I do not own Doctor Who.
And another little warning: I've never seen Torchwood, anything I know about that show is from Doctor Who, so if I'm wildly inaccurate on certain aspects of Torchwood, please forgive me. =)
When Rory came to again in the white room, someone had removed his shirt. A man he had never seen before was cleaning his shoulder wound and dressing it with bandages.
"I do hope you brought an IV for a blood transfusion," the slur in his voice caught him off guard.
The man didn't look up from his task. "No. I am only to prevent infection from setting in. You may have lost a lot of blood, but you can survive."
Rory chuckled. "Not if they keep stabbing me."
"No need to worry about that, Mr. Williams. You will not receive much more bodily harm." Ava clicked into the room, her black stilettos making her a good three inches taller. She walked over to one of the walls and began to type something into one of the panels.
"You have no idea how comforting that is," he remarked, blinking as the doctor pulled away from him. A lethargic glance down assured him that the wound was properly dressed, but the burn mark he'd received was still as large and angry as ever. His pant leg was stained with blood but his wound appeared to have stopped bleeding. "Any chance I can get some burn cream?"
"No, Mr. Williams, I assure you that your wounds are not life-threatening and keeping you in this state is quite amenable to our project."
"So I'm a project now? Why am I the lucky winner?" It was harder to talk today. The combination of blood loss and lack of nutrition made it difficult to concentrate. "Why can't you just tell me what you want?"
Ava clicked over to him and rested her hands on his forearms, peering into his face.
He tried his best not to flinch at her touch.
"Mr. Williams, as I told you earlier, it is best that you simply cooperate with us."
"Cooperate?! I don't even know what you're doing! You keep poking me for your good pleasure and you have yet to give me a good reason!"
A slow smile spread across her lips. "He's ready for stage three."
He really hated that smile.
Captain Jack Harkness sat back in his chair. The screens in front of him registered a low form of alien activity, but as of yet, he had been unable to find out exactly what was causing the activity or where it was coming from.
Gwen and Ianto were doing their best to help him by investigating spikes of rift activity in the surrounding area. So far nothing they had found matched the signals they received.
"Jack! I think I may have a breakthrough!" Mickey burst into the room, holding a cell phone in one hand. He shook the item in front of Jack's face. "Martha just called."
"And how is the lovely -"
"Not now. The Doctor is back."
That made Jack sit up. "Really? When did he arrive?"
"Sometime yesterday. Apparently one of his companions was kidnapped by empaths, or Eronians, as he called them. Martha thinks that may explain the activity we've been monitoring. Empaths could trigger alerts in our system without being strong enough to trace."
Jack smiled wide. "But now that we know what we're hunting, we can narrow down our search."
He whirled around in his chair and began typing commands. "You said one of his companions was kidnapped?"
"Yeah, apparently he's traveling with a couple now - the husband was taken."
"Married ones, eh?"
Mickey hit him on the head with his cell phone. "Yeah and don't you forget it."
"No need to get violent. Tell your wife we're working on getting a trace and we'll contact her as soon as we have anything."
"Excellent!" The Doctor rubbed his hands together as Martha conveyed Mickey's message. "Good ol' Jack, I knew I could count on him. Now if only I could convince him to work without all of the guns."
"Good luck with that." Martha slipped her phone into her pocket. "I'll keep this with me, but I have to get back to work. Unfortunately, your empaths aren't the only thing on our plate right now."
"What else do you have?"
She smiled at him wryly. "Well, I suppose you could help us identify some alien tech that we've collected."
"Brilliant! Pond, you in?"
Amy looked up from where she had been twisting her wedding ring around her finger. "What?"
"Alien tech. Want to come?"
"I don't know, Doctor. I think I've seen enough alien tech for one day."
The Doctor's enthusiasm dimmed a bit. He walked over and crouched in front of her. He held out his hands.
She slipped hers into his with a small smile.
"We'll get him back, Pond, I promise."
"I know. I just can't shake the feeling that something dreadful is happening to him."
Rory let the little fingers wrap around his thumb. His child had a surprisingly strong grip. Or maybe not so surprisingly - Amy was her mother after all. The infant wailed a bit when he first picked her up, his armor cold against her skin. But once he got the blanket secured around her, she calmed down and examined him with large, unblinking eyes.
"Hi there," he said, for lack of anything better.
A small wrinkle of a smile crossed those pink lips.
He smiled back. "So beautiful - just like I knew you would be. You'll have to forgive me, but I wasn't expecting to be a father. I mean, well, I was, but not all of the sudden. I thought I'd have nine months or so to prepare to, you know, welcome you. But I guess it doesn't matter. I'm just glad you're here, safe and alive. Your mother will be wanting to know I have you."
He started walking towards the medical bay where they kept Amy. His daughter's little fist beat against his armor as she cooed her delight in being rescued - or, at least, that's what he liked to imagine her thinking. "I'm sorry your introduction to the world came on a different planet. It's not even a planet really, more of a giant space station. I'm not even entirely certain what year it is. You could be older than me for all I know. I may not even technically exist yet."
That thought sent his head spinning. "But let's not think about all of those technicalities right now. We'll get you home. Leadworth isn't much, but we can have a good life there."
His daughter listened to him with such rapt attention that he almost felt uncomfortable under her stare.
"I'm sure Amy's going to have you in heeled boots before you're three, but I'll make sure she doesn't get too carried away. And I'm sure the Doctor will visit often - no traveling with him until you're older, at least twelve years old, okay? I don't want my child getting kidnapped by Daleks or trying to outrun Sontarans before she's learned to ride a bicycle."
The baby cooed again and rapped her fist against his armor.
"Yeah, I know, I don't normally look like this - it was the Doctor's idea."
She gurgled.
"Sorry, I talk too much when I'm nervous. I've been babbling my head off since I found you. I just - I - I'm excited and...I can't believe you're actually here and you're mine."
"Actually, Mr. Williams, she's ours."
He recognized the woman's voice. He whirled, clutching his daughter protectively against his chest, and faced the woman with the eye patch. "You stay away from her."
"It's a little too late for that," she said with a cold smile.
And Rory held nothing but wet blankets where his daughter had been. "What have you done? Where is she?!"
The woman laughed, walking down the hall and vanishing behind a door.
Rory rushed to the door and found that it had no handle. He pounded on it, over and over, until his knuckles bled. "Give her back! You can't take her from me!"
Cracks appeared on the door.
He paused. Something inside him reminded him that he had already experienced this - that the agony and bitter disappointment he felt were not new. He had lost his daughter before. Her name was -
"Melody," escaped his lips and he stumbled back from the door in shock. Melody was River. River was alive, married to the Doctor...then what? What was going on here?
That's when the whispers reached him, stronger now that the door was cracked.
What sort of miracle of the gods are you, that you need neither food, drink, nor sleep?
You will back away from the box! Nothing shall stop the rise of the Empire!
I will throw you into the dungeon if you will not hand the cube over to me.
The bombs will crush you if you do not seek shelter and who will guard the -
"Pandorica." Rory backed away from the door quickly now. "These are my memories. The ones I've locked away."
He spun around the corridor, trying to look for a way out of this dream. He settled for yelling, "I know what you're after now! You know I'm the Lone Centurion. But now that I know what all of this is for, don't think for a second I'm going to open that door. It was sealed for a reason. You cannot make me open it!"
He jerked awake in the white room.
Ava smiled at him. "Oh, I think you'll find that we can."