Chapter rating : T for the Doctor's crazy.

The Doctor's Child

02. You Are Needed Here

The Doctor continued reassembling his T.A.R.D.I.S.' commands, trying to ignore the pain in his chest as not so little Amy Pond dragged her Rory away to their newly appointed new room. Which an imperceptible sigh, he stood up from the swing and went back to the control matrix, letting his hand caress the boards as he reached them.

"Are you there? Can you hear me?" He asked in a soft voice, his eyes shifting up to the heart of the T.A.R.D.I.S. and the controls around him, waiting with a baited breath.

When no answer came, he let out a mournful sigh.

"Ah, I'm just a silly old…" He started before catapulting that thought at the back of his mind, putting on an excited smile, as always, as he continued, louder. "Okay! The Eye of Orion or wherever we need to go."

Just as he finished his sentence, starting to fiddle with the control mechanism in front of him, the brake lever shifted by itself and the Time Lord couldn't help the large smile and the warm feeling that filled him. She was still here, his T.A.R.D.I.S., his Sexy, Beautiful Thing, his Home and his Forever Companion. With a laugh and a triumphant yell, he danced around the boards, manning them in a flawless waltz as he sent all his love and warmth to his ship.

The trip was a suspiciously quick one, slightly bumpy but otherwise an unsurprising one. Amy and Rory joined him on the deck only a few minutes after they landed and both were met with an excited smile that seemed to burst with content.

"Now, Ponds! Ready for the Eye of Orion? I hear it's exceptionally warm in this season!" He told them with a grin as he walked to the doors, followed closely by the couple.

"I hope this doesn't end in drama like oh every other trip you've taken us on, Doctor!" Amy said with a slightly strained laugh.

"Nah! Totally drama-free I'm sure… well… I think… Ah who knows! Let's just find out!" The Doctor replied with a slightly crazed smile before opening the doors with relish.

The trio looked out at the scenery outside with both incredulity and amusement.

"Yeah, Doctor… the Eye of Orion looks a lot like a remote cliff in England, doesn't it!" Rory stated with an hesitant look at the Time Lord who seemed slightly bewildered but hid it quickly.

"Ah well, I guess we just have to see for ourselves!" The Gallifreyan retorted before walking out with a spring in his step. "Oh well, look at this! 'Askerian Cliff, Scotland'… uh… I guess we did miss the exit lane by a few light years!"

"Wait, I remember that place! Dad used to tell me horror stories about this cliff back when we lived in Scotland. Anyone who takes a trip on the sea going from around this cliff never returns and when they do they are just shells without a conscience, like in a coma but living, eyes open and everything!" Amy said while looking around the fog-filled place.

"Oh! Well I guess we better investigate that legend then!" The Doctor replied with a maniacal grin before suddenly jumping, as if startled. "How peculiar…"

Amy and Rory looked on with curiosity as he took out the leather card holder in his inner pocket and read his psychic paper, an expression of rare gravity descending on his face before disappearing again in a flash.

"Would you look at that! We seem to have a message!" He told them, handing the psychic paper to Amy.

The girl looked at it, her eyebrows rising when she realized something different was written on it.

'Please somebody out there. Please help him. Help my baby.'

And underneath the message was a string of numbers that she soon recognized as coordinates. When she raised her head again to ask the Doctor what was the meaning of all this, it was to see him practically running back to the T.A.R.D.I.S.

"Doctor! What is it? What are you doing?" She asked, passing the psychic paper to Rory and dragging him back in as well.

"Isn't it obvious Pond? We are going to rescue someone! Come along! Stop dragging your feet Rory, really!" The Time Lord replied as he fluttered around the consoles and tapped the coordinates into the ship's computer.

The trip was again surprisingly short. Only half a minute and they parked on solid ground again without too much of being thrown around for the ride.

Leaving only about another minute for Rory and Amy to regain their wits, the Doctor sprang open the door of his ship.

The immediate consequences were then all the more brutal as Rory gasped and had to lean on the console for support, white as a ghost and Amy let out a cry, sliding on her knees, shaken and tears flowing to her eyes. The Doctor wasn't spared either, he recoiled from the open entrance, looking slightly wilder for a second and an imperceptible shiver running through him.

Reviews, with how they appear sometimes very late after the story has gone on sometimes even before one bothers to check, really do seem to be made of timey wimey stuff. It's still AMAZING 8D