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CHAPTER 14. The Distraction: 23 October 2010

The TARDIS materialised right in the middle of the sidewalk on Oxford Street, narrowly avoiding crushing several happy shoppers. The usual throng of Londoners continued to mill about in their way, absent-mindedly ducking around the TARDIS. They seemed totally and utterly unaware that a big blue box had suddenly appeared out of nowhere – and were likewise none the wiser that a girl and two men, one of whom was wearing a bow-tie, had not been there ten seconds previously.

"Er, Doctor?" Amy asked, looking apprehensively at the very conspicuous-looking time machine. "Won't someone kind of notice that a big blue box just appeared on Oxford Street?"

"Nope. Perception filter, works a charm. These folk won't even give it a second glance, bless them."

"What, so they'll just think the TARDIS is... part of the landscape?" Rory inquired, his eyebrows raised.

"Not quite. The filter works by tricking the perception centres of your brain into not noticing the specific visual patterns of the TARDIS and distinguishing them from the immediate surroundings... actually, on second thoughts, yeah, I guess you could say that."

Rory shook his head. "So... where's this friend of yours? Nearby?"

"He's somewhere in London in 2014. Not sure precisely where. We'll find him, though."

"You mean you don't know? London's a pretty big town in case you hadn't noticed."

"Hey, I narrowed it down to a fifty by fifty kilometre block on Earth. Pretty good when you have to search the whole universe."

"The whole universe? Surely just Earth if he's human?"

The Doctor hesitated – once again, he'd made the mistake of underestimating just how perceptive the young man was, even in comparison to himself. "Erm – yeah, I had to widen the search parameters for this bloke, though. He gets around."

Amy groaned. "So much for normal."

"Says the human who turned herself into a Time Lady and a super-telepath."

Amy narrowed her eyes. "Super-what?"

"Nothing, nothing," the Doctor muttered. Oops. Shouldn't have said that.

Amy craned her head to take in the busy street, her brow furrowed. "This is London, right?"

"Of course it's London. Don't you recognise it? Don't tell me you've never been to your own capital."

"I'm Scottish," she retorted. "But nah I've been to London, and it looks right but it just feels... weird. Alien, almost."

"Yeah, that'll be all the residual timey-wimey energy lying around, from y'know, visitors."

"Alien invasions, you mean."

"Basically."

Rory frowned. "Why would aliens want to invade London?"

"Fantastic question. Ask them. No clue why they keep doing it, but they keep doing it."

"I thought it was New York that would always get hit, like in the movies."

"A bit, but not early as often. First port of call for the discerning intergalactic invader, London. Let's see... Daleks a few times, Cybermen, the Nestene, Slitheen, Sycorax, the Racnoss, Adipose, Sontarans, the Toclafane... the lot, really. And that's just the early 21st century. Although I guess a few of those technically never happened."

Amy blinked. "Seriously?"

"Yep. Poor souls wizened up eventually and evacuated the city one Christmas because they thought they'd be invaded... humans. I'll never get done saving you."

"Ahem."

"Oh – sorry, Amy."

Amy rolled her eyes, her lip curled. Unbeknownst to her, Rory had a worried furrow between his brows, the untimely reminder of his girlfriend's inhumanity jarring him once more. He decided to steer conversation away from the uncomfortable topic.

"So, this bloke – you do know how to find him, right? We're not just going to walk all over London for a few days looking for people you might recognise, yeah?"

"Don't worry, I've got a good feeling I know where he is. He sticks out, this bloke."

"A friend of the Doctor – I wonder why," Amy remarked dryly.

"Feeling sarcastic today, aren't we, Pond?"

She grinned and punched the Time Lord lightly on the arm. "I never said that was a bad thing, mister."

Several hours later, night had fallen and the trio were walking through the quiet villa-lined streets of St John's Wood, having taken the Underground. This turned out to be a much more complex task then Amy and Rory had imagined (hence the delay), as they weren't counting on the stunning incompetence of the Doctor when it came to menial tasks such as 'buying a train ticket'. He'd watched intently as Amy and Rory purchased theirs, but when it came to buy his, he found himself both distracted and endlessly confused by the various array of destinations, ticket types and various other odds and ends which he had no idea how to discern.

"Amy, help me out here," he'd pleaded, somewhat pathetically.

The girl curled her lip and folded her arms across her chest. "Come on, it's only a train ticket. Surely it can't be more complicated than saving the whole world."

"Saving the world doesn't involve so many... buttons!" he countered, his wide eyes darting over the touch screen helplessly.

Amy sighed. "You're hopeless, ya know that?"

"If I say yes, will you help me?"

"Even if I was your wife I wouldn't. It's a bloody train ticket, you numpty. Sort it out."

Eventually the Doctor had given up and soniced the ticket machine, an action that immediately bore fruit. Unfortunately, this led to even more wasted time as he spent quite some time spluttering to the security man, trying to explain precisely why the ticket machine had suddenly decided to disgorge not just one ticket to St John's Wood but several hundred. As well as empty itself of all its change. Amy and Rory simply stood back and watched, palms on their faces in identical gestures of amusement and utter exasperation.

Eventually, Amy had had enough of the Doctor's cluelessness and a few sweet smiles, batted eyelashes and murmured suggestions later, they were on their way.

"So he lives here? We didn't just go to some random part of London for kicks?" Rory asked as they strolled down another street.

"Nothing wrong with that. You two certainly seemed excited by that pedestrian crossing we came across half an hour back."

Rory shook his head. "Don't you know anything about modern culture?"

"Not really, no," the Doctor replied cheerfully. "Used to, but that was a past life. Anyway, we should be coming up on the right place soon."

Amy frowned. "You sure this is it? Nothin' weird going on around here?"

"Of course I'm sure. I'm always sure. Well, often sure. Usually sure."

"I'll take your word for it. Just... feel a bit strange, that's all. More than before. As if there's something not right around here."

"Yeah, know what you mean. Don't worry, though. Perfectly normal. Reasonably normal. Expected. That's a better word."

They turned another corner and found themselves in one of the few terraced streets in the suburb. Abruptly, the Doctor shot his hands out and stopped, causing Amy and Rory to bump uncomfortably into him.

"I assume this is it?" Amy asked, pushing his arm away and looking at the nondescript brick townhouse which they had stopped in front of.

"Just the one." He skipped up to the door, Amy following (with Rory behind as usual). A sharp, rapidfire rapping on the door and a few seconds later, it opened to reveal a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing a steel-blue greatcoat.

His cloudy-blue eyes darted between the three, glinting with scarcely hidden mischief. Beneath, however, Amy thought she saw the markings and deep pools of darkness that she'd only seen in one other pair of eyes – eyes that she knew had already seen too much. Some strange instinct within her, borne out of the parts of her mind she'd only recently acquired, screamed at her to get as far away from the man as possible, but she shut it out.

Doctor's friend, my friend. And he's kinda hot, she added to herself.

"Well, well," the man murmured, his lip curling. "I don't know who sent you three here, but remind me to buy them flowers." His gaze lingered appreciatively on Rory, then for somewhat longer on Amy. She felt a tinge of colour rising up her neck.

The Doctor shook his head. "Couldn't you at least wait until we said 'hello', Captain?"

The man snapped his gaze back to the Time Lord, and his eyes widened. "Doctor... is that you?"

The Time Lord's face remained impassive.

"It is, isn't it?" The man grinned. "Don't know about the bow-tie, though."

"Oi! They're cool."

A great big booming laugh and the Doctor found himself enveloped in a crushing bear hug that almost lifted him off the ground. "Good to see you again, old man. Digging the new face, I have to say."

The Doctor found himself smiling despite himself. "Not looking too bad yourself. Didn't think you'd be one to settle down like this, though."

"You know it's not that simple. But before that – who are your friends? Even by his standards, you two are smashing," the man said, turning his attention to Rory and Amy. Rory blinked and looked nervously down at his feet, and Amy felt herself blushing rapidly now. As usual when caught in an awkward place, she took the intiative.

"M'name's Amy Pond," she said, holding a hand out. He shook it vigorously.

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Pond. Wait – you are Miss Pond, right? Not Mrs?" he inquired, throwing Rory a furtive glance.

"Miss Pond, yep. This is Rory, my, um-"

"-fiancée." Rory cut across her, slightly harsher than he intended. The man raised his eyebrow ever so slightly.

"Captain Jack Harkness at your service."

"So how long have you been travelling with him?" Jack asked as he poured Amy and Rory a glass of some strange red liquid.

"Er – what is this stuff?" Rory asked, eyeing the substance with severe apprehension.

"Anfil Extreme. Pretty common 51st century drink, everyone knows the recipe there. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe for humans. Has a hell of a kick, though."

"Amy, I wouldn't touch it if I were you," the Doctor suddenly said, just as the redhead was reaching out for her equally red glass. She pouted.

"Why not?"

"Wouldn't agree with your system." She looked to see the Doctor staring suspiciously at the drink in front of him. A millisecond of silent eye communication and it clicked. Still not used to not being human. "Fine for Rory, though."

"I'll pass." Rory, being a nurse, felt that drinking something that looked suspiciously like blood didn't strike him as something he wanted to do.

Jack grinned. "Your loss. Anyway – back to the question. How long have you two been travelling with the Doctor? He's got good taste, I'll give him that."

Amy giggled, which in turn provoked a tired groan from the Doctor. Oh great. So should have seen this coming. Biggest flirt in the universe in the same room as the... other biggest flirt in the universe. Fantastic.

"We've been travelling together for a couple of months now," he said before Amy could respond and inflame (no no think of another word) the situation further. "Anyway, that's all boring stuff. What happened to Alonso, by the way?"

"He was wonderful. Never got round to thanking you for that, did I? Lovely guy, miss him dearly." Muted pain filled his sky-blue irises.

"What happened to him?"

"What do you think?"

The Doctor paused and his eyes widened slightly, adopting a sympathetic expression. "Oh. How long ago?"

"Very. Still, 51st century nursing homes are a hell of a lot better than they are in the 21st, so I got as much out of it as I could have hoped for."

The Doctor smiled kindly. There were a lot of things about Jack he found very much disagreeable – his blasé attitude towards life and death, his chequered past as a Time agent, not to mention the fact that all his natural Time Lord instincts were shouting at him to get as far from the man as possible – but he was a good man. More importantly he was one of the few people who understood what the Doctor had to bear – age, and the pain that went with it.

"Sorry, not following," Rory cut in. "What's this business about a nursing home? You make it sound as if it were years ago."

A tired, aged smile. "Half a century, in fact."

Amy and Rory did identical double takes. "Sorry, what?" Amy spluttered. The man in front of them didn't look much more than forty. "I thought you were human!"

"I am. But a run in with a certain Bad Wolf left me completely immortal. I can't die, ever – no matter how hard I try. And yes, I've tried."

"A bad wolf?"

"Long story. Maybe later."

Amy snorted. "So much for normal, eh, Doctor?"

Jack grinned, the mischievous glint returning. "Fiesty, aren't you?"

"Problem with that?"

"Not at all. I envy you two... living normal, human, lives. Well, as normal as you can get around this guy." He clapped the Doctor on the back of his tweed jacket companionably. Amy was about to open her mouth to correct him, but the Doctor shot her a warning look. Not yet, Amelia. She sank back into her chair, remembering herself.

"You didn't answer my question from before, by the way. What're you doing back in 21st century London in a little townhouse? I thought Torchwood was gone?"

"It is. I'm not settling down here, if that's your thought. People are too... stingy around here. Nah, I was dropping by to check how Gwen was coping."

"I sense a story in the making."

"You'd be right on that."

The Doctor grinned. "Well, don't keep us in suspense."

"Honestly, it's not that exciting. You know the Precept?"

"50th century extremist Church splinter group. Disorganised rabble, not very accurate with a gun. Tried to steal my TARDIS once, didn't end well for them."

Jack chuckled. "Yeah, heard about that at the Time Agency. Well, someone seems to have given them a bunch of top-of-the-line vortex manipulators because I found signs of Precept activity all over the place when I came here."

"That'd explain all the funny temporal signatures littered all over the place." He stopped, contemplating for a second. "Sounds like someone's using them as hired muscle."

Jack nodded. "That was my thought too. Decided to have a little poke around – after all, catching these buggers was my job once upon a time."

"As you always do. So what are they up to?" A shrug.

"No clue. They're looking for information on something, that's all I can gather. Something to do with Time Lords, which obviously means you. That doesn't exactly narrow it down, though. I was going to try to find you to let you know, but stuff got in the way."

"Stuff does that. Don't see what this has to do with a little London townhouse though."

"Getting there. Couple of days ago I came across a few Precept mobsters. They were trying to kidnap a young girl, definitely for some nasty interrogation and almost certainly for worse. They didn't get too far, though."

The Doctor sighed. "Always with the guns, Jack?"

"They come in handy from time to time. This was one of those times."

Amy nodded privately, beginning to get a sense of why the Doctor had wanted to meet this odd time-travelling flirt. Trying to make me feel better, give me someone to talk to, are you? Thank you, Doctor.

The Doctor looked around the small, modestly furnished living room. "So I'm guessing this is her house?"

"Yep."

"Always playing the knight in shining armour, you."

"Says the man who saves young, attractive women from certain death on a weekly basis." Another giggle from Amy, another groan from the Doctor.

"I'd like to meet this girl. Can I?"

"Of course. She's upstairs now. I'll take you to her – having three strangers barge into her room would probably be a bit much, so we'll have a chat then come back down together."

"Alright. You two won't destroy the house in the interim? That means you, Pond."

An angry pout and a death glare was all the response he needed. He smiled, his eyes twinkling with amusement as he rose from the armchair.

"Alright, you can spit it out now."

The Doctor started, pausing at the base of the stairs at the end of a hallway. "Sorry, what?"

"Amy. What's the deal? Come on, Doctor, I'm not gonna miss those looks you were giving her."

"Nothing! I swear, absolutely nothing. There is nothing going on between us," he replied, much too fast and much too vehemently.

Jack's grin was as wide as an ocean. "That's not what I meant, although it's interesting that you jumped to that conclusion so quickly. But when I was talking about living a normal human life, she was about to say something, and you stopped her. So...?"

The Doctor sighed, relieved at being off the more uncomfortable of the two hooks. He began to ascend the staircase again. "Yes, she isn't human, although she used to be."

"Lemme guess. Time Lord?"

The Doctor froze mid-step, his eyes wide as plates. "How the hell did you guess that?"

"You do realise how many vortex manipulator trips I've made, right? Extended exposure to the Time Vortex and all that, I've picked up one or two of the more minor party tricks. Oh, being stuck on the outside of the TARDIS for trillions of years' worth of time travel helps."

"Right, right." The Doctor replied, relieved that his initial concern had been unfounded. One of his worst fears (those sure are starting to rack up, aren't they?) is that Amy's identity would lead her to the same kind of unwanted attention he himself drew – the thought of the person now most important to him going through even a fraction of what he had endured chilled him to the bone. But for now she was safe, relatively speaking – it wasn't common knowledge that there were two Time Lords running around now. Not yet, anyway

"I'm guessing that's why you came to see me? To keep an eye on her?"

"Partially." He grabbed the former Time Agent's arm, drawing his gaze level with his. "I need you to distract her."

"Sorry, what? Distract her with what?"

"Oh, just be yourself. That'll do fine."

"Sure, I can do that, but – why? What are you doing that requires me to distract her?" he asked, suspicion in his voice.

"It's a long story." He moved to pass the immortal, but Jack stopped him.

"No, not this time, Doctor. If you want me to do a favour for you, I'm gonna need to know the details. I'm not gonna take this 'rule number one' bullshit, yeah? Not after the 456."

The Time Lord looked carefully into his eyes, and was surprised to see the intensity of the pain and guilt reflected in them – pain and guilt that matched his own.

"Fine. OK. How much do you know about Time Lord psychic abilities?"

"A bit. I know you can share thoughts and emotions through touch, and sense other people emotions. Hypnosis and subtle mind control – that sort of stuff. The kind of stuff Saxon was pulling, I guess."

"That's what the Master and I am capable of, yes, but the same rules don't apply to Amelia Pond."

"What do you mean?"

He hesitated. "Okay. What I tell you now is to be repeated to no one. Ever. Do you understand me, Jack Harkness?" His eyes, crystalline-blue, shone with the import of his words, giving Jack a timely reminder of what precisely this man was capable of beneath his bubbly, eccentric exterior.

"Absolutely crystal clear, Doctor."

"Good." The Doctor breathed and glanced briefly at the end of the other end of the hallway from which they had come, making sure Amy and Rory weren't surreptitiously listening in.

"About ten days ago I felt this huge psychic impulse. Stronger than anything I've felt in my life."

"From Amy?"

"Yes."

"What was it?"

"Pure fear. As primal an instinct as they come."

"What caused it?"

"That's the thing – I don't know. I was about twenty billion miles away."

Jack breathed. "So you're saying she's not just a Time Lord, but a Time Lord with ridiculous amounts of psychic potential."

"Ridiculous doesn't quite cut it. This is big, Jack. Even assuming she's capable of that – a huge assumption to make before the fact – to emphathize telepathically over such a huge distance should've taken a hell of a lot out of her. I did something similar once – although it was time and not space in the way there – and I had to go into a temporary coma to manage it. She did it conscious and with no ill-effects – as of ten minutes later, anyway."

"How do you know that?"

"Now that is a long story. Involves six-fingered people and a lot of sneaking around starship corridors. But trust me on this one – she managed to do what hardly any Time Lords in history could have managed."

"So is she in control of this? I mean, that sort of power... I ran into a telepathy pendant once when I was working with Torchwood, and even that was way too powerful an object to be left unchecked. I've heard bad stories about rogue telepaths loose on worlds, mass indoctrination, dozens of people turned into braindead coma patients and the like. That sounds like peanuts compared to the pretty Scottish girl you've picked up there."

"Mostly. I don't think she was last week when the impulse happened. We're just lucky she didn't channel that power and inadvertently employed mass hypnosis or something. Although it would have made things simpler, I admit."

Jack breathed deep. "Bloody hell. You sure she's in control right now? I don't really feel like turning into some Amy-drone. Or worse."

"Absolutely sure. She spent the last three days locked in the library teaching herself how."

"What do you reckon she's capable of?"

"Don't know. Got my theories, though. Off-the-scale ability to block psychic intrusion, which I guess is handy. Long-range telepathic communication if she so chooses, also handy. Memory and sense-sharing, the usuals. Beyond that... it gets murky. Localised psychic domination, definitely. Larger-scale hypnotic ability, possibly."

"Could she, erm..."

"Kill?" The Doctor asked suddenly, harshly. "Yes. Maybe. I'm not sure. A psychic attack launched in the right way at an mind without strong barriers, using an impulse of sufficient strength, overloading the central cortex and causing a neurotransmitter flood... perhaps. Perhaps. I'm not sure. I really would rather not find out."

"Why aren't you sure about this? You're supposed to be the expert on these things. A girl who can possibly kill or cripple people just by thinking – that's pretty serious stuff to be unsure about."

"Because she hasn't shown all her cards yet. The really scary thing is that I'm almost certain she's deliberately not using her full potential. There's parts of her own mind – big parts – that she's locked away for some reason. Who knows what she could become if she gets access to those?

"But if she's in control... we're fine, right?"

"She's in control right now. My theory is that those memories and other parts of her mind she's suppressing deliberately – sometimes she loses control of it, and the built-up stress bursts out. The impulse was an example, but I doubt it will be the last. Or the strongest."

"Does she know about this? About what she's capable of?"

"I think so. And I suspect it scares her even more than it scares me, because she alone really knows what could happen if she loses it. Only she knows her own mind."

"So why is she still locking up these memories, assuming you're right? Sounds like a absurdly dangerous idea to me."

"That's what I intend to find out."

Jack paused. "OK. What do you need from me?"

"I told you. A distraction."

"Distraction from – oh." Jack swallowed in realisation of what he was about to sign up to be an accomplice for. "Are you absolutely sure this is the right way to go about things? Pretty big invasion of privacy, Doctor. And what about her psychic barriers?"

"She's powerful, far more so than me, but she's inexperienced. A telepath of sufficient skill – like me – can still find a way in for the time being."

"Couldn't you just ask her instead?"

"Tried. Failed."

"She doesn't trust you? She's half in love with you for goodness' sake!"

"Don't even joke."

"Who says I'm joking? The way she looks at you-"

"I don't have any other choice, Jack," he cut him off firmly, sidestepping the point. "I need to find out why she's bottling all these things up. What she's bottling up. Otherwise they'll come rushing out like a burst water dam when she gets angry and, well, who knows what'll happen then? How many innocent people could find themselves neurologically damaged or dead because of it? I can't let that happen. For her sake. At the very least I need to know how much of her mind she's imprisoned like this, so I have an idea of what to expect if the worst comes to worst."

Jack stood and contemplated the Time Lord for a moment, his piercing gaze soaking up every piece of information it could from the aged lines on the Doctor's young face. "Alright," he said slowly. "But I hope to hell you know what you're doing."

"So do I."

In case it isn't blatantly obvious, Miracle Day and surrounding events do not occur in any shape or form.