Disclaimer: Characters contained within do not belong to me.
Author's Notes: If you haven't seen "Time of the Angels" and "Flesh and Stone" yet, this may be a bit confusing. But from here on out, I'll pretty much be in AU land. Sorry, I tried to keep it in cannon for as long as I could. I hope you still enjoy it! Thanks for reading and reviewing; your feedback keeps me going!
All These Things That I've Done
by Kristen Elizabeth
"So...just exactly when was the last time you..." Amy stopped short of making a very rude gesture. "...you know?"
"There really isn't time for any of that!" Having just pushed his randy companion into the TARDIS, the Doctor went straight to the console and began pressing buttons and pulling levers. "Do you understand what's happening?"
"Not really." She folded her arms over her chest. "First time I've been turned down flat by any bloke."
His head shot up to give her a very disapproving look. "Humans. Always got one thing on your minds. No wonder you survive for as long as you do." With their coordinates fixed, the TARDIS lurched into action, forcing them both to grab onto something in order to stay standing.
Amy chose the Doctor.
"Now, Amy..."
"You don't snog like a man who hasn't been with a woman in 900 years." She tugged at his bow tie. "In fact, you're fairly decent at it."
"I'm not...it hasn't been that long," he confessed. "It's actually been happening more and more recently." He looked back and forth between her eyes. "You Earth girls are getting to be too much for me."
The corners of her lips curled up. "So, I'm not the first then?"
"First in this body," the Doctor mumbled.
"What does that mean?"
It took some effort, but the Doctor managed to peel Amy off of him. "We're here." After snapping his braces back in place after his companion's final attempt to undress him, he ran for the door.
With a sigh, Amy followed him out of the TARDIS. "But...wait..." Frowning, she looked around the familiar surroundings. "This is the museum. Again."
"The Delirium Archive," the Doctor corrected her.
She threw her head back with a groan. "You know, you still owe me an alien planet. I don't count the last one seeing as how I nearly died there!"
"Ha!" The Doctor turned around in circles, ignoring all the display cases in favor of searching the walls. "If you think I'm taking you to a different planet before I figure you out..." He trailed off as something caught his eye. "...think again." With that, he started running towards the farthest wall.
"Doctor?" Amy watched him climb onto a desk that was probably older than he was. "What are you doing?"
"Don't you see?" With the side of his face pressed against it, he ran his hand over a section of the wall. "It's cracked. The wall has a crack. We came here...and it cracked."
She took a step back. "Did I do that?"
"Not on purpose." He paused. "At least, not consciously." Whipping out his sonic screwdriver, he buzzed the length of the crack.
"Well, don't open it!" Amy shouted. "We'll get sucked in like the Angels!"
"I don't think so," the Doctor murmured, studying the screwdriver.
"Then you'll let something in like Prisoner Zero!" Amy put her hands on her hips. "Bad things happen when you mess with the crack; have you learned nothing?"
"Shh!" The Doctor put his ear directly against the crack. "I can hear voices," he whispered.
Amy swallowed. "Voices?"
Who's there? We can hear you!
Tell us who you are!
"I know that voice." The Doctor moved back, staring at the wall in disbelief. "Those voices...they're..."
He never got to finish his sentence. A light suddenly appeared along the crack, growing stronger until, in a blinding flash, the Doctor disappeared.
Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery--the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets--is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together. -- Alan Watts
It took two grown men fifteen minutes to get the magnifier into the half-painted, former nursery.
When they finally set it down on the hardwood floor, the half-human Doctor wiped his forehead with his sleeve and grumbled, "I can't wait for you lot to develop sonic technology."
Even out of breath, Pete managed to glare at him. "You could always help us along there."
"Don't think I wouldn't if I could, but there's just no way of telling how much trouble you'd get into with it."
Rose stood in the doorway, rubbing gentle circles over her stomach. "Stop it, you two. She's kicking enough without you upsetting her."
"Sorry, love," John apologized as he donned his glasses. She smiled, unable to stay annoyed with him when he wore his brainy specs.
"What are you expecting to find with this thing?" Pete asked.
Dropping to his knees, John flipped a few switches on the heavy machine that Torchwood had recovered from the crash of a Tartarian leisure cruiser only two months after he'd joined the organization. "If the crack isn't in the wall," he began, "then it must be in the very fabric of the universe."
"What...like, take the wall away and the crack would still be there?"
John grinned at Rose. "Nothing ever gets by you." They locked eyes for a moment until Pete cleared his throat. "Right! So, the universe is cracked, which apart from being scary and wrong and about a hundred other bad things, begs the question..." John paused. "What's on the other side?"
"And this thing is going to tell you?"
"Oh, have a little faith, Pete!" He flipped a final switch and jumped to his feet. "I'd move back if I were you."
Pete backed up to the opposite wall while John joined Rose at the doorway, standing as a shield between her and the scanning beam that shot out from the machine, even though it was directed on the crack.
"What's it doing?" she asked him.
"Taking a reading. Downloading the results."
"Like the screwdriver?"
John sniffed indignantly. "I suppose it's the closest thing to it, but it's nowhere near as advanced."
Rose slipped her arm through his. "Of course not." She rested her cheek on his shoulder blade. "I miss it, too."
"Is that all you..." He stopped short as the crack began to glow. "Oh...that's beautiful!" He took a step forward. "Wrong...very, very wrong, but gorgeous none the less."
Upon reaching the machine, John crouched down to examine the digital screen. The readings were in Tartarian, a language with which he was only vaguely familiar. Squinting, he started to translate in his head, lamenting the loss of the TARDIS translation circuit more than ever.
"Doctor!" He whipped his head back at Rose's frantic cry. "I can hear voices again!"
John looked back at the crack. It was still glowing, as if lit from behind. Closing his eyes, he could just make out a few words.
I don't...so.
Then....something in...zero! Bad things...you mess with...you learned nothing?
"Who's there?" John demanded. "We can hear you!"
"Tell us who you are!" Rose chimed in.
Silence followed. John moved forward, walking towards the wall.
Pete pulled at his chin. "Don't know if it's such a good idea, you getting that close."
"Yeah," Rose agreed, shifting nervously from one foot to the other. The baby was kicking even harder now, as if agreeing that its father should stop. "Please come back."
Half of her Doctor's face was illuminated as he studied the crack. "Just need one moment to..."
Without warning, the light coming from the fractured wall tripled until it was too much to bear. Rose and Pete both turned their heads away from it.
When the light died a few seconds later, Rose's eyes flew open. In the spot where her Doctor had just stood, there was a strange man in a bow tie and red braces. Their eyes met and a shiver ran down her spine.
"Rose?" he asked, breaking the silence.
"Where did John go?" Pete stepped forward, pointing an accusing finger at the new arrival. "Where the bloody hell did you come from?"
The man just kept staring at Rose, as if he never intended to look away. "Language, Pete," he scolded. "What would Jackie say?"
Rose's hand drifted to her belly; the baby was still now. "Who are you?"
"You already know, Rose Tyler." And when he smiled, suddenly she did.
Just before she fainted, she whispered, "Doctor?"
To Be Continued