The Doctor had dug through a newspaper that had been left on the table, and managed to surface with a map of the London Underground. He explained patiently that whatever the hellhounds were looking for, it was underground, because they had been underground until they had been unable to get past the end of the line, and come out the top instead.

Hellhounds were apparently very stupid, even if they made good trackers. Which meant, of course, that they were working for someone. Someone had found and hired the hellhounds, and set them on the scent of the thing or person that they were searching for, which may be a good thing, or it may be a bad thing. The Doctor wasn't sure yet—he said that it depended on what they were looking for.

Amy just shrugged and finished her latte, chattering easily to fill up the silence. He didn't seem to talk all that much, and she had never been all that comfortable with silence—she had always had the urge to fill it, and when there wasn't anyone around to talk to, she talked to herself. Everyone at work was used to her aimless chatter by now, and Rory had used to pay attention to it with reverence.

And then—"A Macra egg!"

"Sorry?"

"There's a Macra egg in the London Underground! And if it hatches, it'll feed off of the steam and get bigger and bigger and more and more vicious. It'll start eating people—entire trains will just go missing."

"I still don't follow," Amy murmured. The Doctor set his coffee down on the table, grabbed her hand and hauled her to her feet.

"Come on!"

She left her mug on the table, waving apologetically to Mickey as the Doctor pulled her out the door.

"Where, exactly are we going?" Amy asked, eyeing him skeptically.

"The Underground, of course! Weren't you listening?"

"Listening, yes. Following, now," Amy muttered. He ignored her and set off down the street at top speed. "Doctor! Doctor!" She called.

He turned around and looked at her exasperatedly. "What is it, Amy Pond?"

"The nearest entrance to the Underground is that way," she said, pointing in the opposite direction.

"Oh," he said, making a face. "I knew that."

"Sure you did," Amy said sarcastically as he wheeled around to start back the way that he had come, grabbing her arm and pulling her with him along the way.

There were three blocks between them and the London Underground, and the Doctor insisted on dragging her across them fast enough that her elbow nearly caved in backwards.

He ran down the stairs and leapt over the turnstile, and Amy winced and followed him, hoping that there weren't security cameras down here. Then he reached the train platform, looked both ways and, after establishing that there weren't any trains on the tracks, hopped into the train tracks.

"What are you doing?" Amy shrieked.

"What did you think, that the potentially dangerous egg of a nearly extinct species is sitting on a train platform? Not likely! It's in there." He held his hand up in her direction. "Want to come with me?"

"Goddamnit, who are you?" She demanded. He looked at her and boosted himself back up beside her. Then he reached forward and cautiously took her hand and time seemed to slow to a stop. There was nothing except for her not-so-Raggedy Doctor and her, standing in the London Underground.

"You know when you were a kid? And they told you that the earth was moving, and you couldn't quite believe it because everything looked like it was standing still? I can feel it. I can feel the earth spinning at 1000 miles per hour, and moving around the sun at 67, 000 miles per hour. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go—" He dropped her hand, and time started again. "That's it. That's who I am. And I'd tell you to forget me, but I think that, thanks to my older self, that isn't going to happen."

"No," Amy admitted.

"So." He stepped forward, looked into her eyes. "You've seen my ship. She was probably a little bit worse for wear, the first time that you met her, but you've seen her. Want to come with me? Want to come and see the universe? All of time and space, where do you want to go?"

What did she have here, anyway? The vague promise that Rory would come and join her in London once he had graduated and managed to save enough money for medical school? An aunt that didn't even bother to tell her what part of the world she was in? "Yes," she said, without entirely giving her mouth permission to say the word. "Yes, I want to see everything."

"Good. Come on, then."

And, not allowing herself to question her sanity, she followed him into the train tunnel without looking back.

...

What was he doing? Why was he inviting her along? Sure, she was a plucky ginger, and sure, she had met his future-self—a sure sign that he could trust her—but why would he invite her along? He didn't deserve companions. People who destroyed their entire species in a storm of fire and blood did not get to travel the universe with a hand to hold. He wasn't allowed to die in the war—that would have been too kind—and now it was his penance to travel on alone.

Plus, the things that happened to his companions—Amy Pond deserved better than that. Amy Pond deserved better than to lose her memories like Jamie, or be left behind like Sarah Jane, or to die like Adric.

He loved them all, but it was his penance to never see them again, and to lose them forever, and to never again ruin a life like he had in the past.

He had been resolved to that—he had stopped an invasion of the Living Plastic just a few... well, a few months from now, if he was honest, and he could have picked up that girl, Shareen (the one that he had rescued from a basement department store), but he didn't. Because he didn't deserve the companionship, and a little platinum blonde from twenty-first century London didn't deserve to have her life destroyed by a lonely and angry old man who trailed war and death in his wake.

And neither did Amy Pond. Plus, she was a kid, sixteen years old, probably. He hadn't asked, but she couldn't have been much older than that. Beautiful, for certain, but in a fresh, untouched, innocent sort of way.

"So," she said, glancing at him as he led her into a dark tunnel. "Do you have any idea where you're going?"

"Not a clue," the Doctor said cheerfully. "You?"

She quirked her lips at him. "Nope," she said.

"Isn't it wonderful?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "I like to know where I'm going," she said. "I never watch a movie without seeing the trailer first. I never go anywhere without looking at a map."

"Oh! You ruin it," he said dramatically.

"I'm a small town girl alone in London—it takes planning, you know."

"Alone? I thought you lived with your aunt?"

"I lied. What, was I supposed to tell you that I lived alone? You could've been a serial killer," she said. "My aunt doesn't care enough about me to live with me. She didn't bother in Leadworth when I was seven, and she hasn't bothered now. She pays the bills, and she leaves me to my own devices. Rather than having to actually pay attention to her orphaned niece," Amy scoffed bitterly.

"If I'm a serial killer, you've probably been very stupid, following me down a dark tunnel," he pointed out.

"Eh," Amy shrugged. "You've convinced me of your trustworthiness—ah!" And, of course, because nothing in his life could possibly be easy, there was a train coming right at them. He grabbed her and pulled her into the slight hallway leading to a service door, and flattened them both against the wall. The train whipped by, and Amy could feel the air on her skin.

"Jesus Christ," she muttered. "You like to cut it close, don't you?"

"Little bit," he agreed. Must not let her see. He couldn't stop and think about the consequences the last time that he had cut it close, when he had finally listened to Romana's horrible, terrible last request. "Tell me, why do you really plan everything?"

"Because Rory told me to," Amy said.

"Who's Rory? Boyfriend?" He had the irrepressible urge to hunt down this Rory and inform him that if he broke Amy's heart, he would be answering to the Oncoming Storm.

"Ehem," Amy evaded. "Uhm... I—no. I mean, Rory—he's always been there for me, but I don't think that he's interested?" The Doctor eyed her sceptically. Legs like that, what teenage boy wouldn't be interested? "He's gay," Amy said flatly.

"Are you sure?" the Doctor said doubtfully.

"Very. We've been friends for eight years, and he's never shown an interest in a girl."

"He ever told you that he was gay? Shown interest in boys instead?"

"Wellllll. No. But I always figured that he would tell me when he was ready, right? I... I guess I would be interested, if he was. But I've never really thought about it. Because Rory's gay." She nodded firmly, and the Doctor let it go. He didn't know Rory, and he couldn't know one way or the other if Rory was gay.

The steam was getting thicker. Amy was coughing intermittently, and he cursed himself for not realizing that she did not have a respitory bypass, and that she wouldn't be able to breathe properly through all of the smoke that a Macra egg would inevitably attract.

But, it meant that they were getting closer. And apparently, they had failed to beat the hellhounds here. Fantastic.

Amy dove to one side and kicked the hellhound that tried to leap onto her. The Doctor was very proud of how quickly she had adapted to being attacked. That probably wasn't a good thing, but he got attacked a lot. Unfortunate, but true.

Typical hellhound, it got bored of the person that wasn't its prey, and moved forward into the smog. The Doctor pulled Amy to her feet and followed it. If someone was benevolently trying to get the Macra egg out of here before it pulled the underground apart, then he would be content. But if they were willing to send hellhounds after it, then the clearly didn't much care about collateral damage, which wasn't all that comforting. Which meant that he needed to get to the egg first, and he would drop it off on some deserted smog planet, where it could hatch and eat smoke in peace. Then he'd send the hellhounds back to mummy and daddy, and figure out what mummy/daddy had planned for that Macra egg, and whether they'd be a problem in the future.

Easy. No problem. And the whole bit about having a new companion in tow... well, maybe that was slightly more complicated, but he'd manage it. He was the Doctor—he always did.

Here's another update—three chapters in three days, I doubt that speed'll keep up, no matter how hard that I try. But I will do my best. Not much actually happened in this chapter, except that now they're poised to run into danger, and, despite his every instinct screaming him away from it, Nine's invited Amy to go travelling with him.