Hi everybody! ... Hmmm? What's that you say? ... What do you mean, 'Who are you?' It's me, LifelongObsessor! You know? Fanfiction Writer? ... No? Not ringing any bells? ... Well. I don't exactly blame you for forgetting, since it has taken me SO LONG to actually post anything, but LOOK! TAH-DAH! Here we go! A new chapter!

I'll let you go ahead and read. You've waited long enough. ;)

CHAPTER ONE

"I told you this was a bad idea."

Amy and Rory, lead by the Doctor, trudged slowly back up the street, breathing heavily and slouching from exhaustion. The massive leash the Doctor held in his hand scraped along the concrete as it dangled, creating an unpleasant screeching sound, but everyone in the group was just tired enough that they made no move to prevent it, choosing instead to focus all their energy on simply making it back to the TARDIS. The exception to this, of course, was the energy spent so they could bicker amongst themselves.

"I can't believe you sometimes!" Amy continued incredulously, slowly slipping into what Rory sometimes secretly referred to as 'Rant Mode'. "Why on Earth would you think bringing a triceratops in your time-traveling space ship would be a good idea?"

"Amelia Pond!" The Doctor looked back at her in disbelief, stopping in his tracks. "Di-no-saur," he said slowly, emphasizing each syllable. "Time Ma-chine. Out-er Space. How does that not sound like a good idea to you?"

Rory snorted quietly at that, at least until Amy shot him a death glare, causing him to stop short. "Right," he said quickly. "That's not funny, Doctor. Not funny at all. This is … serious?" He looked to Amy for approval, eyes wide.

Amy rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Rory." She sighed and went to step around the Doctor to continue towards the TARDIS, but he stepped directly in front of her path.

"No, honestly," he insisted, pocketing his leash and placing his face inches from hers to get his point across. He forced her to meet his eyes and lowered his voice. "Listen to me very carefully, Amy, because this is deeply, incredibly important and I'm only going to say it once." He was silent for a moment, his gaze still locked with Amy's. "If you only remember one thing I've taught you, one golden rule, one thing from all our travels together, please … let it be this." The air was still and serious by this point and everyone in the Doctor's party was silent, listening to his words. It was because of this that Amy and Rory both jumped a little when the Doctor suddenly tapped Amy on the head three times. "Dinosaurs. Are. Cool," he cried, a word for each tap, a grin plastered across his face the entire time.

The tension between Amy and the Doctor finally broke. Amy nearly keeled over laughing, grasping the Doctor's tweed jacket in both fists for support. The Doctor just smiled smugly, pleased by how easy it could be to get through to humans sometimes. Just for a moment, all the day's stress melted away. For a brief moment they were just three friends on a lonely street, tired and grumpy from a hard day of work (albeit not the conventional kind) but still able to enjoy each other's company. For a moment, it was as if all the trouble of the world no longer existed.

But it all returned in a flash with just two simple words from Rory.

"What's that?" Rory asked suddenly, averting his gaze from his laughing cohorts and gesturing a tad off the street.

The Doctor sprang back from Amy's grasp at that, rushing toward Rory and watching him, excitement evident on his features. "What did you just say?"

Rory blinked. "Um, I asked you what that is. Over there." The Doctor continued staring, so he repeated his previous words, verbatim. "What's that?"

The Doctor slowly smiled. "Amy?" he said, his eyes never leaving Rory's puzzled face. "Do you know what two words, when paired together, cause the most excitement and intrigue to every creature you could possible find in this galaxy?"

Amy blinked. "Well, gosh. Could it be 'What's that?"

"What? No, of course not," the Doctor answered. "The answer is 'Dinner's ready," but 'What's that?" does come in a close second, and is much more appropriate given our current situation." The Doctor took off without another word in the direction Rory had indicated, humming some sort of excited tune to himself.

Rory grabbed Amy's hand before the two of them obediently trotted off behind him. "Bet you he can't go the rest of the day without coming up with another golden rule."

"You're on," Amy giggled, smiling up at her husband. She hadn't known what to expect after her and Rory's honeymoon ended. Traveling with the Doctor and Rory at the same time had seemed like such a problematic idea. Sure, they had done it once before, but that had been cut short by the whole Rory-Never-Existed issue, giving them only a few short weeks together. Besides, they hadn't been married yet during all that so, if need be, the two of them could have severed ties. At the time that had been a blessing to Amy, the knowledge that the pair could split and she wasn't tied down; now it hurt to even think of her and Rory being apart for a few moments, let alone forever. At least something good had come out this whole experience with The Cracks. Besides, of course, the Doctor.

The thought of her favorite Timelord snapped Amy's train of thought back to the present. She saw that the alien in question was now kneeling on the edge of the street, brandishing his sonic screwdriver at some unknown object hidden under a bush. He looked up, annoyed. "Oh, come ON, Ponds! The reason the universe blessed with legs in the first place was so they could use them!" Seeing their speed hadn't picked up any, the Doctor tsk-ed and returned to his work. "Humans," he muttered under his breath, checking the object's readings on his sonic screwdriver. He blinked. He blinked again. Then he knelt down further for a better look under the bush. There was no way this could be true …

At last Amy and Rory made it to his location. "So, what is it this time?" Amy said lightly. "Killer orangutans with a taste for blood, perhaps? Evil clowns from outer space? Ooh, or maybe it's – " She stopped when she saw the Doctor's face. Somehow, in a matter of seconds, everything had changed. The Timelord's face was no longer shining with anticipation and happiness, but was plagued with what could only be described as fear.

"Doctor?" Rory said, concern evident in his voice. The Doctor made no motions of moving, his eyes glued on whatever was hiding beneath the confines of the bush. Rory's nursing instincts kicked in as he sunk to the ground by his friend, looking into the Timelord's eyes and putting a hand to his forehead. "He's freezing! I think … I think he's going into shock!"

"What?" Amy cried. "But that's impossible! He's not even human? How could he be – "

"I don't know, Amy, but it's happening," Rory cut her off. "We need to fix this." He bit his lip, considering. "Um, our best bet is probably to get him back to the TARDIS."

Amy laughed, a short fearful sound. "Great. This is just what I wanted to do today – chase a dinosaur down Main Street and carry and alien up a hill. Wonderful."

The couple stood and reached to hoist the Doctor to his feet. Suddenly his arm shot out and he dove under the bush, grabbing whatever had been hidden there. Amy tried to see what the mystery object was, but the Doctor had it clamped between his hands and hidden from view. Shrugging, Amy and Rory ignored it for the time being and finally got the Doctor in a standing position.

"Oh, God," Rory said unexpectedly, glancing past his wife's shoulder.

"What?" Amy moaned.

"Not to worry you or anything, but isn't that the police officer who was asking us all those questions this morning?"

Amy craned her neck. Indeed it was the same officer the trio had seen earlier during the day; they had been searching for the runaway dinosaur and contemplating their next move when the angry man had spotted them. None of the other officers on the scene had been very interested in the lot of them, but this one seemed intent on proving they were somehow involved in the day's shenanigans. He had pestered them for a good five minutes (which is a lot of time when a rogue dino is running loose) and surely would have questioned them longer if they hadn't made a break for it.

Apparently he was still looking for them. Great.

"So, let's get moving then?" Amy suggested, pulling the Doctor forward.

"Agreed," chimed Rory, helping her.

A glance behind them showed that the officer had spotted them and was in the process of following them up the hill. Luckily the TARDIS was only a few feet away.

"Ungggggg …" The Doctor groaned just as they reached the doors.

"Rory! I think he's snapping out of it!" Amy cried in relief.

"What? But he was in shock!"

"Well, if he WAS, he's not anymore!"

"Great," Rory huffed, "because we have another problem." He patted his jean pockets and looked pointedly at Amy. "Keys?"

Amy gazed at the TARDIS doors, the LOCKED TARDIS doors, and groaned. "Doctor?" she said in exasperation. "Where are the TARDIS keys?"

The Doctor lazily met Amy's intense stare? "Mmmmmm?" he moaned.

Amy chanced a glance behind her, only to see the officer mere yards behind them. "TARDIS KEYS!" she practically screamed.

At that, the Doctor seemed to completely snap out of it, his eyes becoming lucid and his face determined. "Right. Keys. They're right - "

"GET IN," Rory interrupted with a yell, gesturing toward the ship whose doors were now, inexplicably, open.

Amy and the Doctor practically flew into the TARDIS as Rory slammed the doors behind them, successfully keeping.

Amy sank to the floor. "It's official – I have had quite enough running for one day!"

"Nonsense," the Doctor scoffed. "You can never have enough running. But that's not important now." He turned to Rory, pointing an accusatory finger in his direction. "YOU. How did you open the TARDIS doors?"

"It was unlocked," Rory said defensively.

"Was not," Amy said. "I saw him lock it myself."

It was silent for a moment. Finally the Doctor said, "I think we have a problem."

"Oh, you have NO IDEA, SPACEMAN" a strange voice suddenly chimed, slashing the air with its words.

Amy sprang to her feet, gazing madly around the room. This wasn't supposed to happen! "Doctor? What's going on?" She gazed at him from the corner of her eye and saw a look of sheer terror forming on the Doctor's face, possibly a look even more afraid than he had been wearing mere minutes ago. "Doctor?" she said again. "What is it? Who said that?"

The Doctor blinked. "The most terrifying creature in all of time and space," he slowly began to reply. "A creature worshipped on many planets in the galaxy, but feared on many others. A creature that isn't afraid of anything in this entire cosmos, much less me." Rory took Amy's hand, suddenly feeling in danger. "A creature that has faced nearly every problem the universe could throw at it and who, by all accounts," he said, with a hint of confusion, "shouldn't even be alive right now."

There was a sudden flurry of movement behind the TARDIS console. Amy and Rory watched in terror as the creature stepped into view … only to become horribly confused when they saw not a creature with fearfully large incisors or oozing plasma as they had subconsciously been expecting, but a middle-aged woman with fiery red hair and a scowl stretching across her face.

The couple turned to the Doctor, wondering if this was some sort of joke. If his unwavering expression was anything to go by, it wasn't.

"Amy … Rory …" the Doctor said, "I'd like you to meet Donna Noble."

Hello again!

As I said above, I know I've been awful in my updating. I sincerely apologize; September hit and I kind of lost it, I guess.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter - it was inexplicably really hard to write! I'm still not 100% satisfied with it, truthfully, but I am happy with it to be sure.

Now, if I actually get anything WRITTEN, we can get into some fun adventures through time and space! And maybe find out what the Doctor found and what caused him to become so distressed? Hmmm?

Thanks for still sticking with me, guys! Your reviews for the prologue were WONDERFUL! Any chance you can send some more my way? Please?
Heck, even if you just want to tell me your opinion on the past five Doctor Who episodes, that'd be great in itself! ;)

THANKS SO MUCH! :D