So, next chapter. I've decided something which should make life easier for myself, I'm going to update this story each Saturday, and my other story, Children of Time, each Sunday. If I feel like it, I might update them during the week also. Especially in the holidays. Anyways, a new chappie for you. How does Amy Pond react when the Doctor returns for her? And she finds out that he was also her imaginary friend from when she was a little girl? Read on...

Sparks flew from the console as the Doctor attempted to pilot his time machine. It was mayhem. Just regenerated, and he had to deal with a crashing TARDIS. He was surrounded by wild flames, enclosing around him.

Then the TARDIS shook, sending the Doctor flying out through the doors. He cried out, hanging onto the edge for dear life. When he looked down, bolts of fear shot through him as he realised how high up he was. If he lost his grip, just for a second, he would plummet down towards the city below and probably have to go through another regeneration.

No, not a pleasant thought.

The heat from the flames made his hands sweat, which did nothing to help his grip on the floor. But in the distance he swore he heard bells, which was not at all a good sign.

Groaning in desperation, the Doctor knew if the sonic screwdriver fell out of his mouth then he'd definitely have no escape.

Using all his strength the Time Lord managed to heave his top half onto the TARDIS floor, as they neared Big Ben. He plucked the sonic from his mouth and pointed it at the console. With a glow of the blue tip, a spark flew from the console and a lever activated.

But he lost his grip, falling back out the doors once more. His hearts leapt into his throat, he was going to fall. Luckily at the last second he managed to get his grip back, clinging to the edge with the tips of his fingers.

Hanging from the edge the TARDIS got closer to Big Ben, and the Doctor realised his situation. Big tall spire at the top. Me: hanging from TARDIS. It's getting incredibly close to somewhere extremely very not good...

Crying out, they flew past Big Ben, the spire narrowly missing the Doctor by mere centimetres. He let out a sigh of relief, then remembered, he was still hanging from the TARDIS.

At last he managed to climb up back into the time machine, completely exhausted, all his strength drained. He shut the doors behind him, finally being able to relax. Leaning against the doors he let out a sigh of relief, but after only a few seconds he was flung across the room as the TARDIS spiralled out of control and descended down to Earth.

LINE

Meanwhile, in a big house, reasonably close to where the Doctor was, a little girl was praying in her bedroom, kneeled beside her bed. She looked about seven and had long, ginger hair.

Hands pressed together and eyes closed, she said, "Dear Santa, thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you."

She paused. "But honest, it is an emergency. There's a crack in my wall."

Her eyes opened momentarily and she turned to face a giant crack in her bedroom wall. The she continued the prayer.

"Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack, but... I know it's not, because, at night, there's voices. So please, please, could you send someone to fix it? Or a policeman. Or..."

Her brow creased when she heard a low wheezing sound from outside her window, and then the sound of glass breaking. She turned towards the window, then quickly said to Santa, "Back in a moment."

Getting up, she grabbed a torch from her bedside table and ran over to the window. With her free hand she pulled back the curtain and looked outside. Where her shed used to be, there is now a big blue box on its side, smoke pouring out of it.

Looking to the sky, the girl smiled appreciatively, "Thank you, Santa."

The girl stepped outside wearing a red jacket and matching wellies. By the light of the torch, she made her way through to where the TARDIS has crashed. The doors suddenly opened at the top and a rope with a grappling hook is thrown out. It latched onto a lawn roller.

She watched as a hand clasped the edge, followed by another, then a head popped out of the box. It was a man, mid-twenties she guessed, with brown crazy hair.

"Can I have an apple? All I can think about - apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new - never had cravings before," the man said, lifting himself up and straddling the TARDIS. His gaze turned down into the box, the inside glowed with a faint yellow light.

"Whoa! Look at that!"

"Are you OK?" the girl asked, just as the man put both of his legs over the side, and was now sitting on the edge.

"Just had a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

"You're soaking wet," the girl pointed out.

"I was in the swimming pool."

"You said you were in the library."

"So was the swimming pool."

"Are you a policeman?" the girl asked him, secretly thanking Santa that he'd sent her a policeman. Hopefully he was going to know something about the crack in her wall.

"Why? Did you call a policeman?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Did you come about the crack in my wall?"

"What cra...?" the man leapt off the edge of the box and fell to the ground, clutching his chest in agony. "Agh!"

"Are you alright, mister?" she asked, concerned about the health of this strange man which had appeared in her garden.

"No, I'm fine, it's OK. This is all perfectly norm..." some sort of gold sparkling energy flew from the man's mouth, drifting up into the air and disappearing.

"Who are you?"

The energy starts to come from his hands. "I don't know yet. I'm still cooking. Does it scare you?"

"No, it just looks a bit weird."

"No, no, no. The crack in your wall. Does it scare you?"

"Yes," the girl nodded.

Leaping to his feet, the man exclaimed, "Well, then, no time to lose. I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off."

He strode away with purpose, but ended up walking straight into a tree, falling to the ground. The girl winced, leaning over the Doctor.

"You alright?" she asked.

"Early days. Steering's a bit off."

LINE

She lead him into the kitchen, hoping to satisfy his craving for apples. At last the Doctor got to study the girl properly, and he swore he could see some familiarity in those chocolate brown eyes. He swore he'd seen her before, even if it was a brief meeting. His mind nagged him continuously. He put it down to post-regeneration weirdness.

"If you're a doctor, why does your box say "Police"?" the girl asked, handing him an apple. The Doctor took it, and bit a chunk out of it, chewing for a few seconds before spitting it out in disgust.

"That's disgusting. What is that?"

"An apple."

"Apples are rubbish. I hate apples."

"You said you loved them," the girl said, slightly confused.

"No, no, I love yoghurt. Yoghurt's my favourite. Give me yoghurt."

The girl ran to the fridge, swung the door open and picked out a yoghurt. Running back, she handed it to the Doctor, who ripped the lid off and poured it into his mouth. He spat that out too.

"I hate yoghurt, it's just stuff with bits in," he said, trying to rid his mouth of that disgusting taste.

"You said it was your favourite," the girl said.

"New mouth, new rules," the Doctor declared, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "It's like eating after cleaning your teeth, everything tastes wro-agh!"

His head snapped back and his upper body spasmed for a few seconds. After he'd recovered, the girl asked, genuinely concerned, "What is it? What's wrong with you?"

"Wrong with me? It's not my fault. Why can't you give me decent food? You're Scottish - fry something."

The girl sizzled some bacon as the Doctor grabbed a towel and used it to dry his hair.

"Ah! Bacon!" he grinned.

The Doctor sat at the table as the girl served some bacon on a plate. He eats it and the girl watched with a laugh. Immediately he spits it out again, a look of distaste on his face.

"Bacon. That's bacon. Are you trying to poison me?"

Sighing, the girl turned on the stove again and began to cook some baked beans, as the Doctor watched hopefully. In his head he was still trying to work out what was so familiar about this ordinary little girl. Or not so ordinary.

Or maybe he hadn't seen her, maybe he'd seen someone who looked similar. He'd definitely seen those eyes, he thought to himself. But he couldn't remember for the life of him.

"Ah, you see, beans," he smiled, picking up a forkful of them, then running to the sink and spitting them out. The girl makes a face, disgusted by this man's table manners.

"Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans."

Next, the girl spread some butter over a slice of bread. Hopefully he'd like this, as most people liked simple bread and butter.

With a wide grin, the Doctor said, "Bread and butter. Now you're talking."

At the open door, the Doctor threw the plate outside. It landed with a crash crash and a cat meows.

"And stay out!" the Doctor slammed the door behind him.

Back in the kitchen, the girl looked through the fridge whilst the Doctor paced impatiently around the room.

"We've got some carrots," she suggested.

"Carrots? Are you insane? No, wait, hang on. I know what I need. I need... I need... I need..." the Doctor ran over to the fridge and searched through both it and the freezer. "Fish fingers and custard."

Taking out both items, the Doctor sat at the table opposite the girl, dipping a fish finger in the bowl of custard and taking a bite from it. On the other side, the girl was eating ice cream from a scoop.

The Doctor picked up the bowl and drank some custard from it. Putting it down it left him with a small custard moustache, which he wiped away with the back of his hand.

"Funny," the girl remarked.

"Am I? Good. Funny's good. What's your name?" the Doctor asked, happily eating the fish fingers.

"Amelia Pond."

As soon as she said Pond, a feeling rose from his stomach. That name seemed oh so familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. Amelia Pond. He kept repeating those words in his mind, hoping to make some sense out of them. But he had no such success.

"Ah, that's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond, like a name in a fairy tale. Are we in Scotland, Amelia?" he finally asked, after a few seconds of silence.

"No. We had to move to England. It's rubbish," Amelia spat, her lip curling slightly.

"So what about your mum and dad, then? Are they upstairs? Thought we'd have woken them by now."

"I don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt."

"I don't even have an aunt," the Doctor said, swallowing some more fish finger.

"You're lucky."

"I know. So, your aunt. Where is she?"

"She's out."

The Doctor's expression turned to surprised. "And she left you all alone?"

"I'm not scared."

"'Course you're not. You're not scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of box, man eats fish custard, and look at you, just sitting there. So you know what I think?" the Doctor said.

"What?" Amelia asked.

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."

LINE

He was led up to Amelia's bedroom, which when he entered he swore he felt a feeling deep inside him, another feeling of familiarity. Had he been here before? It was this room especially that his mind kept nudging him about. What was so special about this room?

The Doctor examined the crack, the long, menacing line which was shaped like a crooked smile. An evil, malevolent smile.

"You've had some cowboys in here. Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."

Amelia stood in the doorway, holding an apple in her hand. It had a face carved into it.

"I used to hate apples, so my mum put faces on them."

She walked over to the Doctor and showed him the apple. He took it and examined it closer.

"She sounds good, your mum," the Doctor said, tossing the apple in the air then catching it again. "I'll keep it for later."

Stuffing the apple in his pocket, he goes back to examining the crack. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing - where's the draught coming from?"

Running the sonic screwdriver along the crack, he checks the readings. "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. You know what the crack is?"

"What?" Amelia asked.

"It's a crack," the Doctor answered simply, running his fingertips along the crack's bumpy surface. "I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, 'cos the crack isn't in the wall."

"Where is it, then?"

"Everywhere. In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together...right here in the wall of your bedroom," he pressed his ear against the wall. "Sometimes, can you hear…"

"A voice? Yes," Amelia said.

On the other side of the wall, the Doctor is sure he heard an echoing noise, but can't quite make out what it's saying. So he ran over to Amelia's bedside table, grabbed a glass of water, threw the water out onto the floor, pressed the glass against the wall and held his ear to it.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped."

"Prisoner Zero?" the Doctor said, confused.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped. That's what I heard. What does it mean?"

"Prisoner Zero has escaped."

The Doctor stepped back from the wall. "It means that, on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner. Do you know what that means?"

"What?"

"You need a better wall," the Doctor said, lifting her desk up and moving it out the way. "The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way. The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or..."

"What?"

"You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?" the Doctor said, looking down at Amelia, who sighed, knowing that all too well.

"Yes."

"Everything's going to be fine," the Doctor smiled, taking her hand and holding it tightly. Once again something sparked in his brain, the feel of her little warm hands, he swore he'd felt something similar before...

With his other hand, the Doctor held out the sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the crack. Amelia peered around as a bright light shone from the crack as it began to widen. In the dim light, the crack seems to have opened up to something that resembles a cell.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped."

The Doctor took a step closer to the crack.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped."

"Hello? Hello?" the Doctor called into the darkness, and a second later a giant eye appeared in the place of the cell. Amelia gasped.

"What's that?" she asked, slightly shocked.

A small ball of blue light shot from the eye and hit the Doctor in the side. He stumbled down and landed on the edge of Amelia's bed.

The crack sealed once more, closing until the cell was no longer in the place of her wall.

"There. You see, told you it would close. Good as new," the Doctor grinned, reaching into his pocket.

"What was that thing? Was that Prisoner Zero?" Amelia asked.

"No. I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent me a message. Psychic paper, takes a lovely little message. 'Prisoner Zero has escaped.' But why tell us? Unless..." he stood up.

"Unless what?"

The Doctor looked around. "Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here. But he couldn't have. We'd know."

Amelia on his tail, the Doctor burst out of the room and into the hallway.

Once he was there, he felt that feeling again. That ever-so-familiar feeling. Like he'd been here before. But he still couldn't remember.

The Time Lord looked around, confused. "It's difficult. Brand-new me, nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing..."

His pupils slowly moved into the corner of his eyes. "in the corner..." he turned to look at the opposite end of the hall. "... of my eye."

But something distracted him. From a distance, a deep bell rings. Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong.

He headed for the stairs, sprinting down them, followed by Amelia. "No, no, no, no, no, no!"

Flinging the door open, the Doctor sprinted outside, standing beside his beloved box. "I've got to get back in there! The engines are phasing, it's going to burn!"

"But... it's just a box! How can a box have engines?" Amelia questioned.

The Doctor unhooked the grappling hook and gathered up the rope. "It's not a box. It's a time machine."

A look of disbelief flashed across Amelia's face. "What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?"

"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilised. Five-minute hop into the future should do it," he hooked the rope through the door handles.

"Can I come?" Amelia asked, a smile on her face.

The Doctor hopped onto the edge, preparing to jump inside. "Not safe in here, not yet. Five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back."

"People always say that," Amelia said, staring to the ground, seeing her chance fade.

The Doctor leapt off the edge and back onto the ground, crouching down until he's level with Amelia, and staring into her eyes. "Am I people? Do I even look like people? Trust me, I'm the Doctor."

Amelia grinned, and the Doctor climbed back onto the edge of the box. Holding onto the rope, he gave her one last look before jumping.

"Geronimo!"

The TARDIS slowly fades into nothing, and in a hurry Amelia races back to her house, up the stairs and starts packing a suitcase for travelling. She stuffs a few clothes, toys and books into the case. Fully packed,the seven-year-old raced back down the stairs, not noticing the open door at the end of the hallway.

Now wearing a nice warm coat and hat, Amelia ran towards where the TARDIS was and sat on her suitcase, head rested in her gloved hands. Little did she know the Doctor was going to return sooner than she thought, but not as she had seen him now.

LINE

The TARDIS materialised in Amelia's back garden. The Doctor stumbled out, smoke billowing behind him. A cloth was wrapped around his nose and mouth as he coughed out the smoke that invaded his lungs, then closed the door and raced towards the door of Amelia's house.

"Amelia! Amelia! I worked out what it was. I know what I was missing! You've got to get out of there!"

He tried to use the sonic screwdriver on the lock of the door but it only flashed on and off. The buzzing noise also wasn't regular.

After a few tries the Doctor finally managed to open the door.

He ran up the stairs, desperate to find Amelia. "Prisoner Zero is here. Prisoner Zero is here! Prisoner Zero is here! Do you understand me? Prisoner Zero is..."

Stars ignite around his head as he felt a sharp stinging sensation, then collapsed unconscious to the floor.

LINE

After a few minutes, the Doctor finally comes to, and his vision is no longer blurred. In front of him stands a tall female police officer, in a very short skirt speaking into her radio.

"White male, mid-20s, breaking and entering. Send me some back-up, I've got him restrained," she ended the conversation when she saw that the Doctor was now awake. "Oi, you! Sit still."

As soon as the Doctor's eyes caught her face, they widened dramatically. Now, back with Amelia he had a feeling of sort of familiar, now imagine that on a ten-times scale. This woman, this police officer, he had definitely seen before. Searching his mind, he tried to remember when...

Letting out a groan, the Doctor said, "Cricket bat. I'm getting cricket bat."

"You were breaking and entering."

The Doctor tried to stand, but realised he was handcuffed to the radiator. "Well, that's much better. Brand-new me, whack on the head. Just what it needed."

"Do you want to shut up now? I've got back-up on the way!" the officer snapped.

"Hang on, no, wait - you're a policewoman."

"And you're breaking and entering. You see how this works?" she smirked.

"But what are you doing here? Where's Amelia?" the Doctor asked.

"Amelia Pond?"

"Yeah. Little Scottish girl. Where is she? I promised her five minutes but the engines were phasing. I suppose I must have gone a bit far. Has something happened to her?"

"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time," the officer said.

"How long?"

"Six months."

"No, no, no! I can't be six months late! I said five minutes. I promised," the Doctor said, then sniffed before looking back to the policewoman.

She walked away, speaking into her radio.

"What happened to her? What happened to Amelia Pond?"

The policewoman spoke into her radio, "Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up, this guy knows something about Amelia Pond."

The Doctor's gaze drifts past the officer, to that same door from the last visit.

A few minutes later, the Doctor decided to break the silence. "I need to speak to whoever lives in this house now."

"I live here," the officer said.

"But you're the police."

"Yes, and this is where I live. You got a problem with that?!"

"How many rooms?" the Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"On this floor. How many rooms on this floor? Count them for me now."

"Why?"

"Because it will change your life," the Doctor smiled.

"Five," the officer said, pointing to all the rooms on the floor. "One, two, three, four, five."

"Six," the Doctor added.

"Six?"

"Look."

"Look where?"

"Exactly where you don't want to look. Where you never want to look, the corner of your eye. Look behind you."

The policewoman slowly turned her head and saw the extra door. "That's... That is not possible. How's that possible?"

"There's a perception filter round the door. Sensed it the last time I was here. Should've seen it."

"But that's a whole room. That's a whole room I've never even noticed," the policewoman said, eyes wide with shock.

"The filter stops you. Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding. You need to uncuff me now!"

Ignoring him, the officer slowly walked down the hall towards the door.

"I don't have the key. I lost it."

"How can you have lost it?! Stay away from that door!" the Doctor demanded, struggling against his restraints. She kept walking. "Do not touch that door!"

She placed her hand on the doorknob. His eyes turned to her hand. That hand, why did it seem so familiar to him? Brushing off these weird feelings, he continued.

"Why does no-one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to?" The officer entered the room. "Again...?"

He frantically searched his pockets. "My screwdriver, where is it?"

From inside the room, the officer observed the dusty blue walls, the plain concrete floor and a large table in the centre.

From back outside in the hall, the Doctor called out, "Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?"

"There's nothing here," the officer replied.

"Whatever's there stopped you seeing the whole room," the Doctor said.

The officer continued to walk around, staring in awe at this room she'd never noticed.

"What makes you think you could see it?"

Still ignoring him, the officer continued looking around.

"Now, please, just get out!"

"Silver, blue at the end?" she finally called back to the Doctor, who looked on in hope.

"My screwdriver, yeah," the Doctor nodded.

"It's here."

"Must have rolled under the door," the Doctor noted, shaking his head. He had to get her out of there.

"Yeah. Must have," the policewoman chuckled, observing the screwdriver on the table covered in goo. "And then it must have jumped up on the table..."

"Get out of there!" the Doctor yelled. "Get out of there!"

The officer walked over to pick up the Doctor's screwdriver.

"Get out!"

The Doctor stretched as far as he could with the handcuffs. "Get out of there!"

The officer backed away towards the window. Behind her, something alien and eel-like eased down from the roof. It was covered in goo and has a mouth full of sharp teeth. The officer looked one way and then the other but can't see it.

"What is it? What are you doing?" the Doctor asked.

"There's nothing here, but..."

"Corner of your eye," the Doctor reminded her.

"What is it?" she asked, properly scared.

"Don't try to see it. If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you. Don't look at it," the creature seemed to be toying with her, as the Doctor spoke once more, "Do not... look."

The policewoman spotted the creature, and let out a piercing scream.

"Get out!"

The officer ran out of the room and back down the hall towards the Doctor.

"Give me that!" he took the screwdriver from her and used it on the door, locking it, then attempting to use it on his handcuffs. It doesn't work. "What's the bad alien done to you?"

"Will that door hold it?" the officer asked, fear in her tone.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, course! It's an inter-dimensional multi-form from outer-space - they're all terrified of wood," the Doctor said sarcastically, earning him a dirty look from the policewoman.

A bright light flashed around the edges of the door.

"What's that? What's it doing?" the officer asked.

The Doctor wiped his screwdriver with his finger before saying, " I don't know, getting dressed? Run. Just go. Your back-up's coming, I'll be fine."

"There is no back-up."

The Doctor looked up, surprised. "I heard you on the radio, you called for back-up."

"I was pretending. It's a pretend radio."

"You're a policewoman," the Doctor pointed out.

"I'm a kissogram!" the not-so-policewoman sighed, removing her hat, letting her ginger hair fall free. Before the Doctor can say anything, because that feeling's stronger than ever now, the door comes crashing down.

A man in blue overalls stood in the doorway, a dog beside him. It was the same man from the coma ward at the hospital.

"But it's just..."

"No, it isn't. Look at the faces," the Doctor said, feeling slightly dizzy. This woman, she looked so familiar...

The man growled and barked while the dog remained impassive.

"What? I'm sorry, but what?" she looked down at the Doctor. Deep inside her, she swore those deep green eyes looked familiar but shook it off.

"It's all one creature. One creature disguised as two," the Doctor explained. Both the man and the dog turned their heads in unison. "Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, did you?"

They turned to the Doctor, staring straight at him.

"Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?"

Both the man and dog snarled.

The multi-form advanced on the Doctor and the woman and opened his mouth showing the same teeth as in its previous form.

"Stay, boy!" the Doctor said, and they halted. "Her and me, we're safe. Want to know why? She sent for back-up."

"I didn't send for back-up!" the woman snapped, looking back to the Doctor.

The Doctor looked up at the woman, sighing. " I know, that was a clever lie to save our lives." Then he looked back to the creature. "OK, yeah, NO back-up! And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we HAD back-up, then you'd have to kill us!"

Suddenly, a voice boomed from somewhere. "Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded."

"What's that?" the woman asked the Doctor.

"That would be back-up," the Doctor answered. "OK, one more time. We do have back-up and that's definitely why we're safe."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

"Well, safe apart from, you know, incineration."

The creature turned into one of the other rooms off the hall. As the voice repeated its warning, the Doctor banged the screwdriver on the floor in an attempt to get it to work.

"Work, work, work. C'mon."

The creature looked out of a window.

The Doctor continued to bang the screwdriver until it worked. He used it on the handcuffs. It unlocks.

"Run," he said to the woman. "Run!"

He pushed the woman forward, him following her. Both run outside and the Doctor uses the screwdriver on the door before joining her.

"Kissogram?" he asks, bemused.

"Yes!" the woman snaps impatiently.

"Why'd you pretend to be a policewoman?"

"You broke into my house! It was this or a French maid!" she continued to follow the Doctor. "What's going on? Tell me! Tell me!"

The Doctor stood outside the TARDIS. "An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house. Any questions?"

"Yes," the woman said.

"Me too," he tried the key to the TARDIS, but it refused to work. "No, no, don't do that, not now! It's still rebuilding, not letting us in!"

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

The creature, still in the form of the man and dog, watched from the window, barking at them.

The woman grabbed the Doctor by the arm. "Come on."

The Doctor restrains. "No, wait, hang on, wait, wait, wait. The shed."

He runs free of her grip, heading towards the garden shed. "I destroyed that shed last time I was here, smashed it to pieces."

"So there's a new one. Let's go."

"But the new one's got old. It's ten years old at least."

He sniffed the wood before running his finger along it and tasting it. "12 years. I'm not six months late, I'm 12 years late."

He advanced on the woman.

"He's coming."

"You said six months. Why did you say six months?"

"We've got to go."

"This matters. This is important. Why did you say six months?"

This time when the woman replied, she sounded hurt. "Why did you say five minutes?!"

"What?" the Doctor said, shocked.

"Come on."

"What?"

"Come on!" she pulled him by the arm.

"What?"

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

They ran out of the back garden past the creature who stood at the door.

LINE

They were now walking down a road. The Doctor stopped and turned to her. "You're Amelia."

"You're late," she snapped, carrying on walking.

"Amelia Pond, you're the little girl."

"I'm Amelia and you're late."

"What happened?" the Doctor asked.

"12 years."

"You hit me with a cricket bat."

"12 years."

"A cricket bat."

"12 years and four psychiatrists."

"Four?"

"I kept biting them."

"Why?"

"They said you weren't real."

The Doctor stopped, looking around. "Amelia..."

"It's not Amelia any more, it's Amy."

That's when he cracked. It hit him straight in the face.

"Amy..." the Doctor said, gob-smacked. His hearts were pounding in his ears. "...Amy Pond?"

"Yes?"

"Amy Pond?"

"What?"

"Amy Pond?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"I remember," the Doctor breathed. "Amy Pond. That girl... the girl I met at the pub."

"What pub?" Amy snapped.

"When I was barely a kid. 657 years ago... well, this is complicated," the Doctor said, turning to face Amy. "Of course, I look different now. Please say you're the same Amy I met there."

"What do you mean?" Amy asked.

"It's me. I just changed. It's a handy trick us Time Lords..." he paused, mentally cursing himself. "Sorry, it's really complicated. But Amy, Amy Pond, please say you remember."

"Remember what?"

"The pub. I brought you a drink. You kissed me. We went to your house and..." he trailed off, going bright red.

Amy's mouth dropped open. "No. No way."

"Yes way. I'm Theta."

"Theta?! But you look so different..."

"Yes, it's been a while for me since... then... but it's me."

"Prove it. Prove you're him."

"How?"

"Any way you can. Prove to me you're him."

"Well..." the Doctor thought for a moment, the memories embarrassing him. "We danced, then you kissed me, then you asked me to dance dance... Amy, come on, it was 657 years ago, I can't remember the entire thing!"

"Theta," she breathed, stepping closer to him. "How can it be you? I met you when I was a little girl, and now you're saying that you were the one I shagged when I was 17?!"

He nodded, his blush becoming more intense. "I... I can't believe it though. I met you as a little girl? That's... wrong."

CRACK!

The Doctor stumbled back, clutching the stinging red mark on his cheek. "Ouch! What was that for?"

"You left me. You just LEFT me!" Amy screamed. "You left me when I was a little girl, and now you left me after that night! My Aunt came in and saw me, and she went mental! She called me a slut, a whore and everything! People teased me, Theta, they bullied me because of that. They also bullied me because of my 'imaginary friend'. How could you DO that?!"

The Doctor looked hurt. "Amy... Amy, I can explain."

"Well EXPLAIN then!"

"Amy, first thing you need to know, I'm an alien."

"An alien?!"

"Yes, an alien. I'm a Time Lord, and back then, I was much younger. You see, I was on a trip... if you'd call it that, with my... well, school, Academy, chapter, whatever... but I walked away. I went off on my own. Then I met you and stuff happened... but in the morning, I forgot about them. I had to go back and find them... or I'd be in deep trouble."

"But you left me," Amy was sobbing. "Theta, after all that, you just left me, and then I find out that you're my imaginary friend I met as a little girl."

"I'm sorry, Amy. Believe me, I'm sorry."

He slowly walked towards her, afraid of another slap. Then she saw it in his eyes. It was him.

Gently he placed his hands on her arms. "Amy, please. I'm sorry."

"Theta..." Amy breathed, before grabbing him by his tie and smothering his lips. At first the Doctor was surprised and his arms flailed for a moment, then found purchase on her shoulders, one moving to get tangled in her flame red hair. How he missed the feel of it... the texture of it... how it cascaded in waves down her back...

Her tongue slid between his lips, meeting his. He remembered, he remembered her taste, and he'd missed it dearly. And here he was, a 907-year-old, kissing the girl he'd met at only 250.

And he couldn't have felt more happy in his life.

Next chapter coming soon... and can I get some more reviews? Each time one comes up in my emails I get really happy! Please? I'll give you fish fingers and custard! :)