him close. "Man and dog, why? Tell me now." The Doctor said, dangerously.
"Sorry." Rory said. "Because he can't be there. Because he's…"
"In a hospital, in a coma." Rory and the Doctor said in unison, the latter staring into the former's eyes, intently.
"Yeah." Rory agreed.
"That's just creepy." Rhea murmured.
"Knew it." The Doctor said, smugly, to Rhea.
"Do you want a medal?" Rhea asked, sarcastically.
"Multi-form, you see?" He let go of Rory's scrubs. "Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed, a psychic link with a living but dormant mind." With the end of that sentence, he poked Rory sharply in the middle of his forehead. He turned to look at Prisoner Zero, who was glaring at them.
Prisoner Zero snapped and snarled. The Doctor walked closer to it.
"Prisoner Zero." The Doctor said, lightly.
"Can't I just shoot him?" Rhea hissed at the Doctor, her hands reached for her gun strapped to her thigh.
"No, if you do, the Atraxi might see it as an attack and incinerate the Earth instantly." The Doctor warned her, quietly.
"That's what the eye's called, the Atraxi?" Rhea asked.
The Doctor nodded, turning his attention back to the escaped prisoner.
"What, there's a Prisoner Zero too?" Rory hissed.
"Yes." Amy answered, sharply.
There was the sound of static and the four looked up to see a spaceship fly over their heads, looking like a crystal snowflake with a giant eye sticking out, swivelling back and forth.
The Doctor slipped the screwdriver out of his pocket, subtly. "See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology." The Doctor said, addressing Prisoner Zero. "And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." He held it above his head and switched it on.
There was chaos all around them as streetlights shattered, spilling glass everywhere, car alarms blared, making people shout in shock, sirens wailed and everyone started to shout in their panic. A fire truck drove away on its own, being chased by the firemen. If the situation had been different, Rhea probably would have laughed.
"I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" The Doctor asked, rhetorically.
Prisoner Zero barked in anger. The Doctor lowered the screwdriver, with a determined look on his face, aiming it at the phone box, which exploded. Suddenly, he hissed when the screwdriver then sparked and sizzled in his hands, forcing him to drop it onto the ground.
"No, no, no, don't do that!" The Doctor shouted.
The ship started to leave as the Doctor's signal faded away.
"Look, it's going." Rory said.
"No, come back, he's here! Come back! He's here, Prisoner Zero is here. Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is..." The Doctor shouted at the clouds, running his hands through his hair in his frustration.
While the Doctor was shouting at the departing spaceship, Rhea noticed that Prisoner Zero disintegrated into a gold mist and slipped through the holes in the drain.
A/N: I hope you liked the first glimpse of the interactions between Rhea and the Eleventh Doctor (especially after she's had some experience with the older Doctors) and her interactions with Amy, especially. I think Amy's character was never properly fleshed out in Season 5. It's my personal headcanon that she would have gone through a lot of crap during her life, especially if she continued to believe that the Doctor would eventually come back for her. In a little town like Leadworth, I'm pretty sure everyone would have known about her going to see four psychiatrists. Going to see one psychiatrists is traumatic enough, not to mention an unsupportive aunt! I'm sure the other kids would have made fun of her too. I know that's not really touched on in Doctor Who, but I think Rhea would understand the consequences of her and the Doctor arriving 12 years late. So, I sort of focused on that a bit more in this chapter. Rhea and Amy will have an interesting relationship based on that, I think. And about the "stripper" thing, Rhea has nothing against strippers, I just wanted to make this clear, in fact she's quite accepting, those comments were really her lack of understanding of what a 'kissogram' was, and even if Amy was a stripper, Rhea wouldn't have minded, she's pretty much a 'free spirit'. The whole 'policewoman' and 'French maid' thing doesn't exactly help Amy's case, you have to admit. And it did make for some interesting innuendo between the Doctor and Rhea, I wonder if they'll ever act upon it?
Rhea's relationships with the companions will be tricky. I think Rhea kind of imprints on the companions like the Doctor does, but for her, it's in the wrong order. She'll feel very protective over Rose and Clara, she'll find a kindred spirit in Donna and River, because she feels they're so alike and she and Amy will be like girlfriends. But, I think her relationship with Martha will be interesting to write. It'll be based on mutual respect, affection and confidence in each other's abilities, which will be the main relationship in the first part of this story, because Season 3's finale is coming first, so a lot of Season 3 episodes are ahead.
I hope you also liked the little Doctor/Rhea moments in this chapter. The bit about the sexual fantasies, the Raggedy Doctor and his Golden Girl. I think Golden Girl is something that's going to follow Rhea around a lot, and she's not going to be pleased about it. I'm thinking about a name for Doctor/Rhea. All I can come up with (that sounds good) is Rhoctor. Any ideas?
Anyway, Read and Review!