House Call

Chapter 14

"Ewww, that is just gross," said Amy with a frown.

The redhead watched in horror as her bow-tied Doctor examined a piece of Sally. Though, in actuality it wasn't an actual piece of Sally. Sally was in fact a TARDIS with a mannequin-like plastic doll she talked through. The vines were just a weird part of her body that just made her even more creepy. Though, the Doctor seemed excited about the vine bit. He was scanning it with his sonic screwdriver and ignored both her and Rose completely because he was so absorbed.

However, unexpectedly Eleven dropped the piece of vine on the floor and exclaimed, "Ah! Well, that was very interesting. Yes, an excellent hint."

"What sort of hint, Doctor?" asked Rose.

Eleven spun on his heel and turned to her and explained, "Oh, it's just a psychic reading so we can track down the source of the plant. Get to the roots of things as it were. So, come on. It's time to do a little gardening."

He then waved his sonic in the air like a magic wand and picked up a signal and headed down a corridor, but Rose ran up to him and pulled on the back of his coat.

"Wait! No, hang then. You want to go look for the root of the psychic plant?"

Eleven turned and swatted her hand away from his coat and looked up to met her glance and said, "Yes, if we cut it's connects to the main controls of the TARDIS than Sally will no longer have a psychic inter-link. Why? Do you a better plan?"

"No, it's sounds brilliant, like a real great plan, but we are missing people. Don't you think we ought to go looking for them first? You know, in case Sally get angry?"

"Oh," retorted the Doctor. "Right. Rory the Roman and River Song! I forgot about them."

The Doctor then made to move again down the hall, but Rose shouted after him and said, "And Joe! It is our first date not planet bound."

Suddenly, Eleven grumbled. "Date? This is hardly a first date. Just think of our first date, now that was mashing! Living plastic and—"

"And the end of the world," finished Rose with a smile. "Yeah, I also remember you were a cheap date too. I had to buy my own chips, then. Though I am curious…what's this new you like. Do you still like licking things?"

Amy nearly tripped over her own foot when she heard that. She immediately ran up to the two and linked her arms between theirs and pointed at the Doctor questionably and in a business-like tone said, "Alright, what's this I hear about the Doctor and licking? Was this like a dirty thing?"

In reaction, Eleven was appalled. He looked away from her and stated, "Rassilon, no. It was just a habit—a quirk I had because I used to have a highly developed sense of taste. And before that I had a great big ears, but I didn't hear much better those. It was just for looks, but now I am happy to say I have no such corks. I'm cool."

Amy and Rose shared a look then busted out laughing. Eleven tried not to be offended, but it was hard having past and present companions teaming up to laugh in your face.

Amy giggled between words and stated, "That is so not true. You are weird. You're the maddest man I ever met. He likes custard and fish fingers. And he seems to like stupid hats, but thank god River never let him keep any of them. He's got no fashion sense."

"Oi! I do too have a fashion sense. It's just more refined than yours, Pond."

The redhead narrowed her brow and said, "Yeah, but you wear the same thing all the time. I'm surprised you don't stink. Or is it you have a closet full of the same thing?"

Eleven wiggled his brows and said, "I'll have you know that bow ties are at the height of fashion. And nobody gets a look at my closet, Pond. That's personal."

Rose grinned and mischievously ran her tongue across her teeth. The Doctor felt his hearts quicken at the sight of that familiar tease. He remembered how he used to do anything in order to make her smile that like at him. How he'd used to find places just to see her expression. He remembered back when he was a fool and Rose's wish was his command.

XXX

Meanwhile, elsewhere inside the castle, strode Rory and River Song. They had gone looking for the Doctor and the rest of their friends while they had left Joe to tend to his new patient. River knew that if anybody could revive Loretta, it would be him—or the Doctor. However, River was starting to like Joe. He was…different.

There were parts of the original Doctor in him that she recognized like that fact he was confident, arrogant, brave, childish and mad, but he was also more raw and romantic. She never thought in a million years that she'd ever hear that man say he was in love with someone beside his bloody ship. Yet, here Joe was spouting it out so naturally. He said it like he said it everyday and she had to wonder if he did.

"Rose is a lucky lady," she muttered out loud under her breath. Through, from beside her Rory narrowed his brow in confusion.

"Um, why did you say that?"

"Say what, love?"

"Why did you say Rose is a lucky lady? Why do you think she's lucky?"

River smirked and shook her head. "It's nothing."

She then turned back to continue walking down the hall, but Rory rushed to her side and said, "No, no, not you too! Oh my god, you and Amy are like obsessed with the Doctor and Rose. She loves him. He doesn't love her. She doesn't love him, but he does her. Blah, blah, blah, what does it matter? We are stuck in a mad alien spaceship and all you women want to do is chat about the Doctor's love life! For the love of Rome, give it a rest!"

River silently raised her brow and tilted her head to one side and asked, "Do you feel better now?"

Rory heaved and nodded his head before moving to lean against the wall and placed his hands over his hips and tried to grain his calm. "Yeah, thanks."

Rory then ran his hand through his hair and sucked in a breath. He didn't see what was so special about the Doctor anyway—well, no. That wasn't true. He knew what people saw in him. The Doctor was brilliant. He was just mad too. It just didn't help knowing that he had an ex-girlfriend and somewhere like a brother out there too. It meant there were two mad and brilliant men out there in the world and that meant the possibility of double the mayhem too because if there was one thing Rory learned about being with the Doctor, it was that trouble and him were inseparable.

However, in the distance Rory heard a rumbling sound coming from down the stone hall. He turned to look and saw something large approaching them from a distance. He narrowed his eyes to see what it was, but then fear took over and he quickly got off the wall and started to step away.

"River, I think I see something. Yeah, something is definitely heading this way and it coming right now! Run!"

Shocked, the two saw a large mass of wriggling vines coming towards them in lightening speed. Swiftly, River and Rory ran down the hall and tried to make an escape, but the endless corridors were like a rat maze. There was no end in sight and they had reached a dead end. River slapped the stony wall and turned to face the on coming vines as they moved closer to ensnare them like a squid, but out of no where a door appeared beside Rory and his hand touched the knob.

Rory, in a flash turned the knob and the mysterious door opened and he grabbed River to drag her in just as the vines came close. And once they were on the other side the two put their shoulders against frame and closed it tight with a bang.

A deadly silence suddenly engulfed them and a complete absence of light. They were literally in the dark with no sense of direction or space. It was absolutely eerie and Rory began to panic.

"So…where are we?"

"I don't know," panted River beside him in the dark. "But something is definitely going on."

Yet, out of nowhere the sound of a door creaking open was heard and a blinding ray of light outlined its frame. The two travelers squinted their eyes and saw several figures peering in.

"Um, yeah. Rory, River, what are you two doing inside a closet?"

The male-nurse made a face at the familiar sound of his wife's voice. "What? No. What closet? I'm not—" he looked around and saw he was next to a broom and a mop and over their heads was a stack of toilet paper on a shelf—"in a closet…uh, it's not what it looks like. There were vines."

Amy made a face and reached in to take his arm and dragged him out. "Yeah, sure, vines. Now, get out."

Rory stumbled out and collided into his wife. He was glad to see her and noticed she had found the Doctor and Rose. He awkwardly acknowledged them with a look and then lowered his head. He had no idea how he ended up in a broom closet with River Song.

Though, strangely Eleven patted his shoulder in sympathy and said, "It's alright, Rory. I believe you. Now was it just you two in there or did you happen to see Joe?"

He shook his head. "No, Joe wasn't with us. He decided to stay behind and try and wake up Loretta back in the lab."

Eleven was shocked. "Loretta? She's still alive?"

"Yeah, she's in some kind of sleep. Um, Joe said it was called a temporal flux. He said she was trapped out of time. But, Doctor that's not all. I think there is somebody helping me. I think somebody on this ship is helping us. I think the first time was when I got out of my cell. The door just opened all by itself and then just now this broom closet appeared out of thin air and saved me and River from the vines."

The Doctor contemplated Rory's words and stared somewhere off into space. It looked like he was trying to figure out something hard inside his head. He was trying to see if in fact it was plausible for someone to be helping them. However, he was sure who that person might be.

"Was it Loretta?" asked Rose.

The Doctor faced his former-companion and beamed. "Yes! Of course, Loretta! The simply answer is always best. Oh Rose, Sally wouldn't keep any outside forms of psychic energy, but she'd keep Loretta and she's a Time Lady. She's slightly psychic. She's probably still influencing Sally subconsciously and helped Rory to escape."

River then asked, "Then why is Sally keeping Loretta alive all this time and trapping her in temporal flux? Doctor, it doesn't make any sense?"

Eleven began to pace and folded one arm under his elbow while he nibbled on his right fingertips. River was right. Sally didn't make any sense. Though, then again she was mad. A self-aware TARDIS with a heroic strike was a bad combination. She was about to get ready to undo all the hard work he had done to prevent the Time War from escaping and in one fell swoop she was going to change everything. She was going to rain down Reapers on top of their heads and it was going to spell the end of all reality. It was a big problem and the Doctor had to prevent it from happening.

"Alright," he said. "First we need put on end to our weed problem. We need to find the main root and then sever the link. It should stop Sally from mobilizing. Second, we reverse the power drain and restore the old girl back to tip top shape. Though, we could use a diversion…"

Rose suddenly widened her eyes in inspiration and hopped up and down enthusiastically and said, "Oh! Oh! Doctor, I've got a brilliant plan. Why don't we use my TARDIS? She's still got power. I'm sure she can manage it."

Eleven was thrilled. He had almost forgotten about Rose's infant TARDIS. She was very new, but would make a stupendous asset to their team. And really, it didn't matter that Rose's girl was still just a baby. She was still a TARDIS and one of the most magnificent ships in the whole universe. He just had to figure out what sort of role baby-girl would play.

Though, unexpectedly the entire castle began to shake and the cloister bell began to ring. Suddenly, the stone walls in the corridor began to change shape and in an instant they were ship corridors. The walls were all metal and plated. It looked like the interior of his own TARDIS and with creeping dread the Doctor knew that Sally had begun her plan.

Amy shouted, "Doctor, what's happening? What's that noise?"

"It's a warning. Sally has already entered the Time Vortex. She's gone back in time."

Amy frowned and asked, "Back? Back when? Why?"

The Doctor paled and answered, "She's gone back before the Time War. Back when everything started. No, not good! We've no time to waste!"

XXX

TBC

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Cliffhanger!

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