Author's Note: Hehehehehehehehe. Can you tell I'm having way too much fun with this? :P
Chapter 11
"Alright." Rey lowered her hand from her staff and stepped to the console. "So, it was 2018—wait." She just looked at him for a long moment. "You're helping me? Why are you helping me?"
"Because you have the key."
"What?"
"Obviously my future self cares quite a bit about you, if I gave you the key. I don't just go around handing out keys to the TARDIS." He turned back to the console and flipped a switch. His voice was low. "I know what it's like to lose someone you love. I drop you off and leave, understood?"
She nodded. "More than I expected. The date is March 2, 2018. There was some kind of message—"
"A message from the past? Well then. He really wants to find you, then."
"What—oh. Oh."
He really wants to find you…
The light began to pulse up and down the center of the console and the familiar vwoorp sound filled the room.
Obviously my future self cares quite a bit about you…
The light stopped, and the TARDIS settled into place with a slight thump. She was at the door in a moment, throwing it open and stepping out.
She looked out upon the same town she had stood in a few moments before.
But it was alive. The grass was green beneath her feet, and the afternoon sunlight shone warm on her face. A few people stood chatting outside of a nearby house—the door, the door was the same, but it was whole now—and all around her she could feel the warmth and bustle of a living city.
She was probably the only one who knew its fate.
The door slammed shut behind her and she turned to see the Doctor emerging into the sunlight, flipping buttons on his sonic screwdriver.
"According to my readings, this is the source of the trouble." He glanced back at the TARDIS. "She's still uncomfortable. She's more uncomfortable than I've ever seen her." He set a hand on the side of the blue box as if comforting a skittish animal. "She wants to get out of here."
Rey squared her shoulders. "Well, I'm going. I'm going to find the Doctor—"
"And I'm going with you."
Her eyes widened. "What?"
"There's some kind of major trouble here, and the best person to look for when there's trouble is always the Doctor." He smirked. "If I know myself, I'll be right in the middle of it. Come along then!" He flipped a button on his sonic screwdriver and it beeped. "Oh, fantastic," he muttered. "I try to track myself and it picks up on…..myself. Should have expected that, really. Well, what do you say we head towards the—oh! Here we are." And before Rey could take a breath, he was off down the sidewalk. She huffed and started after him. Well—he was certainly the Doctor.
She took in every detail of her surroundings as she followed him, looking around with wide eyes. 2018—the Revolution, Atlantis, that was all in the far past now. This was the future.
The sound of an engine brought her head around and she stopped to look as some kind of landspeeder zoomed past. Landspeeder? Well, it was the only word she could think of to describe it. It rode directly on the ground—no antigravity technology, then. At least, not here. It seemed to be directed by some kind of steering device—
But then it was gone, turning a corner, and she directed her attention back to the Doctor. He stopped in front of a small house, a familiar house. She blinked. Which one was this? She knew she had seen it—
"Whatever I'm picking up on, it's in here." He swung the door open and stepped inside. The house was empty and rather dark, curtains closed against the bright afternoon sunlight. She looked around, blinking. Was this—
It was. It was the first house she had entered, with the ladder that led up to the little attic room. Barely thinking, she took off down the hallway. There had been something odd about that attic—
She was up the ladder in a few bounds, tugging on the door.
It was locked.
The door rattled. Laila looked up, her eyes wide in the attic half-light. "Doctor…."
He put a finger to her lips and pulled the strange glowy device from his pocket again. "Quiet," he hissed. "But let them come. Anyone who would do this to a person is going to have to face me."
"Doctor," Rey hissed, turning, one foot still on the rung of the ladder. "Sonic screwdriver. Now."
He raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Door's locked and I hear voices inside." She held out a hand. "Screwdriver."
"I hardly think you'll know how to use it, but here." He tossed the device. She caught it, turned it over in her fingers, and flipped a button. "And do be careful with it, will you? I really don't want to lose it."
"Thanks." She pressed it against the lock. It wobbled for a moment, then flickered out. She growled. "It's not working!"
Laila frantically searched the little attic she knew so well. There was nowhere to go—nowhere to hide. Would she become one of those bodies, her mind, her very self erased? What kind of horrible experiments had been performed here? She shuddered and back away from the door as the lock clicked—
The Doctor pressed the strange device—had he called it a sonic screwdriver?—against the lock, and his face had a grim set to it. "Good luck with that," he muttered.
Rey let out a little cry of frustration. The door had locked itself again! "Doctor! Something's locking it from the inside!" She pressed the sonic screwdriver up against the lock again, pressing the button harder this time, as if it would help. The lock began to click—
And clicked shut again.
"Oh, come on!" She rattled the doorknob. "Just let us in, for heaven's sake!"
Silence fell on the other side of the door. And then the knob turned in her fingers and the door swung open.
The Doctor stood there in the doorway, his sonic screwdriver in his hand.
For a moment they just stared at each other, and then she was in his arms, and he was swinging her in a circle, lifting her feet from the floor. "I've found you!" she cried, laughing. "I've finally found you!" The sonic screwdriver in her hand clattered to the floor and then he had set her down and was staring at it, one eyebrow raised.
"Now what—" His eyes moved between her and the screwdriver, and then he leaned down and picked it up. "That—that's my screwdriver—" His gaze went past her and she followed it to see the other Doctor at the foot of the ladder, staring up at them.
"If you don't mind, I'd like my screwdriver back," he said.
"Oh." The Doctor—her Doctor—ran his fingers through his hair and stared, one eyebrow raised. "Oh."
End of Part 1.