A comment by the lovely "thecrimsonnote" made me really happy and made me want to address something really quick: last chapter took place in May 2013, meaning Alice has not seen any episodes past that point (or even some before because realistically: that's a lot of episodes, man, and life- unfortunately- doesn't allow for 24/7 Doctor Who).
It is not gentle when Alice wakes: a loud gasp rips from her dry throat, as if she were coming up for air after drowning. That's how she felt, like she had been drowning. Her body jerked forward from her sitting position- a position she didn't recall putting herself in- and her hands grasped at the area beneath her. Laughter, chatter, and rushing water assaults her ears. Eyes twitching, Alice spots a fountain. A familiar fountain.
Impossible.
She would recognize the fountain anywhere. The Bethesda Fountain situated in the heart of Central Park. It had been one of Alice's most vivid memories during a road trip with her parents just a few years prior. She remembered the green water, the red brick, and the arches of the terrace with acute accuracy- for no particular reason, really- and knew, without a doubt, that she was in New York city. The sights, the sounds, the smells- it was all New York. I was all so real.
Pushing against the terrace's column, Alice stands. She could feel the very roughness of the architecture against her back as she had to be one trippy dream, she decides.
"Alice?"
Her head jerks instinctually towards the accented voice calling- oddly enough- her name.
The person was heading in her direction, carrying a drink carrier in one hand and waving with the other. An odd look crosses her features. He couldn't surely mean her, she doesn't know who this stranger is. She looks behind her to find the Alice he was looking for, only to find the space empty.
"Couldn't wait for your coffee, could you?" His face was oddly familiar, then again, she once heard that dreams only contained faces you had seen before.
No matter. Dream or not, this man seemed to know her, she did not know him, and he was drawing closer so she did what came naturally: she turned on her heels and walked through the terrace, in the opposite direction of the stranger.
She could hear his echoing footsteps, gaining speed as she did. "Alice! Alice, wait! What're you doing?" He was getting closer. She looked over her shoulder and saw him just steps away.
She sprinted two steps when he grabbed her wrist, "Alice! What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Let me go!" She tried to pull away with all her body weight. The coffees had been dropped and forgotten at the back archway. "I don't know who you are so let me go! Help! He-" His hand covered her mouth.
"Do you hear that?" She struggled in his grasp, muffled screams were trapped behind his hand. "Calm down, Alice!"
Alice stilled. He was Arthur Darvill. Her brain hadn't conjured some stranger for this dream- no- it conjured Rory Williams.
With her pause in struggling, Alice heard laughter.
No, giggles.
No. Alice heard cackles.
A muffled questioned tried to pass dream Rory's hand, "Oops, sorry." He let Alice go with a sheepish smile.
Her voice shaky and small, she asked, "Where did everyone go?"
Rory finally noticed that the noisy chatter of New Yorkers had disappeared and as he turned towards the fountain, so had the New Yorkers.
"Right." He turned to the blonde girl. "Let's get back to the Doctor." He dashed to the stairs.
"Wait what?"
Nighttime.
She literally blinked and it was no longer daytime but nighttime. She blinked and it was no longer warm but chilly. She blinked and she was no longer within Central Park but rather standing on a sidewalk illuminated by yellow street lamps next to her dream's companion.
"Hello, Dad, Alice." Alex Kingston was now in her dream.
Alice decides she needs to take a break from watching Doctor Who. She certainly hadn't seen any of this transpire in an episode before. Her unconscious mind was creating its own storyline while she slept. Yes, she decided, no more British Sci-Fi's for a while.
"Where are we? How the hell did we get here?" Rory asked, clearly confused.
Dream River shook her head to Rory, "I haven't the faintest idea, but you'll probably want to put your hands up."
Rory and Alice turned to see a gun moving before them, aiming at one and then the other. A very undignified squeak left Alice's throat as she raised her arms above her head.
"Melody Malone?"
"You're Melody?" Rory cried as a limousine appeared.
"Get in." A man with a gun forced the three into the back seat of the car. The fit was tight as Alice was forced into the car door with Rory pressed against her and River.
Alice had never lucid dreamed before now, but now that she was, she felt shocked at just how vivid, how realistic it all felt.
"What is going on?" Rory asked, trying to get comfortable,
River brushed his question off with an observation, "You two didn't come here in the TARDIS, obviously."
Alice decided to see a therapist when she woke.
"Why?"
"He couldn't have." Rory looked over my head to River for her to explain, "This city's full of time distortions. It'd be impossible to land the TARDIS here. Like trying to land a plane in a blizzard. Even I couldn't do it."
"So how did you get here?"
Stretching her wrist across my lap, she showed Rory, "Vortex manipulator. Less bulky than a Tardis. A motorbike through traffic. You two?"
Alice decided a CAT scan may be more appropriate than a therapist at this point.
"I'm not sure." He muttered.
River's intimidating stare focused on the silent woman on her father's left. "You're young," she observed. Alice refused to look at her, Rory, or even the passing buildings. She kept her eyes focused on her tennis shoes. Those, at least, were known to her. "You're quiet too. Do you know me?" She spoke after receiving no reply from the blonde.
"You're not real." Alice muttered, more to herself than to the people on her right. She knew they weren't real, yet it felt so concrete. She could feel the leather of the seat against her thighs, the corners of the car door pressed into her ribs, Rory's jacket that rubbed roughly against her exposed arms.
River's brow raised. "You're really young." Rory was staring Alice with a look of confusion and disbelief. "You just got here, didn't you?" It wasn't a question.
"Where is here, exactly?" Alice's response was almost biting.
River ignored her question. "You've not yet met the Doctor."
"The Doctor isn't real, this is all a dream." Alice was getting frustrated with this dream and decided that it was time to wake up. She didn't understand what was happening so it was time to wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.
The car came to an abrupt stop. Alice was still wedged against the door and was clearly un-awoken from her dream. The first of the two thugs reached in, pulling River from the car, then did the same for Alice and Rory. The men made sure to keep their prisoners tight within their grasps, practically dragging the three of them into the home before them.
"Ah. Early Qin dynasty, I'd say." River appraised a random vase to the right.
Alice was intelligent; she knew she possessed above average intelligence for a person at the age of eighteen. Despite her- what she had always immodestly considered vast- knowledge and creative imagination, Alice wasn't sure she could've created this scenario in her mind, even subconsciously.
The fact that she was considering the validity of the illusionary world around her concerned Alice even more. She couldn't even trust her own mind at this point.
"Correct. Are you an archaeologist as well as a detective?" A graying man in a pinstripe suit spoke from the top of the staircase before descending, "Early Qin, just as you say. You're very well informed."
River smirked, "And you're very afraid. That's an awful lot of locks for one door."
The giant thugs let go of their captured, allowing for River and Rory to immediately search the neighboring rooms.
Just like a proper companion, Alice notes, shaking her head still in disbelief.
Not wanting to be alone in the same room with the very men who were just holding guns to her head, Alice follows Rory into the next room. If she was stuck in this dream than she would make sure she was stuck with the very nice Rory and not the very intimidating River.
"River, I'm translating," Rory called over his shoulder as Alice approached the artifact. The characters on the urn morphed to read 'rapture of summer.'
"It's a gift of the TARDIS. It hangs around." River informed her father.
Alice didn't think she could make that up in her mind.
"These two," Pinstripes gestured to Rory and Alice, "Put them somewhere uncomfortable."
"With the babies, sir?" One lackey suggested.
"Yes, why not? Give them to the babies."
The large man nodded with a sinister smirk on his lips, grabbing Rory and Alice's elbows with a tight grip.
"Wait," River called and nodded towards Alice, "She's with me." One look at Alice's widened eyes and pinstripe's could tell River was lying. "She's my assistant. She stays with me."
The man sighed but nodded to his employee to let Alice go. The man seemed put out by this but pushed the blonde to the ground before dragging Rory away.
"Wait, but-"Alice wanted to know where they were taking Rory, but one look from River silenced her.
Alice sheepishly followed River and the man in charge into what appeared to be a study. River made herself at home, making her way through the room, taking in her surroundings and removing her coat with a flourish.
Though she was closest to the draped wall beside the door, Alice- as well as River- caught sight of a word painted on a vase, a word that confused Alice but humored River.
Yowzah.
"Hello, sweetie," Alice's line of sight jerked to River immediately. Those two words could only mean one thing, and Alice wasn't sure if she needed that last nail in the coffin to ensure her insanity or not. "Let's see, crime boss with a collecting fetish. Whatever you don't let anyone else see has got to be your favorite. Or possibly your girlfriend." She smirked and walked over to the curtains behind Alice. She yanks on a cord, revealing the snarling face of an angel statue. "So, Girlfriend then."
Alice's blood ran cold. She knew what sort of angel this was.
Alice kept her eyes on the now exposed weeping angel. This dream was already terrifying enough, she didn't need to be sent back in time to make it even worse, so Alice kept vigil staring at the angel, blinking only when necessary.
River begins to type away furiously on her vortex manipulator, gaining pinstripe's attention, "What are you doing?"
"Oh, you know, texting a boy," she shrugged.
Alice has a feeling she knew who that boy would be and it terrified her. And if she were being honest with herself, maybe even excited her in a very minimal way. Every fan of Doctor Who wanted to meet the Doctor. She just didn't want to lose her sanity for it.
"These things are all over, but people don't seem to notice. It never moves while you're looking." Pinstripes explains.
"Oh, I know how they work." River knew everything, Alice decided.
"So I understand. Melody Malone, the detective who investigates Angels."
"Badly damaged."
Almost in a trance, Alice stepped closer to the angel.
That was her first mistake.
"I wanted to know if it could feel pain."
Alice placed her trust in the chains and River, who was also staring at the statue, to prevent the angel from moving.
That was her second mistake.
"You realise it's screaming? The others can hear. Is that why you need all the locks?" River asked just before the lights were extinguished momentarily.
Alice tripped forward.
That was her most egregious mistake.
The angel now had Alice's wrist firmly in her grasp. It all happened so quickly, Alice didn't even know she was captured until she could see it with her own eyes. And what she saw with her own eyes was almost worst.
The angel's expression was now twisted into an even more painful scream, teeth sharp and blank eyes staring down at their prisoner.
Alice tried to pull away, her whole body was trembling now, but the hold was immovable.
She really, really would like to wake up now.
"You're going to tell me all about these creatures. And you're going to do it quickly." The man asserted before flicking the light on and off again as a threat. Though it was only momentary, the Angel had just enough time to tighten its hand around Alice's wrist.
It was painful. Very painful. Like it was trying to crush her bones.
You weren't supposed to feel pain in dreams.
"The Angels are predators. They're deadly. What do you want with them?" River spoke quickly.
"I'm a collector," He replied, a smile evident in his voice, "What collector could resist these? I'm only human."
"That's exactly what they're thinking."
The lights begin to flicker, this time without the aid of pinstripes. The artefacts begin to tumble to the ground as the house begins to shake on it's foundation. Alice holds onto the stone wrist holding her own for leverage. She was sure it was a earthquake, and while that seemed unlikely for one in New York to due this much damage, it was the only logical explanation.
"What's that? What's happening? Is it an earthquake?" He cried, hysterically. "What is it?" He asks once the tell-tale wheezing sound pierces the air.
"No," Alice mutters in disbelief.
Hearing that sound on the television is one thing, but actually hearing it in person was another. It was loud. It was disconcerting. But it instilled hope in Alice.
For what exactly, she wasn't sure. Part of her hoped it were real so then she wouldn't be carted off to the nearest insane asylum. The other part hoped it wasn't so that she could wake and return home to her nice, simple, boring life.
That wasn't true.
She wanted it to be real so the Doctor could get her out of this near-death experience and then take her home to her nice, simple, boring life.
Yes, that would be the best option at the current moment, she decides.
"Yes." River turns from the statue with a smirk to look at the entering TARDIS, "Oh, you bad boy. You could burn New York."
"What does that mean?" Pinstripes was lost.
"It means, Mister Grayle, just you wait till the Doctor gets in." Goosebumps covered Alice's arms.
Running towards the sound, Grayle gets knocked to the ground by the TARDIS just before it makes it's rough landing in his entry way.
"Rory? Rory? Rory?" Alice could easily recognize that accent as Amy's.
As much as she wanted to turn her gaze towards the man who entered her peripheral vision, Alice kept her eyes forward, unblinking on the statue. She learned her lesson from before.
"Sorry I'm late, honey. Traffic was hell."
This couldn't be real.
River blocked Alice from his view, "She doesn't know you."
The Doctor flexed his jaw in annoyance, "I know," he muttered.
"She doesn't know any of you."
"I know," The Doctor almost snapped. Alice could see him much better now that he was closer. His strong jaw, his floppy hair, his bow tie. Even if she wasn't looking directly at him, she could notice nearly every detail. And she was frightened and excited and so very, very confused. "So where are we now, Doctor Song? How's prison?"
"Oh, I was pardoned ages ago," she brushed him off before turning to observe the broken artefact littering the floor, "And it's Professor Song to you."
"Pardoned?"
"Mmm. Turns out the person I killed never existed in the first place. Apparently, there's no record of him. It's almost as if someone's gone around deleting himself from every database in the universe."
"You said I got too big."
"And now no one's ever heard of you. Didn't you used to be somebody?"
Alice was getting tired of their flirting. Didn't they see the thing holding onto her wrist?
"Weren't you the woman who killed the Doctor?" The Doctor teased.
"Doctor who?" Alice rolled her eyes at River's joke. Any other time she might laugh, but right now she was irritated and her wrist was becoming very sore.
The Doctor's smile faded as he turned to Alice. "She's holding you very tight," he assessed.
"Quite," Alice muttered, refusing to look at him.
"At least she didn't send her back in time," River offered.
"I doubt she's strong enough," The Doctor observed.
"Well, she needs her hand back, so which is it going to be? Are you going to break her wrist," she looked to me, "Or hers?" she looked to the angel.
With a quick glance at River, who was staring at the angel, Alice allowed her eyes to connect with the Doctor's for the first time.
She tried her best to keep her face blank, but she was mesmerized by his eyes. It wasn't the cacophony of shades they held- though they were surely beautiful. It was the wisdom, the intelligence, the age that took her breath away.
More than that, he was looking at her like she mattered, really mattered. They held concern and sympathy. She could see why people were quick to trust him.
Oh god, I've really lost it.
"I'm so sorry," The Doctor uttered to Alice, indicating that the girl would be the unlucky one.
She pursed her lips and nodded, turning her stare back to the angel.
"Why not the Angels?" River protested.
"Because Amy read it in a book, and now I have no choice." Amy stood in the doorway, looking at Alice with a look of sorrow and remorse. "You see?" he asked, looking to the redhead.
"What book?" River asked, interrupting the Doctor before he could scold his companion more.
"Your book. Which you haven't written yet, so we can't read," The Doctor pulled the book from his pocket, showing River.
"I see. I don't like the cover much."
The Doctor angrily threw himself into a chair out of Alice's sight, his legs bouncing anxiously.
"But if River's going to write that book, she'd make it useful, yeah?" Amy asked.
"I'll certainly try. But we can't read ahead, it's too dangerous," River agreed with the Doctor.
"I know, but there must be something we can look at."
The Doctors tone was almost biting, "What, a page of handy hints, previews, spoiler free?"
Amy crossed her arms and smirked, "Chapter titles?"
The Doctor opened his mouth to object before nodding in agreement. He opened the book to scan the chapter titles, "He's in the cellar."
"Gimme!" The Doctor tosses the sonic screwdriver to Amy, jumps on his feet, full of giddiness that he might save the day, yet again.
He paused at the doorway before turning to Alice. "Listen," Alice was all ears but the Doctor cupped her cheeks, want her eyes too. He spoke softly while River stood back a few paces, watching the angel intently. "I know you believe your insane but trust me, you are not. I need you to remain safe and I will answer your questions later, alright?" Alice just stared and the Doctor sighed, "Just go with it all for now, please?"
She pressed her lips together and furrowed her brow. He was essentially asking her to go along with this impossibility and she wasn't so sure she wanted to acquiesce to his request. But his eyes- his ancient, improbable eyes held a plea that she couldn't refuse. So she nodded and turned back to her captor. The Doctor's eyes flashed and he leaned forward, pressing a delicate but quick kiss to her temple, making Alice stiffen at the unexpected contact.
The Doctor turned on his heel, book in hand and stopped, gaining River's concern, "Doctor? Doctor, what is it? What's wrong? Tell me. Doctor? Doctor, what is it, tell me. Okay, I know that face." He suddenly began thrashing the book around, hitting the nearest seat in an angry tantrum. "Calm down. Calm down! Talk to me. Doctor!"
"No!" He turned back to Alice and cupped her cheeks, all of his previous delicacy had disappeared as his face suddenly centimeters from her own. He was angry and hostile as he spoke, showing Alice but a glimpse of what the Oncoming Storm was capable of. "Get your wrist out," He let her go and stomped to River aggressively, "You get her wrist out without breaking it!" He yelled and turned on his heel, running to assist Amy.
"How?" River called.
His arms flailed, "I don't know. Just do it. Change the future!"
When he was out of earshot, River turned to Alice. "I'm going to have to break your wrist."
Her eyes went wide in fear. "But the Docto-"
"The Doctor is a fool if he believes that he can rewrite fixed points." She gathered her jacket before approaching the blonde. "But we mustn't let him know, so you're going to have to pretend it isn't broken. We can attend to it later."
Alice took a moment to absorb what River just said before nodding. River knew what she was doing, Alice, however, still believed herself to be dreaming or insane or in a coma. She would have to listen to whatever the older woman advised her to do.
River balled up the sleeve of her coat and poised it at Alice's mouth, "Ready?"
Alice puffed, "Just make it quick," and opened her mouth to have River place the sleeve inside.
"One," she started, "Two," River snapped her wrist on two, taking Alice by surprise as she clenched and yelled in agony against the sleeve. Tears were pouring from her eyes. It was by far the most excruciating pain she had experienced to date.
Alice spat the sleeve from her mouth and let out pathetic whimpers of pain as she lowered her bruised, bloodied wrist from the angel.
A few minutes passed before Alice could take calming breaths and wipe away her tears with her good hand. "Thank you," she whispered.
River nodded and bent over to grab the jacket, and gingerly helped Alice pull it on. "This should hide the bruising for now. Just know, the Doctor will eventually find out, he always does. It's your job to keep it hidden from him as long as possible. He cannot afford any distractions right now." Once it was secured upon her shoulders, Amy and the Doctor entered the entrance hall.
River began to mess with her vortex manipulator as she led Alice away from the chained angel and into the front room.
"So, is this what's going to happen? We just keep chasing him and they keep pulling him further back?" Amy asked, pacing as the Doctor sat on the steps.
"He isn't back in time. I'm reading a displacement, but there are no temporal markers. He's been moved in space, not in time, and it's not that far from here by the look of it." River added, but the Doctor paid no attention to her, his eyes were focused completely on Alice.
"You got out," he said, amazed. Alice just looked to the ground.
"So, where is he?" Amy asked.
"Well, come on, come on, come on, where is he?" The Doctor urged River.
With a smirk, she replied, "If it was that easy, I'd get you to do it."
Turning to Alice, "How did you get your wrist out without breaking it?"
"You asked us to," Alice wasn't sure were that smooth lie came from but she earned the most brilliant, goofy smile from the alien before her because of it. She felt a pang of guilt at that- both the smile and her ability to lie so quickly to the Doctor.
"You just changed the future."
"It's called marriage, honey. Now, hush, I'm working."
Going to it down on the stairs between River and Amy, he beamed, "She's good, have you noticed? Really, really good. So young but still so good."
Alice flushed under his praise. She really didn't deserve it.
"River helped." She added, weakly. She shifted as pangs of pain ran from her wrist all the way up her arm. She took calming breaths to try and keep her composure.
"Ah, wherever it is, it's within a few blocks. There's a car out front. Shall we steal it?" River spoke.
"Show me!" The Doctor exclaims running forward and grabbing Alice's hand- the hand attached to her broken wrist- to pull her with him.
A small scream filled the room.
He immediately dropped her hand and looked at Alice, panicked. When he pulled on her hand it felt like her wrist was being broken once again; a fiery pain shot up my limb and left her whimpering like a child with tears in her eyes. She cradled her hand to her chest protectively and curled in on herself. She refused to look at the Doctor as she shied away from him.
The Doctor turned briskly, grabbing the manipulator from River and pulling Amy and River to the side.
Alice climbed the stairs and took a seat, her wrist resting against her chest as she wiped away her fresh tears with her good hand. She vaguely listened as the Doctor gave the women instructions, and barely registered when he climbed the stairs and took a seat beside her. He was turned towards her, looking at her and practically begging her to turn to him but she kept her eyes forward, focusing now on Amy and River who were clearly pretending to ignore the people on the stairs.
"Why did you lie to me?" His tone held hurt and that made Alice feel guilty. Real or not, she hated that she lied to him.
She took her time responding, knowing that River was watching her response, "I didn't want to disappoint you." It was the truth without mentioning River's encouragement. She took a shaky breath, "Even if I don't exactly believe that any of this is real."
With a sigh, "It must hurt. Come here," He grabbed her wrist gently and pulled it into his hand. Despite his gentle touch, the contact still sent fire through her arm once again. Alice clenched her eyes shut and bit her lip, holding in her shudders of pain.
As Alice breathed, her pain began to fade.
"No, Doctor! Stop it!" River shouted.
Alice's eyes darted from River to her hand where she sees golden energy- what she could only assume to be regeneration energy- flow from his hands to her wrist. Seeing River's anger made Alice try to pull away but the Doctor tightened his hold and ignored the woman as she approached.
"No. No. No, stop that. Stop that. Stop it!" River exclaimed and Alice continued to try and pull away, confused but alarmed.
Before River could stop him, the energy dispersed and Alice's mended wrist sat in his hands, "There you go. How does that feel, Ali?" He spoke gently, kissing her hand and making her eyes widen at the gesture.
River slapped the Doctor.
Alice could only stare in shock.
"That was a stupid waste of regeneration energy. Nothing is gained by you being a sentimental idiot," River scolded him with venom before walking out the door.
"River!" He called.
"No, you embarrass me!"
Looking between the Doctor and River, Alice decided to follow the woman and rushed after her. "Alice!" The Doctor called but she ignored him and walked out the door.
"Why couldn't we tell him?" Alice asked.
River turned to the shorter woman, "Here is a piece of advice on your first of many days with the Doctor: never let him see the damage. And never, ever let him see you age. He doesn't like endings."
Running out of the house like the madman that he was, the Doctor exclaimed, "Got it. He's at a place called Winter Quay. The car, yes? Let's go!"