AN: Now this is where I start to improvise!
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Doctor Who nor am I the next writer of the series :(
Waiting for Welford Ward
Chapter 2
The tall, greying man in his late fifties was the third person they had seen in this otherwise deserted building. He seemed more intent on leaving the ward than aware of the three visitors waiting outside the door. Once the barrier between them was removed, he finally saw them, startled at the unfamiliar faces.
After another, "Can I help you?" the three were led into the ward and directed into a small room with packets of opened party food on the table. The man seemed very courteous as he held open the door, but after forty-five minutes of waiting, Amy was reluctant to let him vanish into the cavernous ward as the previous people had done.
"Excuse me," her tone was sharp and commanding. "How do we know you're going to come back? we're here to find out what's going on and it doesn't help if you keep disappearing like that, what if there was an emergency and someone needed to get in. What would you do then?" Her face was stern and set; it reminded Rory of how she looked when lost in the Red Waterfall. It was the hardened look of someone who had spent too much time alone.
The man looked very taken aback by the brusqueness of her question, and stuttered that he was only in charge of the meals and that he'd find someone who knew what was going on.
"Doctor," whispered Rory, "Doesn't Amy seem a bit-"
"Doesn't Amy seem what?" cut off the subject herself. If she seemed angry before, then she was livid now. "Do you two think it's okay to just talk about me like I'm not here? I know you've spent all that time together while I just waited, and waited for you!" As suddenly as she grew angry, Amy's rage dissipated and her lowered face showed signs of tears. "Let's just finish up and go, I want to get out of here," she said bitterly. Amy stormed out of the waiting room and into the next door along, leaving the boys wondering, again, what had happened to their beloved companion.
Rory followed her, tentatively asking, "Amy, is everything-" Amy slammed the cupboard door shut and glared at Rory before moving to open the next one. Giving the Doctor the same treatment when he approached her, she continued her methodical checking. She wasn't checking for anything in particular, but the distraction from thinking was useful.
The Doctor was on the other side of the room, investigating something that he thought was much more interesting: presents. "I wonder why someone hasn't opened these yet; it's past Christmas," he muttered to himself.
He scanned the presents over with his screwdriver and frowned as the confirmation light gave out. He moved it over some of the biscuits and the light came back. Frowning, the Doctor ripped away the gold packaging to find a matt black box. It was oddly cool to the touch and his fingers blurred through the edges.
"Doctor?" Amy asked. "We heard-"
"Not now Amy," snapped the Doctor. "Why do you always interrupt when I'm trying to figure something out."
Amy recoiled from the harshness of his words and looked at Rory with a shocked face.
The Doctor's unusual behaviour was the last piece Rory needed to figure out what was going on. He needed to get him away from that box.
He started to improvise: "Doctor, there are patients outside." Rory kept a straight face, trying to will the Doctor into believing him and into letting go of the box. "As in actual people who we can talk to."
"Alright then, off you go." The Doctor dismissed him with a wave of a hand, not even bothering to look at Rory.
Rory attempted again: "Doctor I think you should talk to them."
The Doctor finally turned and gave Rory a pointed stare before turning back to the box.
"I know you're lying to me Rory, you can't outsmart me." The Doctor continued ignoring him, now stroking the box languidly. "You forget who I am, I am the Doctor, last remaining Timelord. I am the best of all Timelords, to have outlived them all. I have seen more than you puny humans will ever see. My head is worth thousands of units of currency on almost every planet I have visited- what can you say about your lives? I have saved countless of your insignificant lives and I barely get a thank you in return. Why should I care for you anymore, tell me, why?"
A dark menacing tone matched the timbre of his words. His fist was shaking and a threatening scowl marred his face. This was not the Doctor they knew; this was not the Doctor anyone had ever seen, for this was not the Doctor.
Slap. Amy grabbed the box from the Doctor's hand while Rory administered a good old-fashioned shock relieving treatment. The Doctor wheeled back from the force of Rory's hit and brought his hand up to his injured face, touching it delicately, still in a state of distress.
He looked up at Rory with surprised eyes, gently beginning to dab his jaw. "Ow!" He cried, "What did you do that for?" He stared at Rory in admonishment while rubbing his face. "That's going to bruise, you're supposed to care for people, you're a nurse!"
Rory was slightly taken aback by the swift change in character, it was almost as if the other Doctor was a phantom.
Meanwhile, Amy scoured the edges of the box for a ridge or opening, but to no avail. Her next attempt of whacking the box on a nearby table was much more effective, but unfortunately, it alerted the Doctor to her actions, and once again, to the box.
"That box! What are you doing?"
"Breaking the damn thing," replied Amy, clenching her teeth before she bashed it again. The wiring had become loose and started hanging loose of the box, the effect now nullified by the incomplete circuit.
Sensing the Doctor had recovered sufficiently from his weird behaviour and that the box couldn't do anymore harm in the state it was in, Rory took the box from Amy before she could do anymore damage and handed it to the Doctor.
He peered into it, only to see darkness. The sonic screwdriver only produced a negative result when used to scan the inside, and the after declaring it useless, he used it as a stick to prod into the box. An acid yellow liquid appeared on the tip, seeming sludgy at first, but then evaporating, almost instantly.
"I presume it's a conductor of some sort, perhaps not of something we have on Earth yet. These wires don't seem to work anyway," he muttered through his examination. "Either way, it's dead now, can't harm us."
He looked up at Rory and Amy, cheerful and ready to go. When they didn't return his disposition, he enquired with a raised eyebrow.
"That's it?" Asked Rory bluntly, "You're just going to act like nothing happened and you didn't say anything?"
The Doctor looked between the Ponds expectantly. "What did I say?" He asked, raising his arms in question.
The couple looked at each other, debating whether to delve into the previous conversation.
"You weren't yourself," began Amy, "You acted like you hated everyone, like you hated us." She looked down at her shoes, her hair swinging forward to cover the hurt on her face.
A panic-stricken look flitted across the Doctor's face, "That wasn't me, that's not me." He started pacing the room. "I could never hate you. You are my Amelia Pond, the girl who waited for me." He took her face in his hands. "And never forget that."