Sorry for the wait, but chapter 4 is finally here! Enjoy and review! (sorry for any mistakes)
The door of Jeff's room flew open and the Doctor bounded in after it. Lying on his bed, Jeff looked up from his laptop, startled at the sudden new addition to his room.
"Hello. Laptop, give me!" the Doctor interrupted, and Jeff shoved the lid of his laptop down, hoping that the Doctor won't see anything. Before words could escape his mouth, the Doctor was already grabbing at it.
"No, no, no, no, wait, hang on!" Jeff protested, fighting for his laptop back.
"It's fine, give it here," convinced the Doctor, taking the laptop from his grip and opening the lid. His brow creased in amusement when he saw what was on the screen.
"Blimey! Get a girlfriend, Jeff," he commented.
Once again the door opened and Jeff expected to see one of the Doctor's friends, but to his relief the person who entered was his Gran.
"Gran," Jeff sighed with relief.
"What are you doing?" his Gran questioned, staring on in confusion as the Doctor's fingers furiously typed at the keyboard.
"The sun's gone wibbly, so right now, somewhere out there, there's going to be a big video conference call," answered the Doctor, his fingers working overtime. "All the experts in the world panicking at once, and do you know what they need? Me. Ah, and here they all are. All the big boys. NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore."
"Ooh, I like Patrick Moore," smiled Jeff's Gran.
"I'll get you his number, but watch him, he's a devil," warned the Doctor playfully.
"You can't just hack in on a call like that," Jeff noted, as the screen split, showing several different people on the screen.
"Can't I?" the Doctor smirked, holding his psychic paper up to the webcam.
"Who are you? This is a secure call. What are you doing?" one of the experts on the screen asked seriously.
"Hello. I know, you should switch me off. But before you do, watch this," the Doctor began typing at the keyboard again, and a diagram popped up on-screen.
"It's here too, I'm getting it," another expert confirmed.
"Fermat's Theorem, the proof, and I mean the real one, never seen before. Poor old Fermat, got killed in a duel before he could write it down. My fault, I slept in. Oh, and here's an oldie but a goodie - why electrons have mass. And a personal favourite of mine, faster-than-light travel with two diagrams and a joke. Look at your screens. Whoever I am, I'm a genius. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas, pay attention," the Doctor explained.
/\\\
Meanwhile, Rory's mini pulled up outside the hospital. Both ran out, clasping each others' hands and running inside the hospital, awaiting instructions from the Doctor.
/\\\
Back in Jeff's room, the Doctor typed quickly on the mobile, gaining confusion from all of the experts on the screen.
"Sir, what are you doing?" one questioned.
"I'm writing a computer virus. Very clever, super-fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on. Why am I writing it on a phone? Never mind, you'll find out. OK, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, radar dish - whatever you've got. Any questions?" the Doctor responded, briefly glancing up from the screen of the phone.
Patrick Moore's face appeared on the screen. "Who was your lady friend?"
"Patrick, behave!" the Doctor snapped jokingly, continuing to type on the phone.
"What does this virus do?" another expert asked the Doctor.
"It's a reset command, that's all. It resets counters, it gets in the wifi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time. But, yeah, I could be lying, why should you trust me? I'll let my best man explain," informed the Doctor, glancing expectantly at Jeff. Jeff looked clueless.
"Jeff, you're my best man," the Doctor reminded him.
"Your what?" Jeff gasped.
Closing the screen of the laptop partway, the Doctor explained to the man next to him, "Listen to me. In ten minutes, you're going to be a legend. In ten minutes, everyone on that screen is going to be offering you any job you want. But first, you have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff. Right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today's the day you save the world."
"Why me?" Jeff wondered.
"It's your bedroom. Now go, go, go," the Doctor leapt off the bed, and made his way out of the room.
Opening the screen of the laptop, Jeff concentrated intently. "OK, guys, let's do this."
Just as he started typing, the Doctor re-entered the room.
"Oh, and delete your internet history." Then he left once more.
/\\\
At the hospital, Rory was talking with some nurses whilst Amy was on her mobile. After a few more seconds, Rory rejoined Amy.
"Something's happened up there, we can't get through," he informed her.
Amy redialled in frustration. "Yes, but what's happened?"
"I don't know. No-one knows. Phone him," Rory suggested.
"I'm phoning him. Doctor? We're at the hospital, but we can't get through. Oh!" Amy spoke into her mobile.
"What did he say?" Rory asked.
"Look in the mirror," Amy recalled, turning to face the mirror and smiling when she realised what he was implying. "Ha-ha! Uniform!"
While Amy tied her hair up, Rory held the phone to her ear and she spoke into it again, "Are you on your way? You're going to need a car."
On the other end came a reply, "Don't worry. I've commandeered a vehicle." She heard the faint sound of a fire engine siren wailing and rolled her eyes.
They got in the lift and pressed the button for the right floor. After a few seconds, the lift dinged and the doors slid open. Amy and Rory walked out, and were confronted by a woman, holding the hands of her two daughters.
"Officer," the woman said.
"What happened?" Amy questioned.
Then she realised that the woman was speaking with the girl's voice. It had to be Prisoner Zero. Only Prisoner Zero could get messed up with peoples' voices.
"There was a man. A man with a dog. I think Dr Ramsden's dead. And the nurses," the woman explained, an expression of worry crossing her face.
Immediately Amy picked up her phone, and redialled the Doctor.
"Are you in?"
"Yep," Amy responded. "But so's Prisoner Zero."
"You need to get out of there."
Rory worriedly turned from Amy back to the woman. She spoke again with the girl's voice.
"He was so angry. He kept shouting. And that dog, the size of that dog, I swear it was rabid. And he just went mad, attacking everyone. Where did he go, did you see? Has he gone? We hid in the ladies."
Amy and Rory nervously backed away.
The woman spoke once more, except this time with her own voice and not one of the girls'. "Oh, I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I? I'm always doing that. So many mouths."
All three of them opened their mouths, bearing sets of razor-sharp fangs and hissing menacingly.
"Oh, my God!" Rory gaped, as the two of them started to run.
The Doctor spoke through the phone again, his voice laced with concern. "Amy? Amy, what's happening?"
Ignoring the Doctor for the time being, the pair bolted down the corridor into the ward, finding a nearby broom and shoving it into the doors handles to stop Prisoner Zero from entering.
"Amy, talk to me!" the Doctor insisted. He was concerned for her safety. If she died he'd never forgive himself.
Amy and Rory backed into the centre of the ward, ready for a quick escape in case Prisoner Zero happened to break through. Then she replied to the Doctor.
"We're in the coma ward. But it's here, it's getting in," Amy proclaimed into the phone.
"Which window are you?" she heard the Doctor reply.
"What, sorry?" Amy queried.
"Which window?" the Doctor repeated.
"First floor on the left, fourth from the end."
Just as she finished speaking, the broom snapped and the doors swung open, revealing the current form of Prisoner Zero.
"Oh, dear. Little Amelia Pond. I've watched you grow up. 12 years, and you never even knew I was there. Little Amelia Pond, waiting for her magic Doctor to return, but not this time, Amelia."
All three of them bared their teeth again.
Amy noticed her phone beeping and read the screen. It was a text message from the Doctor. It read DUCK! X. A smile crossed Amy's lips as she noticed the kiss he'd left.
In the distance they heard a familiar wailing of a fire engine siren, then they saw a ladder crash through the window, causing them both to duck. Amy shrieked when she noticed it, then glanced out the window to see a familiar figure climbing towards her. She saw him grin before he swung his legs over and dropped to the floor.
"Right! Hello! Am I late? No, three minutes to go. So still time," the Doctor announced, striding into the centre of the ward.
"Time for what, Time Lord?" Prisoner Zero sneered.
"Take the disguise off. They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies," the Doctor said.
"The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire," hissed Zero.
"OK. You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again - just leave," the Doctor said.
"I did not open the crack."
"Somebody did."
"The cracks in the skin of the universe - don't you know where they came from? You don't, do you?" Zero teased, then changed to the girl's voice. "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know. Doesn't know, doesn't know!" She then switched back to her normal voice. "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."
A clicking sound interrupted them.
The Doctor looked up at the wall to a clock, which read 0:00. " And we're off! Look at that," he pointed to it. "Look at that!
"Yeah, I know, just a clock, whatever. But do you know what's happening right now?"
In Jeff's room, Jeff is typing on his laptop.
"In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing?
"They're spreading the word all over the world, quantum fast."
Zeroes appear all over the world, on huge displays in cities, Tokyo, Picadilly Circus, Times Square.
"The word is out," the Doctor continued. "And do you know what the word is? The word is zero. Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute?"
Taking the mobile phone from his pocket, the Doctor held it out in front of him. "The source, by the way, is right here."
A bright light floods the room through the windows. "Oh! And I think they just found us!"
"The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me," Zero pointed out.
"Yeah, but this is the good bit. I mean, this is my favourite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here. Oh, and being uploaded about now. And the final score is - no TARDIS, no screwdriver - two minutes to spare," the Doctor threw his arms out in triumph. "Who da man?"
Silence. Everyone stared at the Doctor as if he was a total idiot.
"Oh, I'm never saying that again! Fine," the Doctor huffed.
Amy trotted up beside him and whispered into his ear, "You da man."
The Doctor smirked, pecking her cheek before glancing back to Zero.
"Then I shall take a new form," declared Zero.
"Oh, stop it, you know you can't. Takes months to form that kind of psychic link," the Doctor said.
"And I've had years," Zero sneered, and as its form glowed, Amy collapsed.
"No! Amy?" the Doctor gasped in worry, rushing over to her.
Outside, the Atraxi ship has temporarily lost Prisoner Zero.
Gently the Doctor cupped Amy's face with his palms. "You've got to hold on. Amy! Don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please."
"Doctor?" Rory asked, looking from Zero to the Doctor.
The Doctor looked up and frowned. "Well, that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?"
"It's you," Rory pointed out.
"Me? Is that what I look like?"
"You don't know?"
"Busy day," the Doctor leapt to his feet, facing Zero. "Why me, though?You're linked with her. Why are you copying me?"
From behind the Doctor (the one which Prisoner Zero was imitating) stood Amelia Pond, the little seven-year-old. "I'm not. Poor Amy Pond. Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've been."
"No, she's dreaming about me cos she can hear me," the Doctor figured, running back to Amy. He crouched down beside her and lightly traced the outline of her face with the tip of his forefinger.
"Amy, don't just hear me, listen. Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see? Remember you went inside. I tried to stop, but you did."
Inside Amy's head, she had a flashback of the moment when she entered that room.
"You went in the room. You went inside," the Doctor continued. "Amy…dream about what you saw."
She remembered. Amy remembered what she saw, that horrible slimy creature.
"No... no... No!" Zero in Amelia's form cries, as she and the Doctor's form are encased in a bright yellow light, transforming quickly back to Zero's original form.
Turning to face Zero, the Doctor exclaimed, "Well done, Prisoner Zero. A perfect impersonation of yourself."
The same bright light caught Prisoner Zero and it writhed.
"Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained," the booming voice announced.
"Silence, Doctor. Silence will fall," Zero hissed, before disappearing.
There was a whoosh of air as the ship left. Running to the window, the Doctor dialled the mobile.
"The sun - it's back to normal, right? That's... That's good, yeah? That means it's over," Rory said, just as Amy awoke, rubbing her head. "Amy? Are you OK? Are you with us?"
"What happened?" Amy asked, slightly dazed.
"He did it. The Doctor did it," Rory smiled.
"No, I didn't," the Doctor shook his head.
"What are you doing?" questioned Rory.
"Tracking the signal back. Sorry, in advance."
"About what?"
"The bill," the Doctor answered, before speaking into the phone. "Oi, I didn't say you could go! Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established, level 5 planet, and you were going to burn it? What...? Did you think no-one was watching? You lot, back here. Now!"
Tossing the phone back to Rory, the Doctor exclaimed, "OK. Now I've done it."
The Doctor strode out of the ward, Amy on his tail, and Rory following close behind.
"Did he just bring them back? Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?" Rory asked, slightly dumbfounded.
The Doctor continued to stride down the corridor, determined. Amy eventually caught up with him and grabbed his hand, entwining their fingers. For a second his head turned to her and he smiled.
"Where are you going?" asked Amy.
"The roof. No, hang on," the Doctor quickly turned into a different room, Amy making a squeak of protest as she was pulled inside with him.
Once in the room, the Doctor began to sift through the clothes, discarding ones which didn't appeal to him.
"What's in here?" Amy queried.
"I'm saving the world - I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show!" the Doctor beamed, grabbing a few items of clothing to try on.
"You just summoned aliens back to Earth. Actual aliens," Rory pointed out, as the Doctor started taking his clothes off. Smirking, Amy casually strode round so she stood in front of him. A deep blush crawled across the Doctor's cheeks when he noticed her looking at him.
"Deadly aliens, aliens of death, and now you're taking your clothes off... Amy, he's taking his clothes off."
Amy promptly ignored him, instead watching appreciatively.
"Turn your back if it embarrasses you," the Doctor said.
"Are you stealing clothes now? Those clothes belong to people, you know," Rory said, turning his back. He turned his head around, avoiding looking at the Doctor and spoke to Amy, "Are you not you going to turn your back?"
Amy shook her head. "Nope."
/\\\
The Doctor now wears a long-sleeved shirt, trousers with braces and a number of ties are draped around his neck. He strode to where the Atraxi ship waited. Amy and Rory stood back a bit.
"So this was a good idea, was it? They were leaving," snipped Amy.
"Leaving is good. Never coming back is better. Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now," the Doctor grinned, and the eye disconnected from the ship, sending a blue beam across the Doctor's body, scanning him.
"You are not of this world," the eye reported.
"No, but I've put a lot of work into it," the Doctor said, looking at the different ties around his neck and trying to decide which one looked best. He held them up to the Atraxi. "I don't know. What do you think?"
"Is this world important?" the eye questioned.
"Important? What's that mean, important?" the Doctor said, tossing a tie backwards for Rory to catch. "6 billion people live here - is that important? Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi?" He tossed back another tie that landed on Amy, who handed it to Rory. "Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. IS this world a threat?"
A hologram emits from the eye showing various scenes from Earth's history.
"No."
"Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?"
"No."
"OK. One more. Just one. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here," as the Doctor spoke, images of several different aliens he's encountered are projected from the eye. "Oh, there have been so many! And what you've got to ask is... what happened to them?"
Now the images flick through the Doctor's incarnations, from the first through to the tenth. Just as the tenth disappears, the Doctor stepped out from the hologram, fully dressed with a tweed blazer, bow tie, shirt, braces and trousers.
"Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically... run!"
The eye slots back into the ship, and it zooms away, back into space. Amy laughed, just as the Doctor felt something in his pocket. Reaching in, he pulled out the TARDIS key, glowing with yellow light.
"Is that it? Is that them gone for good? Who were they?" Amy asked and looked down from the sky to see that the Doctor had gone. She looked off the building to see that he was running across the road. Hell, that man was fast. Amy's heart leapt into her throat as she raced after him. He couldn't leave her, not again. Not Amy Pond.
/\\\
Not remotely out of breath, the Doctor arrived in Amy's back yard where the TARDIS stood, with a refurbished exterior.
"OK! What have you got for me this time?" the Doctor smiled, stepping towards his time machine and unlocking it. "Look at you!" He grinned as he admired the room with the orange glow. "Oh, you sexy thing! Look at you!"
Amy and Rory ran up just as the TARDIS dematerialised. Amy closed her eyes, remembering when she was little, how she waited all night. How she woke up in the morning back then to find he was gone. Now he was running away from her again. A lone tear rolled down her cheek and she sniffed.
/\\\
The sound of the TARDIS materialising wakes Amy from her. Like when she was a little girl, she rushed up to the window to see the TARDIS on her lawn. Anger flaring up in her, she stormed down the stairs. That man was definitely getting a slap.
"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," the Doctor grinned as Amy emerged from her house, clad in a gown and slippers.
"It's you. You came back," Amy breathed.
"Course I came back. I always come back. Something wrong with that?"
"And you kept the clothes," Amy pointed out.
"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," giggled Amy.
"Yeah, it's cool. Bow ties are cool," the Doctor declared. "So what do you think?"
"Of what?"
"Other planets. Want to check some out?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means... Well, it means... come with me," the Doctor admitted.
"Where?"
"Wherever you like."
"All that stuff, the hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero..." Amy began.
"Oh, don't worry. That's just the beginning. There's loads more," the Doctor responded.
"Yeah, but those things, amazing things, all that stuff..." Amy said, then she let her anger out. "That was two years ago!"
"Oh-oh! Oops," the Doctor bit his lip, internally cursing himself. He'd left her waiting again?!
"Yeah."
"So that's..."
"14 years!" Amy snapped.
"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, and the swimming pool was IN the library," Amy recalled.
"Yeah. Not sure where it's got to now. It'll turn up. So... coming?"
"No!"
"You wanted to come 14 years ago," the Doctor pointed out.
"I grew up."
"Don't worry. I'll soon fix that," the Doctor smirked, and with a click of his fingers, the doors opened, bathing Amy in a warm orange glow.
An overwhelmed Amy stepped inside the time machine, her eyes widening at the massive interior.
"Well...? Anything you want to say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all," the Doctor said, shutting the doors behind him.
The TARDIS is more metal now, less organic-looking. The centre column is on a floor that allows one to see underneath. There are also stairs leading to other levels and doors.
"I'm in my nightie," Amy noted.
"Oh, don't worry. Plenty of clothes in the wardrobe. AND possibly a swimming pool. So... all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will... Where do you want to start?" the Doctor asked her, a ear-to-ear grin on his face.
Amy frowned at him. "You are so sure that I'm coming."
"Yeah, I am."
"You left me. Three times now. And you expect me to forgive you?"
The Doctor looked hurt, his expression flooded with guilt. "I'm sorry Amy, I just..."
"You said that the last time," Amy snapped. "You were like Oh I'm so sorry... and you go and do it again! Just leaving me! I thought I loved you. I thought you loved me."
"I do love you, Amy," the Doctor assured her, placing a hand on her shoulder and looking into her eyes. "Believe me, I'm sorry."
Amy now had tears in her eyes. "I spent 14 years waiting."
"I know," the Doctor said. "I know."
"Theta," she smiled, fisting the lapels of his jacket. "If you have a time machine, can you get me back for tomorrow morning?"
"Why, what's tomorrow?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh... you know, stuff. Important stuff. My friend's..." she stopped. "Doesn't matter. Nothing. It;s nothing."
"All right, then. Back in time for stuff," the Doctor said, flicking the controls, just as a new screwdriver pops out of the TARDIS control panel. "Oh! A new one!" He tested it, this time it had a green tip. "Lovely," then he whispered to the TARDIS, "Thanks dear."
"So," Amy continued. "You expect me to forgive you? How am I going to do that?"
"Oh," the Doctor said. "I don't know. What would you like me to do?"
"Well," Amy breathed, her voice laced with lust. "I did have something in mind."
A bright red blush filled the Doctor's cheeks. "Ah, well..."
"You promised," Amy chuckled, "Back with Prisoner Zero, you promised me that you'd..."
"Amy," the Doctor sighed. "We have all of time and space and you want to..."
"See your bedroom," Amy smirked. Grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket, she crashed her lips into his, her tongue invading his mouth. Quickly both ascended up the stairs, heading for the aforementioned location.
I wonder what Amy wants to get back for tomorrow morning? I'll try and upload the next chapter soon, but if you review, I might just upload it sooner! *winks*