A/N: Thank you nice people for reviews :D Nod and smile like it's totally plausible. It's easier to bear that way :D
Chapter 7 – The Doctor's Biggest Fan
The Doctor slowly rose to awareness, struggling to establish a level of focus through his pulsating head. He could feel himself lying on a wet floor, his hands restrained, and people talking from somewhere near him...
"Yes, we have the prisoner secured. We found him robbing our local market and trying to rape the abducted Earth woman," a voice said. There was a pause. "There was no child, but we also have seized the TARDIS and she may be inside..."
The Doctor frowned, forcing his agonising head up from where he lay. Everything was a complete blur, but he could just make out a few of the planet's native species milling around behind bars.
No, wait, he was the one behind bars...
These were policemen. He'd been arrested?
"The woman appears to have undergone some mind trick, she is still insisting that he is the Doctor..." the voice continued.
"Excuse me," the Doctor began, still blinking to try and get focus. He hadn't been hit that hard since the incident with Jackie and the saucepan... "What...?"
"You just be quiet, you scum!" one of the blurs closest to him yelled, obviously very irritated at him.
"But..." the Doctor had to stop and groan, holding his bound hands to the side of his bleeding head as he struggled to sit up through the constant tidal waves of dizziness.
"I told you not to talk!" the blur yelled, and seconds later something hit the Doctor in the jaw. The blur had thrown something at him...
He decided not to talk again since he'd obviously done something very bad, and just assess the damage. He knew he could have only been unconscious for around six minutes, but he was still bleeding. His vision was still very blurry and his head felt like it had an axe stuck in it. From these facts alone he knew he had a significant concussion...
"Thank you, we will see you soon," the voice across the room said, and suddenly the Doctor realised all attention was on him. And somehow it wasn't a good attention. It was a bad attention. Very, very bad.
"Did I do something wrong?" the Doctor wondered vaguely, still wincing and holding his head.
"Wrong?" the blur who had thrown something at him repeated in a shriek. "Wrong? You know what you've done wrong!"
The Doctor stared at the blur. "You're really gonna have to help me out, here."
"What did you do with the Doctor?"
The Doctor blinked, surprised. "... What?"
"Where is he?"
The Doctor couldn't be more confused. "I am the Doctor..."
"You sick bastard!" the blur yelled and something came hurtling towards him again, this time clipping his nose. "You killed him and then took his wife and daughter and the TARDIS. You're the imposter!"
"What?" the Doctor breathed, brow knitted in confusion. "No, I really am the Doctor..."
"Well, you would say that!" the blur spat.
"Yash," the voice that had been on the phone suddenly interrupted. "Give him aid for his head and try to control yourself, okay? I'll be at the space-pad waiting for the escorts."
The blur, obviously called Yash, grunted folded his arms. "Fine," he harrumphed, as the other person left, and the cell door opened. Yash became clearer as he got closer to the Doctor, an angry blue youthful man leering down at him as he shoved an ice pack roughly in the Doctor's face. The Time Lord took it with bloody hands and held it to his injured head.
"Thanks," the Doctor muttered.
"This doesn't mean I like you!" Yash snapped. "Doctor killer!"
The Doctor groaned again, but this was more out of suppressed anger. He knew to be accused of this he had to be in an incredibly dangerous situation... where was Rose? Leah? The TARDIS? He had to escape and find them – but he could barely think through the pain in his head.
"Look, Yash..." he began.
"I'm not talking to you!"
"Then just listen, okay?" the Doctor breathed, his eyes closed as he tried to work through the pain. "I don't know what's happened, or is in fact happening. All I know is that I came to this planet to get some medicine, and somehow I managed to get my head smashed in to end up in this place, with my family and my ship taken, and now I'm being accused of murdering myself. I don't care who you think I am, can you please just tell me where my wife and daughter are?"
"Like I'd tell you!" Yash yelled. "I'd never betray the Doctor!"
The Doctor groaned once more, and tried a different approach. "Okay, how well do you know the Doctor?"
Yash suddenly beamed. "I'm his biggest fan!"
The Doctor frowned. "I thought that was Baris?"
Yash laughed boisterously. "Him?" he scoffed. "He's only a level 49 Doctor Lover, I'm level 54!"
"... Doctor Lover?"
"Yeah!" Yash said, beaming from ear-to-ear, evidently proud. "The more posts you have on the Spacenet Doctor Forums the higher..."
"Right, I get it," the Doctor interrupted swiftly, feeling a little weirded-out. "So if you know him so well, how do you think he would react to someone trying to steal his family and his TARDIS?"
Yash was grinning again. "Oh he'd totally kick their ass!" he yelled happily, fist in the air.
"So you don't think anyone actually could?"
Yash was about to shake his head, when he finally realised what the Doctor was up to. "... Well obviously you did it so it's not all that impossible!"
The Doctor sighed again, still holding the medical pack to his head. It had stopped bleeding at least. "Please, tell me where my family are, or I may have to kick your ass."
"I ain't afraid of you!" Yash suddenly shouted, getting to his feet and back away from the Doctor. "You killed the Doctor and now you're gonna pay! He was the greatest person to have ever lived and you killed him! I hate you!"
He turned, locked the cell door behind him and strutted into a side office.
"... Daddy?"
The Doctor's breath caught in his throat as he quickly shot to attention, looking frantically around the room for an appropriately-shaped blur... And found her hiding just out of sight by the cell. "Leah? Are you okay?" he whispered, eyes flickering to the side office to check for Yash, but he was still inside.
"Daddy bang head?" she asked in a whisper.
"Yeah," the Doctor grimaced, but already knew the serious danger they were in. He had to protect Leah at all costs, and that could only happen one way... "Leah, go back to the TARDIS, hit the emergency button, Auntie Sarah will look after you..."
"No," Leah said, running silently up to the cell door and taking out a clip from her hair, reaching forward and unlocking the door in one swift click.
The Doctor blinked, staring at the unlocked door. "How did you..."
"Uncle Jack showed me."
"Remind me to kiss him when we get back."
She giggled and ran over to him to untie his hands. When he was free he rubbed his wrists, wincing. Using Leah he struggled to his feet, trying desperately to find his centre of balance as she obediently pressed her hands to his leg in futile support.
"Do you know where Mummy is, Leah?" he asked quietly.
She shook her head.
"Okay, we'll find her," the Doctor assured her, taking her hand to lead her out of he cell... and met Yash standing in the middle of the room, staring at them in horror.
For a moment they both froze like deer in headlights.
"Leah! Get away from him!" Yash yelled, diving forward to grab her, wrenching her from her father.
… And then Yash realised the incredibly huge error he'd made.
As Leah struggled in Yash's grip the Doctor was on fire at the mere thought that someone had dared to take Leah from him without his consent. His bond with Leah screamed its rage as suddenly all he could hear was the blood pounding in his ears and he began to stride forward, hands out ready to kill Yash...
But Leah was one step ahead. She raised a fist and slammed it straight into Yash's stomach, another of Uncle Jack's essential life skills. Yash's eyes bulged and he let go of Leah, backing away and bent over, struggling to breath. The Doctor stopped and blinked in surprise, staring at Yash, trying to contain the anger...
Leah ran back to the Doctor, hugging his middle tightly and bursting into quiet sobs. He held her close, glaring at Yash with hatred as the blue man stared at him, transfixed.
"Don't play games with me," the Doctor grated, still staring at Yash, not even having blinked. "You will tell me where my wife is right now!"
Yash just stared.
"TELL ME!" the Doctor roared into Yash's terrified face.
He could barely speak. "The... The... umm.. The..."
The Doctor made to moved forward again.
Yash squeaked in terror. "The Shadow Proclamation have sent an alert that... that someone had got rid of the Doctor and was impersonating him... And we sh-should capture him and wait for the Shadow Proclamation to... to get here so they could p-punish the imposter and take his wife and child to... to safety..."
"When?"
"Umm..."
"WHEN?" the Doctor yelled.
"Daddy," Leah suddenly interrupted, and in the drop of a hat the Doctor flipped from burning anger to incredible compassion.
"What?" he asked, stroking her hair as she looked up at him.
"Don't shout."
"I'm sorry, Leah," he said. "Sometimes Daddy has to shout at incredibly stupid people."
"... You are the Doctor, aren't you?" Yash whispered.
"Oh, not so stupid," the Doctor said in mock congratulations, pulling a grin and staring at Yash again. "Where is Rose?" he asked as calmly as he could.
"I hit you, I'm sorry, I didn't know... I didn't..." Yash gabbled, looking as though he might cry. "I threw stuff, I thought you were the imposter, I would've never..."
The Doctor quickly held up a silencing hand, even if it was covered in the blood Yash had spilt. "It's fine," he said. "Forgiven."
Yash perked up slightly, as it finally dawned on him he was talking to the Doctor. The Doctor. "Everyone thinks you're dead! Wait till I get on the Spacenet forums!" He paused, thought for a moment. "No one'll believe me... Wait, can I get a picture? Just me and you? Hugging? No, wait! Can I kiss you in it? Can you autograph it?"
"Yash, this really isn't the time..."
"Oh right, yeah. Don't make him angry! Are we best friends now? Can I say you're my best friend?"
"Yes," the Doctor said quickly. "Now where's my wife?"
Yash was beaming, struggling not to squee. The Doctor was his best friend, now. He was invincible! "She's in the cells, guarded."
"How bad it is?"
"She was saying that you were you and we'd got it wrong, but the Shadow Proclamation were all like, 'no! She's mental! Guard her! Don't let the imposter near her!'..." he mimicked. "So she's like, heavily guarded and stuff while we wait for the Proclamation to take you all away. But it's cool, right? Because you're the real Doctor."
The Doctor ignored the last of his sentence. "And where's the TARDIS?"
"Pretty close. What you gonna do?"
"Dunno yet," the Doctor admitted. "I'll think of something."
"Oooh!" Yash pointed, jumping up and down excitedly. "You said that with the Cybermen! This is gonna be awesome!"
The Doctor decided to go with it, having a quick check of his pockets. "Yeah. Where's my sonic?"
"Here!" Yash quickly darted to a desk where a brown bag was sat. "I saved everything. You know, in case the Doctor wasn't really dead and wanted them back."
"Well, he does now," the Doctor assured him, moving forward with Leah at his heels, rummaging through to retrieve his belongings and shoving them into his pockets, checking the sonic screwdriver was still working – all the while trying to ignore Yash's look of complete awe.
"I love you," Yash said beamed.
"Likewise," the Doctor assured him, shoving the sonic into his inside jacket pocket and taking Leah's hand again. "Take me to the TARDIS."
"I'm gonna see the TARDIS!" Yash realised. "This is awesome! C'mon!" he enthused, and led the Doctor towards a side door.
But just before they reached it, the door burst open and ten Judoon flooded in, very quickly surrounding them.
"You will cease and desist!" the lead Judoon demanded.
"This is the Doctor!" Yash yelled happily, stepping in front of the Time Lord confidently. "You've got it all wrong! He's alive! And this is him! Everything's fine!"
"You will cease and desist!" the Judoon repeated, and simultaneously they raised their weapons and aimed at the Doctor, Leah and Yash.
"Yash," the Doctor said quickly. "Don't..."
"Don't worry!" Yash enthused, folding his arms as he boldly continued to argue his case. "This ain't the imposter!"
"Yash!" the Doctor yelled urgently, grabbing the young man's arm. "Get out of the way, let them take me."
Yash looked back at him, confused. "Why? You're the real you, you're not the imposter, everything's cool, right?"
"I don't think they care," the Doctor murmured. "There is no imposter... they made it up to find me and arrest me..."
One of the Judoon moved forward from behind them and grabbed the Doctor, restraining him.
Yash whirled around, frowning. "What are you doing? Stop it!"
"Yash, please, please get out of here..." the Doctor begged.
"No!" Yash yelled, eyes wide. "He hasn't done anything wrong! He never does anything wrong! He's my best friend!"
"Yash! Run!" the Doctor yelled.
"No I won't!" Yash yelled back, drawing out his police-issued weapon and pointing it at the Judoon holding the Doctor. "Let go of him!"
"Yash!" the Doctor yelled, pleading with him... "Put it down and get out of here!"
The Judoon holding him roughly shoved him, and the Doctor cried out in pain.
Then it all happened so fast.
With one fluid motion, Yash aimed his weapon at the Judoon holding his best friend, and fired.
Of course, the bullet had no effect... But the damage was already done.
"Charge; attempted murder..." the head Judoon began...
"No! Yash! Run!" the Doctor yelled.
"Plea; guilty..."
Yash was too stunned to move, suddenly finding all the guns were aimed at him. He swallowed, dropped his weapon...
"Sentence..."
"RUN, YASH!" the Doctor screamed.
"... Execution."