House Call

Chapter 9

Location: castle chamber

"What you do you mean you have no name?" questioned Joe. "Everybody has got a name. It can't be 'hey you' all the time when your walking down the street"—then with a frown he said—"Fine, what are you?"

"Hurt, I am—"

He interrupted her and said, "Yeah, we get that. But what exactly are you? Where are you from?"

"I'm from Gallifrey."

Shocked, the two men suddenly inched in closer to her and Eleven said, "Gallifrey? But that's impossible. You're not a Time Lady. I can tell…you're…you're something else. Something…oh my god. No!"

Puzzled, Joe ran up to giddy Time Lord and said, "What? What is she? Come on, don't leave me in suspense."

Eleven spun around in place and pressed his hand over his mouth while he bounced on his heels and circled the redhead beauty twice around. Muttering, to himself he grinned maniacally and exclaimed, "Of course! You said the first clue yourself. It's bigger in the inside. It's always bigger in the inside…Oh, what a find you are. You're almost as good as sexy."

Annoyed, Joe said, "Hey, are you planning on sharing or what? What is she?"

Excited, Eleven rushed to Joe's side and leaned in close to say, "She's a TARDIS."

"A what?"

The bow-tied Doctor could hardly contain himself. "A TARDIS! Read my lips, she is a TARDIS. This—this thing you see standing before you is not a woman, but a facsimile, an avatar. She is using the raw power from the Time Vortex from our ships to actually mend her wounds."

Joe was awed. Another TARDIS? Alive and somewhat astounding. He didn't think any ships had survived the Time War, but like the Daleks she had managed to survive. However, it didn't explain everything. The avatar or whatever or—Joe had enough of labels and decided to just settle on a name.

The leather-clad man shook his head and pointed at the redhead and stated, "For now on I'm calling you Sally."

"Sally?" asked Eleven and the avatar in union.

Uncomfortably, the leather-clad man replied, "What? Sally's a good name. There have been plenty of great Sallys, take for example the Magnificent Sally of Boe or Sally Mae."

"Never mind that," said Eleven as he cut Joe short. "Where's Amy and Rory?"

"And Rose," stated Joe. "We're not helping you unless you bring us our companions, right here, right now."

Sally impassively scanned the two men and say that they would not be swayed. She didn't need the others. They were not necessary, but the promise of getting help from two Time Lords seemed a bargain if they only wanted their humans in exchange. Stoically, she looked towards the doors of the chamber and snapped her fingers like she was summoning a dog and immediately a vine wriggle to life and awaited her commands.

"Very well, I'll fetch you your humans."

XXX

Location: castle hall

"What do you mean by fake?" asked Rory.

River knowingly smiled and explained, "As in imitating the real thing. The minute you walked through those town gates you were inside a false environment. Every street, every stone, every tree isn't real."

Rose nodded her head and said, "So, it's like the holo-deck on the Enterprise, yeah? But what about the people?"

The future-companion turned to her and sighed. "Some of them actually are real, but they have no idea about what's happening. There is some sort of pulse giving out false readings on this place making scans show up normal. I was even fooled. It wasn't until I saw someone get taken away by the vines that I noticed anything was wrong."

Scared, Rory said, "Taken by vines? That's what happened to the Doctor and Joe."

River said, "Yes, the vines seem to drain energy. The whole place is like one big pitcher plant."

Puzzled, Rose asked, "Then, if it's taking people and draining them then why hasn't anybody noticed? Hasn't anybody ever people going missing."

The future-companion smirked and pointed at Rose and said, "Oh, I like you. You ask all the right questions. However, nobody has gone missing. The vines just seem to drain a person of their energy and then turns them loose."

Rory suddenly looked hopeful and said, "Oh, that's good." Bewildered, the three women stared at him strangely and nervously he added, "At least we know it isn't killing people. Am I right?"

River shrugged and replied, "As far as I know, but we should go find the Doctor. He'd probably needs a hand."

However, out of nowhere the vines appeared and wrapped around the four of them like mummies. All of them screamed and were dragged away towards a door. The hinges threw open on their own and then unceremonious they were dumped like a sack of potatoes onto the floor of the large chamber and in front of the Doctor and Joe.

XXX

Location: castle chamber

"Ouch!" cried Amy. "I think I bruised my butt."

"Somebody get off my hand," complained River Song.

Rory sheepishly replied, "S-sorry" before helping the future-companion up and then went to check on his wife. Meanwhile, in a wave of bliss and relief, Joe ran to his one and only companion and gathered her up into his arms. With a smile of sheer delight, he and spun Rose around and swept her off her feet. Rose squealed with joy and circled her arms around his neck and felt him bury his nose into her hair.

"Oh, Rose! Are you alright?"

The blonde pulled back and smiled up at him and ran her fingers through his fantastic mop of brown hair and replied, "You know me."

Joe grinned and held her head between his hands and said, "Yeah, you're too jeopardy friendly for your own good."

Rose pretended to be offended and scuffed, "Oi! I'm not the one who got kidnapped first. This was supposed to be a holiday remember, Barcelona, the planet not the city."

Amused, Joe took Rose's hand and asked, "Are you saying I'm not impressive, Ms. Tyler? That I'm not meeting your expectations?"

Rose giggled at their familiar banter and then mischievously ran her tongue over her teeth and said, "Nope, just saying I thought there'd be more opportunities for dancing."

Joe smirked at her teasing. He knew perfectly well what she meant. Rose wasn't talking about real dancing. She was talking about the type Captain Jack liked best. Though, it wasn't really the time or the place for romance.

Abruptly, he said, "You'll just have to mark your dance card, Rose. There will be plenty of time for that."

When the pair untangled they saw that Eleven had already finished his own reunion hugs with the Ponds and was now having an awkward conversation with River Song. The future-companion eyed him like he was good enough to eat and watched as he uncomfortably began to squirm.

Eleven fixed his bow tie in a nervous habit and leaned in close to whisper to keep their talk just between them.

"So, did you know about this? Rose, I mean?"

River shook her head and replied, "Spoilers, sweetie. And besides, I don't recall meeting her. I didn't know she was a blonde. I know you have a thing for blondes."

Eleven looked over River's shoulder to look at Joe and Rose. He saw they were affectionately holding hands. The grumpy attitude seemed to melt away from Joe's exterior and he lovingly kissed the back of her hand. Eleven narrowed his brow. He couldn't remember being that tender with Rose.

River sympathetically touched his shoulder and said, "I know you loved her, but she's moved on."

Annoyed, he shrugged her hand away and stated, "Yeah, a real match in heaven. Like two peas in a pod. Like—like shiver and shake. Why don't they just get a room or something? The sod."

River raised a brow in shock and then started to laugh and said, "Oh my god, you're actually jealous."

Eleven gave River a stern look, but before he could utter a word, Sally started messing with some controls at the console she was standing by near the tube and the lights inside the Doctor's TARDIS began to dim and finally flickered into pitch darkness.

Stunned, he ran towards his beloved ship and jumped over the vines and into the control room where he saw that the vines that coiled around the Vortex chamber and had zapped all the huon particles out till there was none at all. Desperately, he scanned and banged onto the controls and saw that it was dead.

"No, no, no! What have you done!"

Frantic, he leapt back out over the horrible vines and grabbed Sally by the shoulders and shook her hard and shouted, "You took it all! You monster! You drain her dry. She's has nothing left!"

XXX

TBC

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Thanks for the reviews and comments: intrepidfish, Kabooshka and KitK2. I love reviews.

I'm sorry to hear intrepidfish doesn't like River Song. Personally, I neither like or hate her, but her true identity in the show is shocking. I appreciate a good twist. This chapter depicts Eleven as being a bit jealous and I think River will help flush out his hidden feelings.

Please review. Thank you.