Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who, the Doctor, Donna, Amy, Rory or anyone. Thanks for the reads and the reviews. I would love to know what you think and enjoy!
"Should we retcon them?," Jack asked the Doctor.
Rory and Amy had been seated on the sofa, with Ianto and Gwen standing guard behind them. Jack was at the Doctor's side.
"What is with you and the retcon, Jack?," asked the Doctor.
"I still don't know what I did," said Amy.
"Oh, so you normally crash a one year old's birthday party?," asked Gwen.
"I had an invitation!"
"Sorry, what's retcon?," asked Rory.
"Retconning them won't help," said the Doctor. "Whoever is trying to push us together will just keep at it and we'll see them again."
Donna came back in. "Mum says the sky is orange and Gramps says it's purple." She took Zara from the Doctor and sat back down. "Anyone else you want me to ring up and ask what color the sky is?"
"You could always ring Nerys," said the Doctor.
"Nerys! She didn't even show up for the party and Zara hasn't gotten a present!"
"I was joking. You actually invited her?"
"Of course I did!"
"Who's Nerys?," asked Amy.
"We're being held captive by a secret agency and the sky is funny colors and you want to know who Nerys is?," asked Rory.
Amy shrugged.
"Nerys," Zara said imitating her mother's disdain.
"Now she's doing it," said the Doctor.
"I've known her for years and all Zara got at her christening was a ten pound gift voucher to Baby Gap!," said Donna.
"Alright, never mind Nerys, we need to know why you all think the sky has changed colors," said the Doctor, looking at the sonic screwdriver. "Nothing has changed in the atmosphere, nothing has changed with your brains, so what is it?"
"So, what?," asked Amy. "We're all seeing the sky wrong and you're the only ones seeing it correctly?"
"Pretty much, yeah," said the Doctor.
"What makes you three so special then?," asked Amy.
The Doctor looked at Donna, then back at Amy and Rory. "Nothing really..."
"Right, just John and Donna Smith," said Donna.
"That's us," confirmed the Doctor.
"With the clever baby," said Amy.
"Sorry?," asked the Doctor.
Amy pointed at her friend. "Rory said your baby was clever."
Rory shook his head. "Never said that."
"So, now she's dumb?," asked Donna.
"Never said that," said Rory. "I have made no commentary on your baby, nor do I have any interest in her." He looked over, the clever baby was staring at him, somehow looking offended.
"You still haven't answered what a Time Lord is," said Amy.
"Right, anyway, the sky..." said the Doctor.
"Are you aliens?," asked Amy.
"Seriously, Amy, they're not aliens! You met her grandfather!," said Rory.
"Maybe he's an alien, too."
"What kind of alien tries to shoot at Daleks with a paint ball gun?"
"I've done more with less," mused the Doctor.
Donna smacked him on the arm. "Not helping."
"Who turned the television on?," asked the Doctor.
"No one," said Donna.
The Doctor pointed at the television which was on and playing adverts at the moment.
"Okay, so Zara got hold of the remote," said Donna.
The Doctor motioned at the table across the room. "Then what's it doing there?"
The screen went white.
A woman appeared on the screen. She appeared to be human and her expression was so placid as to be disconcerting.
"Greetings," she said, "we come in peace."
"Oh, it's never good when they say that," mused the Doctor.
"We've got to record this," said Jack heading for the remote.
"Can we track the signal?," asked Martha.
"I'll get my laptop," said Mickey. "Track the signal that way."
"We are here to help," said the woman.
"Oh, they're here to help, that's just brilliant," said the Doctor.
"Maybe they are here to help," said Rhys, chewing cake.
"Right, aliens always cross the galaxy because they want to help out," said Ianto. He looked at the Doctor. "No offense."
"Wait, so you are an alien?," asked Amy.
"Why isn't she saying anything else?," asked Rory.
The Doctor looked at the TV. She wasn't saying anything. Just sitting there, smiling.
It was unnerving.
"Mummy..." said Zara, her lip trembling. She buried her face in Donna's chest.
"Psychic signal!," said the Doctor. "Same sort of technology they used on the sky! Must be on such a primal level that Zara can sense it, but-"
He looked back to see everyone had frozen, except Zara and Donna.
"Oh, come on," said the Doctor with disgust.
"What?," said Rory.
The Doctor couldn't believe it. He had just been staring at the telly. "What? Why are you fine?," asked the Doctor.
Rory turned to Amy. "Amy! Oh, my God! Amy?" He shook her but she didn't move.
"Something must be blocking the psychic signal to your brain," said the Doctor.
"Oh, great," said Rory.
"No, it's a good thing, you can help us," said the Doctor.
"And we're doing what exactly?," asked Donna.
"I don't know, we have to figure out exactly how deep this hypnosis is." He walked to Martha. "Martha, it's the Doctor, listen to me."
He turned to Mickey. "Mickey, it's me? Can you hear me?"
"Remember? The man who ruined your life?," Donna said playfully.
"Not helping, Donna."
"Is that what you call yourself? 'The Doctor'?," asked Rory. "Who does that? It sounds like a bad pick up line."
"Oi, what happened to when you thought we were going to kill you?," asked Donna.
"Well, most of the people that I thought were going to kill me are actually frozen."
"You think I won't?," asked Donna.
"Right..." said the Doctor, finishing his scan of Martha. "Interesting, it's like it's blocking all her higher functions."
"So, why am I okay?," asked Rory.
"Because you already have something blocking your higher functions," said the Doctor.
Rory shook his head. "Not sounding good."
"Don't worry about it," said the Doctor.
"And why are you okay?"
The Doctor looked at Donna. She just stared back at him. The Doctor turned back to Rory.
"Amy was right. I am an alien. Zara is my daughter, Donna's my wife."
"I met her grandfather, though," said Rory clinging desperately to the rational world.
"Oh, Donna's human, but if I had to guess I would say it's some sort of Time Lord energy running through her system or her big mind that's basically impermeable to interference."
"That makes it sound like I'm thick," said Donna.
"I said big mind," said the Doctor.
"Which is still the weirdest compliment any man has ever given me."
Rory started to feel his heart race. He wasn't following a lot of what was going on except he realized the world was falling apart and these two were bantering! "Um, do you two always talk like this when everyone in the world is seeing weird colors in the sky and are frozen?"
"'Course we do. Why not?"
"Fine, what the hell is going on?," asked Donna.
"We've got to find that signal. Find the signal, find whoever's sending it out and what they really want. Allons-y!"
"Is it okay to just leave them like this?," asked Rory, motioning at the people who were now statues, Rhys still in mid-bite of another piece of banana cake.
"They're not going anywhere," said the Doctor, bounding out of the room.
The Doctor, Donna and Zara headed for the kitchen. Rory followed them.
"Where are we going?," he asked.
"TARDIS," said Zara, looking at Rory over Donna's shoulder.
"Mind the steps," said the Doctor opening the cellar door.
"The what?," asked Rory.
"Steps! You're going to have to keep up better than that!"
"TARDIS," said Zara, knowing what Rory meant.
The Doctor led the way down the steps and into what looked like a blue box to Rory.
"Um..."
Rory watched as Donna and Zara went in as well.
"Just Rory!," he heard Zara shout.
Rory walked carefully over to the box and looked past the door.
There was a giant room, much too big for the box. Some sort of coral, the Doctor appeared to be at some sort of control panel assembled by a man with a junk yard. Donna was strapping Zara into a baby seat and there was a Jack Russell Terrier barking at him.
Against every survival instinct, Rory stepped inside.
"Sorry, what is this?," he asked.
"TARDIS," said Zara.
"Clever girl," said Donna giving her a kiss.
"This is my ship-" said the Doctor.
Donna shot him a look.
"Our ship..."
The TARDIS hummed bitterly.
"Anyway, this is a ship that travels through time and space." He motioned at the dog. "That's Esther. Esther, Rory."
"And what are we going to do now?," asked Rory.
The Doctor looked at Donna. "I thought I was being fairly self-explanatory."
Donna shrugged. "I followed it just fine."
He looked back at Rory. "We're going to save the Earth now."
"Oh. Okay," said Rory.