Eleventh Hour Part 2
We head out the door and start briskly walking towards the center of town.
"What is this place? Where am I?" The Doctor asks.
"Leadworth." Amy says.
"Where's the rest of it?"
"This is it." I say kind of matter-of-factly.
"Is there an airport?"
"No."
"A nuclear power station?"
"No."
"Even just a little one?"
"No."
"Nearest city?"
"Cloucester, half an hour by car."
"We don't have half an hour. Do we have a car?"
"No." They start their rapid fire question and answers and I just walk along behind taking it all in.
"Well, that's good! Fantastic, that is! 20 minutes to save the world and I've got a post office. And it's shut!" He motions towards the closed building. He runs up on the duck pond. "What is that?"
"It's a duck pond." Amy states like it's obvious.
"Why aren't there any ducks?"
"I don't know. There's never any ducks." I say. He gives me a weird look.
"Then how do you know it's a duck pond?"
"It just is. Is it important, the duck pond?" I ask. It does seem like a trivial thing to be worried about at the moment.
"I don't know. Why would I know?" The Doctor clutches his chest and sits down. "This is too soon. I'm not ready, I'm not done yet." Suddenly the sky gets darker like clouds are blocking the sun. Amy and I look up.
"What's happening? Why's it going dark?" It gets bright again but the sun looks different. "So what's wrong with the sun?"
"Nothing. You're looking at it through a force field. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere, now they're getting ready to boil the planet." I look around to see everyone taking pictures with their phones. "Oh, and here they come-the human race. The end comes, as it was always doing to-down a video phone!"
"This isn't real, is it? This is some kind of big wind-up."
"Why would I wind you up?"
"You told me you had a time machine."
"And you believed me."
"Then I grew up."
"Oh, you never want to do that. No, hang on, shut up, wait! I missed it. I saw it and I missed it." He hits himself in the forehead. "What did I see? I saw…What did I see?" He stares off in space for a second before turning back to us. "20 minutes. I can do it. 20 minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help me."
"Okay." I say and at the same time Amy says, "No."
"I'm sorry?"
"No!" She grabs him by his tie and shoves him against the car that has just pulled in.
"Amy, no, no, what are you doing? Are you out of your mind?" The Doctor is protesting the whole time. He looks at me pleadingly but I just shrug my shoulders. Nothing can stop Amy when she is in one of these moods. She has taken the keys from the old man in the car and locked the Doctor's tie in the door so he can't move.
"Who are you?"
"You know who I am."
"No, really, who are you?"
"Look at the sky! End of the world, 20 minutes."
"Better talk quickly, then!"
"Amy, I am going to need my car back." The old man says.
"Yes, in a bit. Now go and have coffee."
"Right, yes." He looks to me and I mouth an apology.
"Catch." The Doctor had reached in his pocket and pulled out an apple. The apple has a face on it, just like what Amy would do when she wanted to make me smile. He grabs her arm as he talks.
"I'm the Doctor. I'm a time traveller. Everything I told you 12 years ago is true. I'm real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let me go right now, everything you've ever known is over." She glances at me before answering. I can tell that she is struggling with the belief.
"I don't believe you."
"Just 20 minutes. Just believe me for 20 minutes. Look at it." She looks down at the apple in her hand. "Fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you know it's the same one. Amy…believe for 20 minutes." I silently plead her to listen.
"What do we do?" She asks as she unlocks the door. She throws the keys to me and I head over to the old man.
"Stop that nurse!" I hear the Doctor yell from behind me. I catch up to them. "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?" Rory is the one they are talking to.
"Amy?"
"Hi!" She smiles before turning to the Doctor. "Oh, this is Rory, he's a…friend."
"Boyfriend. Hey Jaz." I wave in reply.
"Kind of boyfriend."
"Amy!"
"Man and dog, why?"
"Oh, my God, it's him." Rory says as reality sets in.
"Just answer his question, please." I say a bit annoyed. The future of the world is at stake. We don't have time for Rory to be Rory.
"It's him, though. The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor."
"Yeah, he came back." Amy says impatiently.
"But he was a story. He was a game." The Doctor is getting agitated.
"Man and dog-why? Tell me now." The Doctor has grabbed a hold of Rory's coat.
"Sorry. Because he can't be there. Because he's in a hospital, in a coma."
"In a hospital, in a coma." They say the last bit at the same time.
"Yeah." Rory is completely baffled by this.
"Knew it. Multi-form, you see? Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind. Prisoner Zero."
"What, there's a Prisoner Zero too?" I put my hand to my forehead, and my sister likes this guy.
"Yes." Amy says this like it's not a big deal. All of a sudden this huge ship comes in to view. A light is emitted. It looks like it is scanning for something.
"See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." The Doctor raises his hand with the sonic and pushes the button. Light poles start exploding. An emergency vehicle takes off down the road. Amy and I just laugh while Rory is still dumbfounded. "I think someone's going to notice. Don't you?" He turns it up higher and the glass in the phone booth breaks. The sonic sparks and smoke comes out. The Doctor drops it on the ground. "No, no, no, don't do that!" I look up to see the ship leaving.
"Look, it's going." Everyone follows my lead and watches the ship leave.
"No, come back, he's here! Come back! He's here, Prisoner Zero is here." The Doctor storms away a few steps. My eyes are still on the man and dog. Before my eyes, the creature vanishes into the drain.
"Doctor!" Amy gets the Doctor back over. She points to the drain. "The drain. It just sort of melted and went down the drain."
"Well, of course it did."
"What do we do now?" I ask.
"It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open. No TARDIS, no screwdriver, 17 minutes. Come on, think. Think!" Amy ignores the Doctor and starts asking more questions.
"So that thing, that hid in our house for 12 years?"
"Multi-forms can live for millennia. 12 years is a pit-stop."
"So how come you show up on the same day that lot do, the same minute?" Amy asks and I await the Doctor's answer as well. It does seem a little odd.
"They're looking for him, but followed me. They saw me through the crack, got a fix. They're only late cos I am." He turns to Rory, "Give me your phone."
"How can he be real? He was never real." It's so like Rory to be the last to catch on. The Doctor looks rather impatient.
"Phone, now, gimme!" Rory hands it over. Never missing a beat, he continues his rave, "He was just a game, we were kids. You made me dress up as him."
"These photos are all coma patients?"
"Yeah."
"No, they're all the multi-form. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."
"He had a dog though. There's a dog in a coma?" Amy, always having the rational line of thinking.
"The coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog." He stops and looks like he's just been struck with a thought. "Laptop! Your friend, what was his name? Not him," Rory looks a little put out, "the good looking one." I chuckle.
"Thanks."
"Jeff."
"Oh, thanks!" I laugh at this one. Rory has always felt inferior to Jeff.
"He had a laptop in his bag, a laptop. Big bag, big laptop, I need Jeff's laptop. You three, get to the hospital, get everyone out of that ward. Clear the whole floor. Phone me when you're done." The Doctor runs off.
"Your car, come on." Amy pauses and looks to me. "You go home."
"But…" I try to refute but Amy puts her hand up.
"Please, just go home." I see the seriousness in her eyes. I nod my head and start off home.
"Um…but how can he be here? How can the doctor be here?" Rory says before following Amy to his car. I watch them pull away.
DWDWDWDWDW
I am sitting on the back steps of the house looking at the blue box. I still can't believe that what Amy told me all those years ago actually happened. I look up when I hear someone running. The Doctor runs by, in new clothes, and opens the door to step inside. He doesn't even acknowledge that I am sitting there.
I stand rooted in the spot, not sure if I should follow. Amy comes around the corner and stops short with Rory right behind her. The TARDIS starts making its patented noise and we watch as the box disappears. I look over to Amy and see the pain on her face. She has been left behind once again.
DWDWDWDWDW
It's been two years since I met the Doctor. It took Amy a few weeks to stop sitting up every night looking out her bedroom window. Aunt Sharron left not too long after the Doctor's return and departure. She said it was to help Amy take on more responsibility by taking care of me. I think she just wanted to not have to deal with us anymore.
Amy is marrying Rory tomorrow. I don't think she is ready, but she is adamant about it. I pause hearing a noise in the backyard. I listen and recognize it as the sound the TARDIS makes. I run to Amy's room and we both look out the window. Sure enough, the blue box is sitting in the backyard. We rush outside.
"Sorry about running off earlier. Brand new TARDIS-bit exciting. Just had a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in. She's ready for the big stuff now." I stop short realizing that he has no idea it has been two years.
"It's you. You came back." Amy says a bit shocked.
"Course I came back. I always come back. Something wrong with that?"
"And you kept the clothes." She says.
"Well, I just saved the world, the whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge. Yeah, shoot me! I kept the clothes."
"Including the bow tie." I point out.
"Yeah, it's cool. Bow ties are cool." I chuckle at this.
"Are you from another planet?" I look at her and give her an 'are you serious' face.
"Yeah."
"Ok."
"So what do you girls think?"
"Of what?" I ask.
"Other planets. Want to check some out?"
"What does that even mean?" Amy asks. I wonder when she is going to let him have it.
"It means…Well, it means…come with me."
"Where?" I ask.
"Wherever you like."
"All that stuff-the hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero…" Oh, she's going to let him have it now.
"Oh, don't worry. That's just the beginning. There's load more."
"Yeah, but those things, those…amazing things, all that stuff…that was two years ago!" I even jump at the anger in her voice. She hardly ever yells like that.
"Oh-oh! Oops." The Doctor's face shows he can't believe it either.
"Yeah."
"So that's…" He hesitates.
"14 years!" I interject. He left my sister waiting for him for way too long.
"14 years since fish custard. Amy Pond, the girl who waited, you've waited long enough."
"When I was a kid, you said there was a swimming pool and a library," she says reminiscing. She looks at me, "and the swimming pool was in the library."
"Yeah. Not sure where it's got to now. It'll turn up. So…coming?"
"No." She says quickly.
"You wanted to come 14 years ago."
"I grew up." I know that isn't the real reason. She doesn't want to leave me behind.
"Don't worry. I'll soon fix that." He looks at me and then back to Amy, "Your sister can come as well." He snaps his fingers and the door opens. I look at Amy and she takes my hand pulling me in behind her. We both stop right inside. It is bigger on the inside.
"Well? Anything you want to say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all."
"We're in our nighties." Amy says still looking around.
"Oh, don't worry. Plenty of clothes in the wardrobe. And possibly a swimming pool." He pauses and turns to us. "So…all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will…Where do you want to start?"
"You are so sure that we're coming." Amy says.
"Yeah, I am."
"Why?" I ask. How could he possibly know we are coming.
"Cos you're the Scottish girls in the English village, and I know how that feels."
"Oh, do you?" Amy asks skeptically.
"All these years living here, most of your life and you've got that accent. Yeah, you're coming."
"Can we be back by tomorrow morning?" She asks finally.
"It's a time machine. I can get you back for five minutes ago. Why, what's tomorrow?" Amy looks at me before answering.
"Nothing. Nothing. Just…you know, stuff."
"All right, then. Back in time for 'stuff'." He takes something from the controls. It's a new screwdriver. "Oh! A new one! Lovely."
"Why us?" Amy asks.
"Why not?"
"Seriously. You are asking us to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. Why us?" Amy stands next to me. We both cross our arms and look at him.
"I don't know. Fun. Do I need a reason?"
"People always have a reason." I say.
"Do I look like people?"
"Yes." Amy states.
"Been knocking around on my own for a while. My choice. But I've started talking to myself all the time. It's given me an earache."
"You're lonely. That's it? Just that?" Amy asks unbelieving.
"Just that. Promise."
"Ok." We both say.
"So, are you ok, then? Cos this place, sometimes it can make people feel a bit-you know…" Amy and I nod our heads. I have no words, but like usual Amy has something to say.
"I'm fine. Fine. It's just…there's a whole world in here, just like you said. It's all true. I thought…Well, I started to think that maybe you were just like a madman with a box."
"Amy Pond, Jaz, there's something you'd better understand, cos one day your lives may depend on it." We both lean in closer waiting for the answer. "I am definitely a madman with a box. Ha-ha! Yeah. Goodbye, Leadworth. Hello, everything!" He pulls a lever and we start to move.
"Whoo!" Amy and I yell as we take off. We have officially begun our adventures with the Doctor. Only time will tell what is to come.