AN: We finally tie back into the epilogue from Forever and Never Apart.
Chapter Three: A Crack in a Wall
The Doctor felt the turn of the Earth beneath his feet, but he still shook his head. "This isn't possible," he protested. "I set the coordinates. You saw me. I set them right!"
Rose wrapped her arm around his waist and hugged him. "Yeah, but then I told the TARDIS to take us where we need to go."
He wheeled and pointed at her. "Ah-hah! Then this is your fault! Donna can bleach your hair!"
She raised her eyebrow. "I'm already blonde." A light evening breeze lifted a few strands of hair from her neck, illustrating her point.
He crossed his arms over his chest. "Then she can dye it some other colour."
Rose clasped her hands behind her back and smiled up at him. "What about red? I could be ginger."
The Doctor pouted. "Now that is just not nice."
Rose smirked at him, then shook her head and looked around. "I wonder why she brought us here."
The Doctor blinked. He hadn't really considered that, in all his aggravation over his impending hair disaster. They were on Earth, but beyond that, he had no idea where or why.
He turned in a circle, taking in the details around them. A garden shed, an old bench, children's toys that looked mostly abandoned… He looked back at the house, with the tall hedge lining the fence.
The porch light turned on, and he quickly tried to think of an explanation for being in someone's garden at… nine o'clock at night. A moment later, the door opened and a young girl ran outside, a red cardigan pulled on over her nightgown.
The girl stopped about five feet away from them and swung her torch back and forth, shining it on all of them. Rose's heart tugged when she saw the way she bit at her lower lip.
She's worried about something, she told the Doctor. I bet this is why the TARDIS took us off course.
He snorted. She did that because she's decrepit with a twisted sense of humour.
Rose poked him in the side, but she couldn't tell if that was what made him wince, or the whistle of indignation from the TARDIS.
She offered a smile to the girl. "Hello, I'm Rose, and this is the Doctor. Sorry for popping into your garden like this."
The girl shook her head quickly, making her red hair float around her shoulders. "Are you from the police?" she asked bluntly, her words coloured by a strong Scottish brogue.
Rose narrowed her eyes at the question, and beside her, she felt the Doctor tense. "Why?" he asked. "Did you call the police?"
She huffed, and Rose had to hide her smile at the exasperation of getting a question in answer to a question. Her smile disappeared with the girl's next question.
"Did you come about the man in my wall?"
"Did you say in your wall?" Rose repeated.
The girl nodded, but the rest of her answer was interrupted by the sound of a gate opening and closing, and then footsteps rushing towards them. A moment later, a boy about the same age appeared, also dressed in pyjamas.
"I heard voices and then looked out my window and saw you talking to… to…" He waved his arm vaguely in their direction. "What's going on, Amy? Who are these people?"
"This is Rose and the Doctor. They're here about the voice in my wall." The girl's eyes flicked from Rose to the boy. "I think."
"We are," Rose assured her. "But first, will you tell us your names?"
"Amelia. Amelia Pond." She glanced at her friend. "Only Rory calls me Amy."
"Pond?" the Doctor murmured, and he and Rose shared a significant look. Melody Pond had told them her mum was Scottish. Unless they happened to meet another Scotswoman named Pond, their timelines had just intersected. "That's a good name. Brilliant, actually."
Amelia blinked a few times, and in the momentary confusion, Rose turned to the boy. "And you're Rory?" she asked.
He nodded, but Amelia was the one who answered. "Rory's my best friend. He lives next door."
"Nice to meet you." The Doctor smiled at Amelia and then Rory, before looking back at Amelia. "Now. Amelia." She tilted her head to look up at him. "I have some questions about the man in your wall. If we go inside, will your parents wake up?"
She shook her head. "They went out to the movie."
"And they left you alone?" Rose asked.
Amelia wrinkled her nose. "I'm not scared to be alone," she said hotly. "And I can call Rory's mum and dad if anything happens." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Nothing ever happens in Leadworth anyway."
"Bit different from London," Rose mumbled to herself. Even when Jackie had to work late, she hadn't been left alone in the flat at Amelia's age.
"Right," the Doctor said briskly. "Good. Let's go inside then, shall we?" He pointed to the open door, and Amelia led the way.
The single light hung over the kitchen table. After standing outside for several minutes, the brightness was almost too glaring. The Doctor and Rose sat down side by side, and after exchanging a wary look, Amelia and Rory sat down across from them.
"What can you tell us about the man in your wall, Amelia?"
There wasn't an ounce of scepticism or condescension in the Doctor's voice, and both children's postures relaxed.
"I can hear his voice sometimes." She shivered. "He sounds… scared."
Rory took over the story. "We've tried telling our parents, but they all say we're just imagining it. But we know it's real."
The Doctor shook his head. "Of course it's real. Grown-ups like to think they know everything, but really they're—"
Rose nudged him gently over the bond, and he cleared his throat. "But that's not what we're here for. How long ago did you start hearing him?"
"Two weeks—"
Amelia cut Rory off. "Three weeks ago." She looked over at him. "It was before your birthday, remember?"
"Can you tell what he's saying?" Rose asked, hoping for some kind of clue.
But they both shook their heads. "It sounds… He keeps getting cut off," Rory said slowly. "Like he starts to say something but he never finishes it."
The Doctor tugged on his ear. "Interesting." He stared at the ceiling for a moment, then placed his hands on the table and stood up. "I think I need to see this wall of yours, Amelia."
Amelia led them back to the hall, then up the narrow staircase. As they climbed the stairs, the Doctor asked a question that had been nagging at the back of his mind. "Are we in England or Scotland?"
Amelia huffed, giving him the answer before she even spoke. "England. It's rubbish."
"Oi!" Rory protested.
"It's just not the same."
The Doctor hummed in agreement. "I haven't been home in a long time, either," he said. "I know exactly what you mean."
They reached the top of the stairs, and she turned the corner to go down the hallway to the back of the house. There were two doors off the hallway, one of them partway open. The Doctor assumed that must be Amelia's room.
They followed her into the room, and he turned in a circle, pointing at all the walls. "Which wall is the man in, Amelia?" he asked.
She pointed at the wall opposite the door. "That one. My mum and dad have tried to tell me it's just the wind in the trees or something, because that's the outside wall of the house."
"No trees outside that wall though," the Doctor murmured. He stared at the wall. It seemed like an ordinary bedroom wall, but the hairs on the backs of his hands were standing up. There was something here, something familiar that he couldn't quite place.
He pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and pointed it at the wall. "I wonder…" He scanned a sixteen square foot section. The sonic beeped, and he looked at the results. "Interesting."
"What's interesting?"
The Doctor looked down at Amelia, who had snuck up beside him without him noticing. She pointed at the sonic.
"What is that thing, Doctor?"
The Doctor lowered his arm and let her look at the sonic. "It's called a sonic screwdriver. I used it to scan your wall so I can find out where the voice is coming from."
"And what did you find out, Doctor?" Rory asked.
The Doctor looked at Rose. "I know we thought we'd gotten them all, but I think we've found another lingering side effect of the Reality Bomb."
"A reality what?" Amelia said.
"Reality Bomb," the Doctor repeated. He stepped forward and ran his fingers over the wall.
Amelia crossed her arms and tilted her head back to stare at the Doctor. "Do you mean like, someone tried to blow up reality or something?"
The Doctor nodded, choosing to ignore her derision. "Pretty much." He looked back at Rose. "This isn't just a little fissure, either. It's a full crack opening up to the Void."
"What do you mean, a crack?" Amelia asked.
"A crack in the walls between the worlds." The Doctor paced in front of the wall. That was what was so eerily familiar about the energy radiating from Amelia's wall. It felt just like the breach had when he'd pressed himself up against the wall at Torchwood.
"Have either of you heard of parallel universes?"
She shook her head, but Rory nodded. "I've read about them in my comic books. Other worlds like ours, where things are just a little bit different."
Rose nodded. "Exactly. And they're real. There are millions of other universes out there."
"And there are walls between the universes," the Doctor continued. "Walls that keep one reality from seeping into another." He rubbed at his jaw. "Only sometimes, they get little cracks in them. That Reality Bomb I mentioned damaged the walls, and we've been checking to make sure they're all fixed."
Amelia looked at her wall, then at the Doctor. "So this… this man in my wall, he might be from another world?"
"Could be." The Doctor pressed his hand to the wall. "Or he could have been pulled into the crack from this world."
"Can you… Can you get him out?" she asked, her voice wavering just slightly. "His voice has been getting quieter. I'm afraid he's going to be trapped."
They heard it then—a whisper of sound, a word started but not quite finished, just like Rory had said.
The Doctor pursed his lips and scanned the wall a second time after adjusting the settings just slightly. "You're right, Amelia," he said a moment later. "The amount of Void energy in this room has dropped even in the five minutes we've been here."
He stepped back and tugged on his ear. "But how are we going to get you out?" he asked, almost to himself.
The question made Rose's insides twist with anxiety. She started to call the Doctor's name, but then saw how both Rory and Amelia were staring at him hopefully.
Doctor.
He stopped and looked over at her. What is it, Rose?
How do we know it's not like, a Cyberman or Dalek trying to get out of the Void?
The Doctor looked at the wall again with narrowed eyes. "I suppose before I go letting you out, I ought to make sure you're here in peace."
The knots in Rose's stomach eased as he adjusted the settings on the sonic and scanned the wall for a third time. "Human," he told Rose a moment later. "And… hang on, this is a teleport signal." He rocked back on his heels and stared at the wall. "How did a teleport signal get stuck, of all things?"
"Can you help him?"
The Doctor didn't turn around when Amelia asked the question they were all wondering. "I don't know," he said honestly.
Rose stared at the wall through narrowed eyes. They'd dealt with a teleport signal before… "Can't you use the sonic to lock onto the teleport signal, like you did with Margaret the Slitheen?"
The Doctor shook his head and started pacing in front of the wall. "The signal is too weak. Either it's degrading because it's stuck in the Void, or the Void is blocking me from being able to lock onto it."
Rose leaned against the wall, and she could feel it then—the Void energy that was pouring into this room. It tugged at her ever so slightly, the dormant Void matter she was still covered in wanting to get back where it belonged.
"Can't you boost the signal somehow?" she suggested. "Reverse the polarity or something?"
The Doctor shook his head, a slight smile on his lips. "You're starting to sound like my third self. I was always saying that as if it were the solution to everything."
He pressed himself against the wall and inched forward, trying to feel where the connection point was thinnest. The vague sense of wrong got stronger as he moved towards Rose. Finally, about a foot away from her, the hairs on his neck stood on end.
He slid his hand up to cover the spot. "Gotcha," he murmured, with his eyeball scrunched up against the wall. Just to be sure, he scooted a little closer to Rose. As he expected, the sensation faded as he moved away from the weak spot in the walls.
He stepped back, leaving his hand flat against the wall. "I think that if I could boost the sonic signal and direct it right here, I could pull them through. But we need to work fast if we're going to make it work."
He looked over his shoulder at Amelia. "Do you have something I can use to write with? A marker, pencil, anything?"
Amelia nodded and darted over to the child's desk she had underneath the window. They could hear things being shifted around in the drawer, and then she pulled out a marker.
"Perfect." The Doctor accepted the black marker from her and put an x over the spot he'd detected. "X marks the spot!" he said triumphantly. "Oh, now there's something we've never done! We should go hunting for buried treasure one day, Rose."
Rose shook her head and laughed. "That sounds like fun," she agreed. "But today the buried treasure is a man, and you said that we need to hurry if we're going to help him in time. So… how do we boost that sonic signal?"
"We'll link our sonics together and use yours as the amplifier."
She blinked. "You can do that?"
"In theory! But we need to go back to the TARDIS so I can write the code. Allons-y!" He took off running, taking the stairs two at a time.
Rose looked at the kids. "Come on, let's go."
They caught up with the Doctor just outside the TARDIS doors. Amelia stopped and put her hands on her hips as she looked up at the door. "If you're a doctor, why does your box say 'Police?'"
Rose grinned. If Amelia was still asking good questions like that when she was older, it was no wonder she and the Doctor would invite her to travel with them.
Of course, there's also the fact that we ask because we know we've asked, which is why Melody didn't want to tell us about her mum.
The Doctor grinned at her. Time travel, he agreed.
He focused on Amelia, still glaring at him suspiciously. "I'm not a doctor, I'm the Doctor. It's my name, like Amelia is yours. And it's not a box. It's a time machine."
Amelia's forehead wrinkled into the dubious frown that was already familiar. "What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?"
"I do." The Doctor slid the key into the lock. "Would you like to see?"
He pushed the door open and stepped aside to let the kids go in first. Rose walked in after them and waited.
"But this is impossible," Amelia said. "Your box can't be bigger on the inside."
"But it is," the Doctor countered.
"But it can't be," Amelia insisted.
"Is the inside in a different dimension?" Rory asked.
The Doctor gaped at him. "You… you are eight years old," he stuttered. "How did you… Grown adults have never figured that out."
Amelia took Rory's hand."He reads lots of science fiction magazines," she said. All of her refusal to believe what her eyes were seeing had disappeared as soon as Rory explained it.
"But… You're supposed to be amazed, to wonder how it works! You're not supposed to know."
"Doctor, you said we were running out of time," Amelia said.
"Right, yes." The Doctor ran his hand through his hair, trying to return his focus to the man stuck in the wall and not the seeming impossibility of an eight year old boy understanding the TARDIS.
"Thank you, Amelia Pond. That's a brilliant name by the way," he added as he started coding the new program that would allow him to combine the signals on the two screwdrivers into one that would be strong enough to bring this man back from the Void.
Rose shook her head. "Come on," she told the kids. "Let's have a snack while we let him work."
The TARDIS hummed as they walked down the corridor, and Rose wasn't surprised when there were three cups of cocoa and a plate of biscuits waiting for them when they reached the galley.
The kids didn't need any further coercion to convince them to sit down.
Amy took a sip of cocoa, then set her mug down and leaned her elbows on the table. "Is he really a doctor?" she asked. "Because he seems like he's just a madman in a box."
"Amy!"
Rose's laughter cut off Rory's appalled cry. "Amelia Pond," she said, handing the girl a biscuit, "you might have summed up the Doctor better than anyone." She winked. "But he really is a doctor."
Amelia took a bite of the biscuit, and Rose waited. She swallowed, then shrugged and drank more of her cocoa. "All right."
Rose sighed. The ease with which both Amelia and Rory accepted what they could tell to be true was charming. Adults would spend the whole night trying to explain how this couldn't possibly be happening. Amelia and Rory just accepted it and moved on.
Amelia tilted her head, and Rose waited for her next question. "Is that a wolf?" she asked, pointing at Rose's necklace.
Rose held it out. "Yeah, it is. They're kind of… well, a bit special to me. The Doctor gave this to me for our third anniversary."
Amy touched the gold detailing around the eyes. "It's really pretty," she declared.
"Thanks, I think so too."
I'm ready whenever you are.
Rose pushed back from the table. "I think the Doctor is done," she said.
oOoOo
The Doctor rocked back on his heels and studied what he'd done. In theory, it should work. His screwdriver would act as the primary device, originating the signal that would pull the man out of Amelia's wall. Rose's would amplify the signal, creating a deeper resonance that would allow the signal to travel through the walls and into the Void, bringing the man back.
In theory. He'd never written a program for the sonic that tied together the abilities of two devices—mostly because he'd never had two sonics at his disposal.
But what's life without a little adventure? he thought whimsically. He pulled his sonic out of his pocket and tossed it in the air once before inserting it into the port. He tapped Rose's against his palm impatiently while he waited for the program to load, and then swapped them out as soon as the blue diode lit up.
I'm ready whenever you are, he told Rose, knowing the TARDIS would be done writing the program before she, Amelia, and Rory made it back to the console room.
He heard footsteps in the corridor just as Rose's sonic lit up violet. He pulled it out, then spun and tossed it at Rose as she entered the console room.
She caught it one-handed and shot him a cheeky smile. "Ta."
"Well, everyone," the Doctor said as he bounded up the ramp. "Who's ready to rescue the mystery man stuck in Amelia's wall?" He opened the door gestured towards the house.
Rose let Amelia and Rory race outside first, then she followed and closed the door behind her. The Doctor was already inside the house, and she jogged across the garden to catch up.
When they were standing in front of the wall again, Rose looked at the Doctor. "All right, how is this going to work?"
He flipped his screwdriver and adjusted the settings. "First, let's do a quick status check."
He ran the sonic over the area of the wall where they could most clearly hear the voice. He looked at the sonic, then at the wall and back again, gulping hard at the readings.
What's wrong? Rose asked.
His gaze darted from her back to the sonic. The crack is closing faster than I thought it would, he told her. If this doesn't work, I won't have time to think of another brilliant plan.
"Are we too late?" Amelia asked.
The Doctor let out his breath slowly, then shook his head. "Not yet." Amelia didn't look convinced, so he held out his hand. "Come here. Let's save him together."
Rory walked over with Amelia, and Rose took one of his hands. The Doctor adjusted his sonic back to the new setting, then took Amelia's hand.
"Ready?"
"Ready," all three of them said.
The Doctor pointed his sonic at the blank wall and activated the new setting. The hum was slightly lower pitched than most settings, echoing at a lower harmonic level to better get through the walls between the worlds.
A moment later, Rose's sonic started too. The tone changed again, this time to something louder, sounding almost like an engine grinding—sounding, actually, a little like the TARDIS.
"It's working," the Doctor muttered. "It's penetrating the walls between the worlds. Now if it will just lock onto that teleport signal…"
He heard everyone in the room take a deep breath and hold it. The blue and violet lights from the sonics cast a deep purple glow in the room, and he crossed his fingers for a result as magical as the light effect.
Rose stared at the wall. She thought she could see something, but she didn't know if it was real, or just wishful thinking. But then the shimmery presence slowly solidified, first becoming the outline of a man.
"Yay!" Amelia and Rory let go of their hands and did a little dance in the middle of the room.
Nerves coursed through Rose, and she wanted to bounce on her toes to get some of the energy out. She didn't dare move though, unsure what would happen if the signal from her sonic got interrupted somehow.
Instead, she satisfied herself with a victorious fist pump and a hissed, "Yes!" as she watched the outline fill in. The man was tall, about as tall as the Doctor, but not as slim. Something about that sounded familiar, and she narrowed her eyes to catch more details.
Dark hair, black trousers and a black jumper…
When the outline of his prominent ears filled in, she knew. "Oh my god," Rose whispered. "Oh my god!" she yelled.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Doctor's gaze swing over to her, but she ignored him. If she was right about who this man was, then this was the most incredible coincidence she'd ever witnessed.
Finally, the signal ended and he was safely on this side of the Void. And now there was no doubt in Rose's mind.
"Lee McAvoy," she breathed.
The tall man tilted his head and studied her. "D-Do I know you?" He squinted at her, and his eyes widened. "You were with Jenny in the Library!"
"Hang on," the Doctor interrupted. "Lee McAvoy? As in Donna's Lee, the one we have been scanning the entire universe for for the last five months?"
Rose noticed the dull red moving up Lee's neck when the Doctor called him Donna's Lee, and she wanted to rub her hands together gleefully. This was every romantic fantasy come to life. She'd always wanted to play the fairy godmother matchmaker, and now she could.
"Where's Donna?" Lee asked, pushing the words out so quickly that they didn't have time to get caught in his stammer.
"She and Jenny are on Barcelona, taking a holiday," Rose said. "We were just on our way to pick them up when we were brought here instead. Amelia said she had a man in her wall, and the rest…" She shrugged.
"Hang on," Amelia said impatiently. "You know him?"
Rose coughed and covered her mouth to hide her smile. Amelia sounded positively indignant that they knew more about the man that had been in her wall than they did. And from the perspective of a seven year old, she couldn't really blame her.
"Welllll…" The Doctor rocked back on his heels and took a breath.
Rose leapt into the opening. This wasn't really the time for one of his rambles, as much as she loved those.
"Kinda," she said. "Our friend Donna met him once, but they lost touch. We've been helping her look for him."
"Y-y-you have?" Lee asked, his eyes wide and hopeful.
"Yep!" The Doctor bounced on his toes and gestured at the door. "And I don't think we should keep her waiting any longer, do you?"
As they tramped down the stairs and out into the garden one last time, Rose was aware that Amelia and Rory were trailing after them. Even though she knew they couldn't come with them right now, she didn't have the heart to force them to stay inside. The adventure was almost done, and they would have to wait years to enter the TARDIS again.
The Doctor stuck the key in the TARDIS door and looked over his shoulder at Lee. "Your ride awaits," he said, pushing the door open and letting his new guest take in the cavernous console room.
Lee walked through the door and stopped, turning his head every direction. The Doctor grinned, waiting for it. This was his favourite part of getting a new companion.
"This is a T-T-TARDIS," Lee said, quiet and matter-of-fact. He turned around and looked at the Doctor and Rose. "Which makes you…" His mouth worked, and then he took a deep breath. "Time Lords," he concluded, the t sounding almost violent.
The Doctor gaped at him. "But… You… How?"
"Doctor, I thought you said that grown adults don't even know what your box is."
He turned and glared at Amelia. "Yes, thank you, Amelia. Apparently, everyone knows what a TARDIS is and is never surprised by the fact that she is bigger on the inside."
Lee arched an eyebrow, and the Doctor had the upsetting feeling that he was smirking at him. "I'm a…" He swallowed. "Time Agent," he explained.
Rose pumped her fist. "I knew it!" she crowed.
The Doctor was grateful Lee at least looked surprised by that exclamation. "How?"
Rose bounced in place, a wide grin on her face. "We tried to track you using the metadata from your biochip," she explained. "But yours was mostly blank—it just had your picture. And I said that maybe you were a Time Agent."
Lee nodded. "I was there on a mission." He lifted one shoulder. "I guess the Library is still a mystery."
"We can give you the full story, if you'd like," the Doctor offered. "Or Donna can. Help you fill out that mission report—I know what a bear those can be."
Lee grimaced, and the Doctor and Rose laughed in commiseration.
When the laughter stopped, the three adults looked at each other, none of them knowing what to say next.
"Right, well, I suppose we should be going," the Doctor said after an awkward pause.
"Can I come?"
The Doctor sighed. It was the question he'd been dreading most of the evening. Rose took his hand and squeezed, and he thanked her silently before squatting down to look the girl in the eye.
"Amelia, we can't take you with us. If your mum and dad came home and you were gone, think how upset they'd be."
Amelia sighed and scuffed her toe against the grass.
He dropped his head to hold her gaze as she tried to look away. "And if we came back with you, imagine what they'd think of us. You'd never convince them we hadn't kidnapped you—and I wouldn't blame them for thinking that."
"But you said it's a time machine," Amelia protested. "You could take us with you now and bring us back before morning."
"Yes, well…" The Doctor tugged on his ear. "She is a time machine, but precision landings aren't exactly her specialty. We might aim for tomorrow morning and land in twelve years. And then where would we be?"
"In jail for kidnapping," Rory said.
"Exactly," Rose agreed.
"But I want to come with you and have more adventures," Amelia protested.
The Doctor and Rose looked at each other, both at a loss of what to say. Amelia Pond would travel with them someday, they knew that much. But how could they get her to stay home today without giving away her future?
The Doctor looked from Rose to Amelia, his meaning clear. He'd tried to convince the young girl to stay home; it was Rose's turn.
"Amelia…"
She rolled her eyes. "You're going to say no," she said, her lips turning down into a pout. "Grown ups always say no when they say your name like that."
Rose sighed, but before she could make a second attempt, they heard voices coming down the lane. "My mum and da!" she whispered. "The film must be over." She glanced at the Doctor and Rose, then at the lane. "Bye!"
Rose watched as she and Rory both ran back to their homes. Then she closed the door behind her and nodded at the Doctor. "Let's go, before the Ponds call the actual police on us," she suggested.
The Doctor threw the lever and grinned at their passenger. "Lee McAvoy. Someone has been waiting to see you."