A/N: You can find Alex's outfits for this chapter on my Tumblr, under the name 'darksideofparis'.

Alex rolled back and forth in the swivel chair, flipping through the pages of the latest Jess Walter novel. She had started it this morning and she was already halfway through it.

It had been two months since she moved in with Amy and already, she, Amy, and Rory were the best of friends. Amy had quickly helped her get a job at the Leadworth Public Library and after Alex's first day, they shared a bottle of scotch and traded stories of their lives up to that point. Amy had confessed about how she had once done gymnastics tricks to impress a boy and had ended up spraining her ankle. Alex had told her about her friends back in Bristol and about how she had once eaten nothing but Hershey bars and Diet Coke for a solid month when she was a freshman.

Rory was great fun, too. When she wasn't hanging out with Amy, Alex tagged along with Rory at the local hospital. Alex loved teasing him about his huge crush on Amy and Rory let her, calling her the little sister he never had. In fact, Alex had once advised him of where to take Amy on a date. It was a huge success and Alex and Amy had spent that night dissecting every single word Rory said, trying to find hidden meanings within them.

It had been a long time since Alex had done that. Back in Bristol, her best friend was Lacey. She and Lacey would spend countless days gossiping about boys they thought were cute, teachers they hated, and Lacey would give Alex the complete Fashion 411 whenever she got a new magazine. Alex remembered skipping school with Lacey on boring pep rally days and going to Lexington to window-shop while sipping spiked pink lemonade.

After she had moved to Vegas, she still called Lacey regularly, but it wasn't the same as actually hanging out with her. There were a few girls in her classes at Octavian that were nice. One had even invited Alex to a sorority party that wasn't half bad. But at Octavian, she had been all about studying and hadn't had the time to make close friends. But after the scholarship scandal broke out, there had been more than enough time, not that Alex could find the time for socializing what with trying to figure out her next move.

But now, she finally had friends she could confide with, laugh with, and tease each-other with. All of them accepted each-other's faults, such as Alex's failure to cook or bake anything edible that didn't originally come from the frozen food section at the grocery store or Amy's partial belief in the Doctor that she tried to hide as much as possible. Even Rory was respected despite the fact that could not change a single light-bulb in Amy's house, try as he might. It was great and thrilling and Alex couldn't ask for anything more.

Well, there was one thing she wouldn't mind. That would be for Amy and Rory's friend Mels to fall off a cliff. After one meeting, Alex and Mels quickly discovered that they did not get along at all. Part of this was to blame on the fact that Mels took Alex's car on a joy ride and got a scratch on the hood. The other part was that Alex had attempted to tackle her to the ground after she discovered this, only to be held back by the combined efforts of Amy, Rory, and Amy's friend Jeff. Now, whenever the girls saw each-other, they would hurl insults at one another until either Amy or Rory grew aggravated enough to separate them.

Alex shrugged and flipped a page. Concentrating on that wasn't healthy and besides, Mels was off in Greece on some backpacking trip. She didn't have to worry about Mels for a good month.

As Alex sat twirling and reading, the chorus to a Rascal Flatts song started playing. Had the library been crowded, Alex would have been mortified. But this was Leadworth and Alex was quickly grasping the fact that Leadworth was not a busy town. Most people stayed home and watched EastEnders and drank tea than experienced a social life. In other words, the library was completely empty.

Putting her book down, Alex grabbed her cell phone and took a quick glance at the caller ID before answering. Ever since she moved here, the only people who called her were Amy and Rory. Rory was currently working a shift at the hospital so that only left Amy. "Hello?" Alex chirped.

"Alex?" Instantly, Alex was on high alert. Amy's voice sounded worried and scared and Alex briefly wondered if Amy had finally noticed the sixth door. Over the past two months, Alex had kept an eye on it but nothing strange had happened.

"Amy? What's wrong?"

"I-It's . . . I-I can't explain it!" Amy cried nervously.

"Amy, breathe," Alex drilled. "It can't be that bad."

"It is, Alex!" Amy practically screamed. "Look, c-can you just come home now? It's better if you actually see h- . . . it."

Well, that's weird, Alex thought. Had Amy been about to say him? But who could she be talking about? Holy crap, what if it was the Doctor? Alex clenched the phone tightly. "Don't worry, Amy. I'll be there in five minutes tops."

"Okay, just hurry," Amy begged before hanging up.

The second she heard the dial tone, Alex was on the move. She grabbed her purse and flung her book and phone inside it and hurried out of the library. The good thing about being the only librarian in town was that she could make her own hours and come and go as she pleased. Upon reaching her car, she jumped inside, put her keys into the ignition, and raced off.

Alex sped past the village and the few people out today didn't even bat an eyelash. People were becoming quite used to Alex's car speeding past, en route to the library or home. Alex didn't notice this though, instead concentrating on keeping her foot on the gas pedal as she sped towards the house.

Reaching the house in a record five minutes, Alex switched the ignition off and looked around the front yard. Nothing seemed different but then again, appearances could be deceiving. Grabbing her purse, Alex jumped out of the car and dashed into the house.

"Amy?" she called, her voice echoing through the foyer. There was a loud "SHH!" and Alex quickly spotted Amy at the top of the stairs, dressed in her kissogram police woman outfit. That was weird. She wasn't scheduled to work again for two days and that was supposed to be as a nurse.

"Amy, why in the name of sanity are you wearing that?" Alex demanded as she walked up the stairs. Alex didn't think highly of Amy's occupation and had made that point clear when Amy had tried to convince her to become a kissogram with her.

"Keep your voice down!" Amy hissed. She grabbed Alex's arm and dragged her up the stairs to stand by the stair railing. "Look," she pleaded, cocking her head to the radiator down the hall.

Alex gave in and as soon as she saw who was at the end of the hall, her eyes widened and she stumbled slightly. She now understood Amy's panic on the phone and it was concerning exactly who she had suspected. Handcuffed to the radiator, unconscious, was none other than the Raggedy Doctor, as Amy had occasionally called him, looking exactly the way he did in all of Amy's drawings.

Alex found herself walking closer to him to get a better look, ignoring the desperate tugs on her arm from Amy. The Doctor had floppy brown hair and a pretty fit, if thin, frame. He was dressed in a blue button-down shirt with several holes and rips in it, a loosened blue and purple striped tie, brown pinstriped pants, and white and brown Converse All-Stars. Alex shook her head at the fashion choice. What kind of person wore sneakers with what appeared to be suit pants?

"I know," Amy said behind her, misinterpreting the headshaking. "I can't believe it myself."

Alex let off a little snort but she was still entranced by the Doctor's looks. He had really good looking lips and his hair appeared to be perfect for running your fingers through. God, he's hot, Alex thought appreciatively.

She jumped slightly. Whoa. Where did that come from? Shaking her head, Alex straightened up and turned back to Amy. "Why's he handcuffed to the radiator?"

Amy cringed. "I panicked! I was just in my room reading and all of a sudden I heard all this shouting for me to get out of the house because Prisoner Zero was here. I peeked out, saw him, and grabbed the cricket bat I keep for self-defense. I just knocked him out and then called you. After I hung up, I got my handcuffs and handcuffed him to the radiator and changed into this."

"But why?" Alex asked. She really didn't get what dressing up as a policewoman would do.

"I need to know who he is and what he's doing here," Amy explained as rationally as she could. She gestured to her outfit. "What better way of doing that than pretending to be a policewoman?"

"We could try asking him like a normal person," Alex retorted. She loved Amy but she had to admit, she tended to choose the most complex option instead of simpler solutions.

Amy shook her head, knowing that Alex couldn't follow the logic in her head, and dragged her into her bedroom. Laid out on Amy's bed was an exact copy of her police woman outfit. Alex took one look at it and groaned.

"NO!" she cried adamantly. "No way, forget it, I won't."

Amy pouted. "Please, Alex!" she cried. "You have to admit, you're a little curious, too."

Despite thinking that Amy's plan to pretend to be police women was completely stupid, Alex did have to admit that she had a point. She wanted to know why the Doctor had only just come back now and a part of her was curious about what lay underneath that hot exterior. Alexandria Nicole, stop it!

Groaning in defeat, Alex shrugged out of her gray sweater, skinny jeans, and black two-inch heels into the police woman outfit, which consisted of a white blouse, a short black skirt, a tie, and a vest. She opted not to put on the matching tights and quickly put her heels back on. Amy passed her a hat to tuck her hair underneath and once that was done, the two went back out into the hall.

Alex leaned against the wall while Amy leaned against the staircase banister opposite her. A few seconds later, the Doctor showed signs of coming around and Amy started talking into her pretend radio. "White male, mid-twenties, breaking and entering," she said as the Doctor opened his eyes. "Send us some backup, we've got him restrained." She turned to look at the Doctor. "Oi! You sit still."

Meanwhile, the Doctor grimaced slightly as he woke up. Oh God, his head was pounding . . . what the hell had he been hit with? His eyes traveled over to look at one girl leaning up against the wall across from him. She was dressed in a police woman's outfit which he mostly noticed had a very short skirt. His eyes traveled up her long legs all the way up to her eyes, where he blinked in surprise. The girl's eyes seemed to change color; one second they were brown, the next they were light green.

Alex bit her lip self-consciously as she saw the Doctor looking at her. She didn't know what was running through her veins at the moment, but she was pretty sure she hadn't taken some intoxicating substance that made her want to reach down and kiss the hell out of this man. Once she saw him looking at her eyes in surprise (trust her eyes to always attract attention), she smirked coyly at him and giggled slightly.

The Doctor wasn't sure if he should stop staring at the girl or not. She was quite pretty, after all. He was a little surprised by her eyes but he actually liked it. It was unexpected, a lot like him. He looked at her in surprise and blushed slightly as she smirked at him and then giggled. His blushing got harder, which only made her giggle more.

Meanwhile, Amy stared at her friend in surprise. She had known Alex for two months and already, she knew that Alexandria Nicole Locke was not a giggler.

Suddenly, the Doctor groaned. "Cricket bat," he said, his face flashing with a mixture of pain and confusion. "I'm getting cricket bat!"

"You were breaking and entering," Alex pointed out.

The Doctor glanced at her again and started to get up only to be yanked back down by the handcuffs. He whirled around in surprise and tugged on them, but to no avail. Alex rolled her eyes. He had broken into Amy's house. Of course he was going to be restrained!

"Oh, that's much better," he said, turning back to face the two young women now. "Brand new me, knock on the head, just what I needed!"

Alex shook her head. She was certainly starting to see the insane side that Amy had mentioned.

Alex shrugged. "And here I was thinking that all we needed was some fish fingers and custard."

The Doctor looked at her with a mixture of wonder and curiosity. "How'd you know that?" he asked, incredulous. Alex only shrugged.

Amy turned to glare at her and then the Doctor. "Do you want to shut up now?" she snapped to both of them. "I've got back-up on the way."

The Doctor quickly stared at them, just now realizing what they were wearing. "Hang on, no, wait . . . you're policewomen."

"And you're breaking and entering. You see how this works?" Amy scoffed. Alex let out a little snort and waltzed over to the staircase banister, hopping up on it so she could better observe the scene.

"But what are you doing here? Where's Amelia?" the Doctor asked worriedly. He looked around the girls, as if waiting for her to pop her head out of a doorway.

Alex saw Amy's back stiffen. "Amelia Pond?" Amy repeated, surprise and shock evident in her voice. Alex couldn't blame her friend for being so surprised; up to today, Amy had occasionally thought the Doctor was a figment of her imagination and now she was realizing her imaginary friend really wasn't so imaginary. It was probably a lot to take in.

"Yeah," the Doctor replied. "Little Scottish girl, where is she? I promised her five minutes but the engines were phasing." Alex shook her head. He must be a great driver. "I suppose I must have gone a bit too far." Oh, you think? Alex thought, slightly miffed. "Has something happened to her?"

"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time," Amy told him stiffly. Alex considered this choice of words. It was kind of true; Amy had once mentioned that she started calling herself Amy not long after the Doctor left. Still considering this, Alex hopped down from the banister to stand next to her friend, subtly bumping her shoulder to let her know she was there.

"How long?" the Doctor demanded.

"Six months," Amy automatically replied. Alex's eyes widened and she turned to stare at Amy in shock. What the hell?! Why would she say six months when it had really been twelve years?

Luckily for her, the Doctor didn't notice her surprised look, as he was caught up in what he believed to be the current date. "No, no, no!" he shouted. "I can't be six months late! I said five minutes. I promised."

Amy walked down the hall a little while Alex remained standing in front of the Doctor. She looked at him with slight pity, slight annoyance. She figured that he felt bad for not arriving in five minutes time but she was still annoyed with him for breaking her best friend's heart. Honestly! Amy's seven-year-old self had been crushed!

The Doctor looked over at her, suddenly registering she was now the one standing in front of him. "What happened to her?" he asked her. "What happened to Amelia Pond?" Alex didn't say anything and bit the inside of her lip to keep from blurting out the truth. Honestly, Amy and her ridiculous schemes. . .

She then realized that Amy was talking into her pretend radio again. "Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up; this guy knows something about Amelia Pond." Alex sighed and crossed over to the wall next to the Doctor. She could just tell that today was going to be very long and very draining on her mind.

~Living the Life of Ally~

"I need to speak to whoever lives in this house now," the Doctor demanded a few minutes later, after he and Alex had listened to Amy chatter on into her 'radio'.

"I live here," Amy declared.

"We live here," Alex corrected, gesturing between her and Amy.

"But you're the police," the Doctor argued. Alex frowned. What, just because they looked like police women, it didn't mean they could live here? Was the Doctor a little bit chauvinist?

Amy's eyes narrowed, most likely thinking the same thing. "Yes, and this is where we live. You got a problem with that?" Alex bristled slightly at her friend's intense gaze. She had never seen her look so pissed off, except for that time when she had almost hit her and Rory, their first meeting.

The Doctor didn't even pause to consider this though. "How many rooms?" he said suddenly. Alex stiffened and pressed herself against the wall. She had a feeling on what was coming and she wasn't sure she was going to like it.

Amy blinked at him. "I'm sorry, what?" she cried. She looked over at Alex, who was suddenly focusing intently on something at the end of the hall. Good grief, her best friend was acting loony, too!

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

"Why?" Amy questioned.

The Doctor looked at her seriously. "Because it will change your life."

Amy sighed and quickly said, "Five." Without turning around, she pointed each door out, except for the one at the end of the hall. "One, two, three, four, five."

"Six," Alex and the Doctor interjected. The Doctor looked over at her in surprise. How did this girl know about the perception filter covered door? Alex caught his gaze and shrugged.

Amy stared at the two like they had officially lost it. "Six?" she scoffed.

"Look," Alex urged. She was starting to really become worried that Amy couldn't see the sixth door and that only she and the Doctor could see it. Why was that exactly?

"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 Doctor instructed. Amy frowned, but upon an encouraging nod from Alex, did as he said. Turning around, she stared in shock at the door that up until this point, she never knew existed.

"That's . . . that's not possible," Amy stuttered. "How's that possible?"

"There's a perception filter round the door. Sensed it the last time I was here. Should've seen it," the Doctor reflected, slightly scolding himself.

Alex considered his words. A perception filter. . . Well, based on the name, it was some kind of device that manipulated a person's sense of sight to make sure they didn't see something, in this case a whole room. But how could she see it? She shouldn't have been able to see it, just like Amy.

The Doctor looked over at her, wondering the same thing. He had noticed the girl stare at the sixth door without even looking out of the corner of her eye. How could she see it? Whoever she was, this girl must be pretty smart.

Alex turned to him, a slightly indignant look on her face. "Yeah, you really should've seen it! I'm able to see it and I'm not some weird, intelligent alien like you obviously are!"

"How'd you know that?" the Doctor demanded, his eyes widening. Good lord, who was this girl? She was whip-fast smart, smarter than him maybe!

Meanwhile, Amy hadn't even noticed their interaction, otherwise she probably would have told Alex to shut up about now. "But that's a whole room!" she blurted out, still staring at the door. "That's a whole room I've never even noticed."

"The filter stops you from noticing," the Doctor explained, turning to look at her back. "Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding and you need to uncuff me now!"

Amy ignored him, instead choosing to walk slowly towards the door. "I don't have the key. I lost it." She said this slightly trance like as she inched more towards the door.

The Doctor shook his head and looked at Alex hopefully. Alex shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, I'm American. They don't trust us," she joked.

"How could you have lost it?" the Doctor shouted, focusing back on Amy after Alex had let him down. "Stay away from that door!"

"Listen to him!" Alex begged. She had been in that room once and she knew that she wasn't meant to be in there a first time, let alone another time. "Do not open that door!" the two called together but Amy continued to ignore them.

Grimacing, Alex bit her lip. "She never listens to me," she muttered before storming down the hall to stand next to Amy.

"Not you too!" the Doctor groaned.

"Listen to me!" Alex cried as Amy grabbed the knob. "Do not open that. . ." Alex trailed off as Amy turned the knob and stepped inside. Alex figured that the Doctor must have gotten the door unlocked somehow before Amy knocked him out.

Alex winced and quickly followed her, ignoring the Doctor's protests. She wasn't about to let Amy go in there alone. Distantly she could hear the Doctor yelling, "Why does no one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens too? Again. . ." No, you have a pretty good looking face, Alex thought wryly before mentally slapping herself. Focus, Alexandria!

Amy looked around the room just as Alex had a few months ago. As Amy studied the room, Alex looked for Prisoner Zero. She still felt like something was in this room even though she couldn't see it. Suddenly, the Doctor called out, "My screwdriver, where is it?" Alex frowned in spite of herself. How could a man be thinking about tools at a time like this?

"Silver thing, blue at the end," he added. "Where did it go?" Alex quickly corrected herself. Okay, not a regular screwdriver then. Looking around the room, she spotted a strange silver and blue cylinder object lying in a bunch of black goo on one of the crates in the center of the room. She stepped closer and cautiously picked it up, being mindful of the strange black gunk.

"There's nothing in here!" Amy shouted over her shoulder as Alex continued to study the strange device.

"Whatever's there stopped you seeing the whole room," the Doctor called back. Alex could practically feel the exasperation in his voice. "What makes you think you could see it? Now, please, just get out!" Now, Alex could feel the worry and desperation in his voice.

"Silver, blue at the end?" Alex called out for confirmation of the device in her hand.

"My screwdriver, yeah," the Doctor confirmed.

"It's here," Amy told him, picking up the device from Alex's cupped hands.

"Must have rolled under the door," the Doctor mused.

"Yeah. Must have," Alex said, thinking out loud. "Then it must have jumped up on the table."

Outside, the Doctor's eyes widened. "Get out of there!" he cried. "Get out of there! Get out! GET OUT OF THERE!" Alex could hear him straining on his handcuffs.

She reached out and grabbed Amy's arm. "Come on!" she begged, trying to drag Amy towards the door. But Amy wasn't having any of it, as she continued to stand her ground and survey the room.

"What is it? What are you two doing?" the Doctor bellowed.

"Trying to leave!" Alex shot back at the same time that Amy called, "There's nothing in here, but. . ."

"Corner of your eye," the Doctor reminded them. Taking this advice, Alex started to look out of the corner of her eye, but she quickly caught a flash of gray move from her center line of vision.

"What is it?" Amy asked as Alex continued to follow the flash of gray right to behind Amy.

"Don't try to see it!" the Doctor cautioned. "If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you." Oh well, that's comforting, Alex thought sarcastically. "Don't look at it. Do not look—" The Doctor was cut off as Amy screamed, having turned around in time to see the creature. Alex peeked behind her and nearly screamed as well.

Prisoner Zero was disgusting. He looked like a giant gray worm, all slimy and wormlike. That was probably where the goop on the screwdriver came from. At the moment, he was snarling at Amy, allowing Alex to see several rows of sharp teeth in his mouth.

"Come on!" she cried forcefully, pulling Amy away from the creature and out into the hall. Alex paused long enough to slam the door behind them before racing down the hallway to stand beside the Doctor and Amy. Amy handed the screwdriver to the Doctor, who immediately pointed it at the door. A weird sound came from it along with the blue light flashing at the top and Alex stared at it, wondering what he was doing.

It took the Doctor a few tries to sonic the door as Prisoner Zero had clearly tampered with the sonic screwdriver a bit. "Oh, what's the bad alien done to you?" he cooed to the device. Alex's head dropped and she stared at him.

"Boys and their toys," she said, shaking her head at him. "Always the same no matter where they're from."

The Doctor looked up to smile at her and was pleased when she smiled back as well. God, she was cute when she did that. Oh, what am I doing? The Doctor snapped to himself. This was hardly the time or the place to test out his new body's flirting skills. Luckily, he was pulled out of these thoughts by Prisoner Zero banging at the door. Alex silently cheered for having the sense to lock the door a few months ago and close it just now.

Amy stared at the door, terrified. "Will that hold it?" she asked quite seriously. Alex and the Doctor both turned to stare at her.

"Oh, yes, 'course!" he cried. "It's an interdimensional multiform from outer space, they're all terrified of wood!" The sarcasm was so evident in his voice that Alex couldn't resist adding, "Yeah, they all have support groups every Tuesday night." The Doctor looked up from fiddling at his screwdriver to wink conspiratorial-like at her. Alex was about to wink back when she caught a bright flash of light coming from underneath the doorway.

"What's it doing?" she demanded at the same time as Amy asked, "What was that?"

The Doctor turned to give Amy a dry look. "I don't know, getting dressed?" he answered Alex. He started fiddling even more with the sonic. "Run," he dismissed. "Just go. Your backup's coming, I'll be fine. Seriously, I'm fine."

Alex winced. "Yeah, there's no backup," she admitted.

The Doctor, eyes wide, turned to look at Amy. "I heard you on the radio," he said. "You called for backup."

Amy looked panicked. "It's pretend, it's a pretend radio," she admitted.

"You're policewomen," the Doctor said, more to himself than the girls. If they weren't policewomen, how the hell were they going to get out of this?

"We're kiss-o-grams!" Amy screamed, yanking her hat off and allowing her long red locks to tumble down.

Alex glared at her, indignant. "I am NOT a kiss-o-gram!" she cried, slumping down the wall next to the Doctor. "I'm a respectable librarian!" With his free hand, the Doctor reached over and knocked Alex's hat off, watching in amazement as her long light brown hair fell down and realigned itself.

"With a speeding problem," Amy added dryly. Alex was about to retort when the door at the end of the hall banged open to reveal an older man in a blue uniform with a Rottweiler on a chain standing there, growling at them.

Amy stared at them. "But that's just. . ." she breathed.

The Doctor shook his head. "No, it isn't. Look at the faces." Alex followed his directions and her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw that the dog wasn't growling; rather, the man was!

"What?" Alex screeched. She stood up and stared down at the Doctor. "I'm sorry, but what?"

The Doctor tossed her kiss-o-gram hat at her feet and turned back to the creature. "It's all one creature. One creature disguised as two," he explained. As Prisoner Zero stared at them, the trio stared back and the Doctor continued talking. "Clever old multiform. A bit of a rush job though. Got the voice a bit muddled, did you?" he called, slightly taunting the monster which neither girl thought was a good idea.

"Mind you," the Doctor continued, "where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How'd you fix that?" All Prisoner Zero did was growl and stepped forward, baring his teeth a bit.

"Stay back!" Alex called sharply. Prisoner Zero turned and growled at her, a bit more menacingly than what he had been doing before, but stayed where he was.

"Good job," the Doctor complimented. "But why does it look like he hates you more than he does us?"

Alex winced. "I may have told him that if he hurt my friend here, I'd personally kick his ass." Now, Alex winced at her choice of words. Prisoner Zero was a freaking space worm. That would make ass-kicking a little difficult.

Amy gaped at her. "You knew that thing was here?!" she cried.

"Not exactly," Alex explained. "I knew something was in that room, but I didn't know what!"

The Doctor snickered a little but quickly grew serious again when Prisoner Zero started growling more again. "Stay," he warned. "Them and me, we're safe. Want to know why? She sent for backup!" He patted Amy's foot triumphantly but then Amy had to open her mouth.

"I didn't send for backup!" she whisper-shouted, quite loudly, in Alex's opinion.

"Yeah, I think he knew that!" Alex shot back.

"It was a clever lie to save our lives," the Doctor added. "Okay, yeah, no backup and that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had backup, then you'd have to kill us."

"Attention, Prisoner Zero!" a voice suddenly bellowed from outside, causing Amy and Alex to jump. "The human residence is surrounded! Attention, Prisoner Zero, the human residence is surrounded!"

"What's that?" Amy asked.

"That would be backup," the Doctor answered as Alex leaned over him to look out the window. She frowned. There was nobody outside. All she saw was grass, blue sky, and her car that's oil needed to be changed. Over her shoulder, she could hear the Doctor saying, "Okay, one more time. We do have backup and that's definitely why we're safe."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated," the voice suddenly announced, pretty much destroying that statement.

"Well, safe apart from, you know, incineration," the Doctor admitted, slightly sheepish. He pointedly ignored the sharp glare Alex gave him as she turned back around. She watched as the creature ducked into one of the bathrooms as the voice repeated its warning.

The Doctor, meanwhile, was trying to get his sonic screwdriver to work. "Work, work, work. Come on!" he growled. This seemed to do the trick as the sonic screwdriver started working and unlocked the cuffs for the Doctor. "HA!" he exclaimed triumphantly.

He jumped to his feet and ordered, "Run! RUN!" Amy bolted down the stairs and the Doctor grabbed Alex's hand, dragging her down the stairs and outside to where Amy was waiting for them. Both of them ignored the way their hearts jumped when they had skin-to-skin contact.

The two raced out of the house and the Doctor released Alex to focus on sonicing the door shut. You could've just turned the lock, Alex thought but didn't say. For all she knew, the sonic screwdriver had some extra locking mechanism on it. As soon as he was done, he turned around to look at them. Alex was standing in place, slightly giddy from the adrenaline rush the running had caused while Amy was standing next to her, arms crossed, looking like she had a million questions.

"Kiss-o-grams?" he questioned, raising his eyebrow.

"Yes," Amy admitted as Alex shrieked, "NO!" Amy simply shook her head at Alex's response.

"Why'd you pretend to be policewomen?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"You broke into our house!" Amy cried, quite shrill, as she trailed behind the Doctor, who was suddenly racing towards something on the other side of the lawn. "It was this or French maids and Alex would've killed me had I made her dress up as that!"

The Doctor looked at Alex. "I'm assuming you're Alex?" he said.

Alex nodded and smiled. "The one and only," she chirped.

The Doctor looked at her outfit again and a smirk graced his face. "Lovely outfit, Alex," he said, causing Alex to giggle again.

Amy ignored this though. "What's going on? Tell me! Tell me!" she demanded.

"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?" the Doctor said distractedly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a key. He walked a little further and stopped in front of a large blue police box that was clustered behind a group of trees, explaining why Alex hadn't seen it when she drove up.

He stuck the key into the lock, twisting it every which way but no matter what he tried, the door wouldn't open. A distraught look fell upon his face. This went unnoticed by Alex and Amy though, who both screamed, "Yes!"

"Me too," he added, dejected. "No, no, don't do that, not now! It's still rebuilding, not letting us in!"

Alex walked around him to study the box. She hadn't thought much of Amy's papier-mâché models back in her bedroom but now that she was seeing the real thing, she was quite impressed. "Wow," she breathed. "She's gorgeous. I approve."

The Doctor looked at her, both impressed and curious. "How'd you know the TARDIS was a she?" he asked.

Alex shrugged. "I don't know. She just feels like a she." Alex placed a few fingertips on the box and felt a slight humming noise beneath them. Apparently, the TARDIS liked her if that hum and the grin on the Doctor's face was any indication.

But the cute moment was broken up when the voice again shouted out, "Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated!" Alex and Amy turned around to look at the house and noticed that Prisoner Zero was now watching them from Amy's bedroom window. Amy immediately turned and grabbed the Doctor's arm. "Come on!" Amy ordered, dragging him away.

"Somebody could use a visit from Miss Manners," Alex said, snarky. It seemed that potentially dangerous situations didn't damage her sarcastic wit.

The Doctor didn't hear Amy though. He was quickly distracted by the shed sitting against a group of trees just a ways ahead. Alex inwardly grimaced and she was sure that Amy was doing the same thing. "No, wait, hang on, wait, wait, wait!" he cried, running over to it. "I destroyed that shed last time I was here, smashed it to bits."

"So there's a new one," Amy said, racing up behind him to drag him away and keep him from discovering the truth. "Let's go!"

"But the new one's got old," the Doctor argued. "It's ten years old at least." Studying it, he smelled the wood before running his finger along the side and tasting it.

Alex stared at him, horrified. "That is disgusting!" she shrieked. "You don't know where that wood has been!"

The Doctor ignored her. "Twelve years. I'm not six months late, I'm twelve years late." He walked over to Amy, a questioning look on his face and even more so in his eyes.

"He's coming," Amy pointed out. But Alex knew it was a meaningless distraction, proven when the Doctor said, "You said six months. Why did you say six months?"

"We've got to go!" Amy argued, growing closer to losing her temper with each word that came out of her mouth.

"This matters," the Doctor persisted. "This is important. Why did you say six months?"

Amy officially lost it. "Why did you say five minutes?!" she screeched. The fake English accent she had been using around the Doctor was quickly dropped in favor of her natural Scottish one, effectively revealing she was really Amelia Pond, the girl who had waited twelve long years for the Doctor to return. Alex cringed, simultaneously watching Amy for another outburst and the Doctor's horrified and confused expression.

"What?" the Doctor said quietly as he stared at Amy, eyes wide.

"Come on," Amy urged.

"What?" he cried, a little louder this time.

"Oh, come on!" Alex cried, grabbing his arm and dragging him away from the shed. "Is that all you can say right now? What, what, what?!"

"What?" the Doctor sounded again. Alex gave him a deep glare, startling him slightly into a small silence. He liked her eyes - at that moment they were brown again - but they were pretty threatening when she was angry. It reminded him of how some had said they could see the rage in his eyes when he was dealing with criminals or Daleks or something; as though an entire storm was between the host and the unlucky receiver.

The trio raced past Prisoner Zero, who was now in the front doorway, and neither of them spoke until they were on the cobblestone walkway leading into the center of town. As soon as they were far away from the house, the Doctor stopped and turned to Amy.

"You're Amelia," he stated.