After almost five minutes of banging on the door and general screaming, Alex finally sunk down against the door. Her throat was hoarse from shouting and protesting and her knuckles were red from all the knocking and pounding she had done. She panted heavily and pressed her head back against the cool metal surface.

She knew why the Doctor had locked her in here. He wanted to keep her safe. She could understand that, but that didn't mean she had to be happy about it. For God's sake, the guy couldn't decide whether he should treat her as an equal or like some fragile, porcelain doll that could only be looked at and admired, not played with. Well, Alex Locke was not a fragile doll, and she was going to prove that to the Doctor. Right after she got out of here and slapped the hell out of him for tricking her into a closet and locking her in.

You should've seen it coming though, Alex reminded herself. She was usually smarter than to fall for that, or at least that's how she always thought herself.

Alex had just about decided to get up and try again when she heard a bunch of chatter from outside. "I'll SHOOT that man if so much as a hair goes out of place on Alex's head!" That was from a loud Southern voice, a voice that was normally as genteel as sweet tea. Marigold.

"The Doctor would keep her safe," a male, English voice hastened to assure her. Rory.

"Oh, you can promise that, can you?!" Marigold snapped.

"Auntie, chill!" Lacey scolded.

"Trust us, the Doctor's number one priority would be to keep Alex out of harm's way," Amy tried, but Alex knew that it would take the Jaws of Life to convince Marigold of anything otherwise.

Alex hastily stood up and began pounding on the door again, ignoring the screams of protest coming from her knuckles. "Amy! Rory! Marigold! Get me out! He locked me in! The bastard locked me in here!"

There was a sudden skidding on the tiled floors and Alex stepped back and watched the knob jiggle rapidly. "Damn!" Rory muttered. "I bet he soniced it."

"Where would the keys be?" Amy wondered.

"With the night janitor, but no one's here," Lacey said dejectedly.

There was a short silence, when Rory suddenly proclaimed, "Hold on! Alex, stand back away from the door!" Alex heard footsteps backing up and, suddenly realizing what Rory planned to do, hurried and flattened herself against the wall in the far corner.

"Rory," she heard Amy say slowly, "what are you—" But her question was cut short as without warning, the closet door banged open, one of the hinges coming undone. Alex gawked for a moment at Rory, who had somehow managed to force the door open and was now clutching his shoulder as he gritted his teeth.

"That looks so much easier in Jackie Chan movies," he muttered.

Alex raced up to him. "Rory, thank you!" she squealed, lightly hugging him on the side where he wasn't injured before heading outside. Out in the hall, Amy was staring at her fiancé, her jaw hanging open, looking like she had just seen a wooly mammoth on a tricycle or something. Marigold and Lacey were standing next to her, both of them not looking as impressed as Amy did.

Marigold reached out and grabbed Alex's arm. "Forget it, young lady," she said as she pulled Alex over to her. "I know what you're thinking and the answer is no."

Well, I didn't ask for permission and you are not my mother, Alex childishly thought, but she knew better than to say such a thing. Instead, she tried something different. "Marigold, with all due respect, that really isn't your decision to make."

Marigold's eyes darkened. "To hell it is!" she cried and Lacey flinched. "I'm not letting you go off on a suicide mission with some man who I, and you, barely know!"

Alex felt her anger slowly rising to the surface. She closed her eyes in an effort to try and suppress it. "Marigold," she began slowly but Marigold wasn't having it.

"Alexandria! What do you really know about this man? You've known him for a little longer than I have but in the short amount of time I've known him, I've managed to notice a few things." Marigold began ticking items off on her fingers, her eyes casting a sour look up at the ceiling. "He likes danger, he seems to go looking for it, he won't hesitate to get involved in that danger, and he also has some very strange attachment to you."

This last part seemed, at least to Marigold, the strangest and weirdest. She had met all the young men Alex had dated since eighth grade and she could easily see that the Doctor wasn't like any of them. All those men loved Alex, but they didn't try to keep her close to them 24/7. If they did, Alex tended to tell them to knock it off or dump them. But with the Doctor, she was different. He kept her close and she didn't object. In fact, she seemed to thrive on it.

Alex grit her teeth and breathed deeply. How could she possibly explain that she liked the Doctor regardless of those things? How she loved when he wrapped an arm around her waist protectively and how he wouldn't let anything harm her? She couldn't think of any accurate words to describe any of it.

Marigold, now finished with her tirade, watched her carefully. Alex seemed to be thinking something over desperately. She had seen Alex think something over before, but never like this. It was both disturbing and amazing.

Alex swallowed thickly and opened her eyes, exposing circles of copper covered with a fine layer of water. It struck a cord in Marigold; she had never seen Alex about to cry over a man before. In the past, Alex had usually been happy to be rid of a guy.

"I know I probably can't make you understand," Alex said, her voice wavering slightly and bordering on hysteria, "but I'm going to try. Before I met the Doctor, my life was this boring monotony of academics, try and get into college, work, eat, fight with Carla, sleep, and repeat. Now, I'm doing something so different, so crazy, something I never would've seen myself doing a few years ago.

"I've been told I seem different now. According to Lacey and Amy, it isn't a bad different. It's a good different, one that suits me." Alex shrugged at the questioning look on Marigold's face. "Yeah, I don't really get it either. But I do feel different. Not in one of those bad, depressed ways but in this really good, happy, fulfilling way." Alex then let out a surprising, almost crazy laugh. "For the first time in a really long time, I'm happy. Really and truly happy."

There was a long silence as everyone watched Marigold sort through Alex's words. All of what she had said was true. Marigold knew that Alex had been happy at several points in her life – her sixteenth birthday, homecoming, landing her first major role in a play – stuff like that. But all throughout her life, there had been an underlying sadness to Alex. Marigold had attributed it to losing her parents at such a young age and having to grow up with a less than ideal guardian, but maybe Alex hadn't been really satisfied with her life. Maybe what she needed was a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging that even academics couldn't give her.

Could the Doctor give her that? Marigold wasn't sure, but it certainly sounded like Alex had changed for the better because of him. It was true; Marigold could now see the change she had noticed before. Alex was much more open, more relaxed, and much, much happier than Marigold had ever seen before. And it was all because one person had just happened to encounter her; the Doctor. It was hard to believe one man could make that much of an impact, but here were its results and Marigold would be damned if she would let all those results disappear.

Gently, so gently that Alex almost didn't even realize it was happening, Marigold released her arm. She placed her arms down and wrung her hands together, fiddling with a large ruby ring on her left middle finger. "You're right," she breathed.

Alex blinked. Did she really say what I thought she said?

"The Doctor can't handle a power suck or whatever it is by himself. You need to go and help him." Marigold sucked in a breath, feeling a deep, painful ache settle somewhere close to her heart. "And you need to go now."

Alex grinned. "Thank you!" she cried, jumping up and planting a light kiss on Marigold's cheek.

Marigold blinked her eyes rapidly to keep the tears from falling. "Promise me you'll come back, Alexandria."

Alex couldn't guarantee this, but she knew that Marigold just needed to hear a verbal confirmation. "I'll see you soon," she said instead before hurrying off, knowing if she looked back, the small piece of doubt and questioning would overtake her and make her change her mind.

Amy watched her best friend race out the doors to a certain death before turning to look at Marigold. The woman seemed frail now as she leaned against a bulletin board, Lacey supporting her on the other side. Anyone could tell that she truly cared for Alex and that the past hour had been extremely difficult for her.

"Dear God in heaven, please keep that girl and boy safe," Marigold murmured, fingering a light gold cross around her neck.

Amy and Rory looked at each-other, both of them thinking the very same thing.

~Living the Life of Ally~

It occurred to Alex about ten minutes into her run to the power plant that she should have borrowed Lacey's car keys. Oh, well, she thought as she ran down a side street shortcut. The exercise will do me good.

Without a car, it took Alex almost twenty minutes to reach the plant. Every few seconds, she found herself gazing above the tree-tops, watching for an explosion that would turn a certain Time Lord into confetti. Thankfully, none ever came and the plant seemed very much the same as when they had first come just an hour ago. Alex bent down and rested her hands on her knees, taking deep gulping breaths. Gazing around, she did notice one difference though; the power lines running to the plant were buzzing with electricity, little electrical sparks jumping up every few seconds.

Gritting her teeth, Alex ran into the plant, her shoes skidding and squeaking on the tiled floor. She needed to find the Doctor and fast.

Though she wasn't sure where to go to shut down a power suck, Alex trusted her strange physical connection with the Doctor to lead her to him. Sure enough, she felt the adrenaline rushing through her system as she ran towards the main part of the plant, which could mean only one thing. . .

Alex pushed open the door and ran through what felt like a maze of machinery before she finally came across him. She could have wept in relief as she saw that familiar tweed jacket and mess of dark brown hair. Instead, she watched attentively as the Doctor crouched down on his knees, running the sonic over a large metal box on the floor. A panel from the box had been removed, exposing a large mess of wires and other gadgets. Alex could see the Doctor was struggling with shutting the power suck off, as evidenced by the way he ran his hands through his hair, swore loudly in a strange alien language, and just looked defeated in general. Knowing there was no time to waste, she ran over to him.

The Doctor jumped and looked over at her in shock as she knelt down next to him. "Alex," he started, but then he seemed to think better of it and shook his head. "Oh, never mind! Here, hold these two wires."

Alex dutifully took the wires and watched as the Doctor ran the sonic over them. His dark green eyes looked panicked and in control all at once, a combination Alex's eleventh grade English teacher would have described as paradoxical. "What's going on with the power suck?" she asked.

"The Lylon's are really good at adapting electrical wires and things for their own means," the Doctor explained, not even looking up. "Earth tech? No problem for a Lylon. The power suck can only go through Lylon tech and it's meant to do its job."

"Can't you stop it?"

"I'm trying." The Doctor messed around with the wires for a few moments before plunging his hand into the box. "Ally, when I say 'now', I need you to put that blue wire in the place where the red wire is right now."

Alex nodded and readied the blue wire. "Okay."

The Doctor looked at her seriously, even though there really wasn't any need, as Alex was fully aware of the gravity of the situation. "You'll have less than five seconds to get it in. I can't help you because I need to—"

"Doctor!" Alex cried. She matched his serious gaze and stared into his eyes. "I got it. You can trust me."

The Doctor let out a little sigh. "I already trust you, Ally," he said softly. Then, in a blink of an eye, the sweet moment was gone and the Doctor's fingers were wrapped around the red wire. "Now!" he exclaimed, pulling out the red wire.

Alex acted fast and jammed the blue wire into the socket with two seconds to spare. She let out a little cheer at this, but was quickly silenced as she saw a huge electrical ball appear from the tip of the wire before disappearing, presumably running through the current in the box.

The Doctor got up and pulled Alex to her feet. "Come on!" he cried, grabbing her hand and pulling her along after him.

"What did we just do?" Alex demanded as they ducked and dodged several wires, each of them buzzing with electricity balls.

The Doctor grinned. "What do you think? We just stopped the power suck!"

Alex was about to ask how, but thought better of it. It'd probably be too technical for her anyways. Instead, she allowed the Doctor to move her faster through the plant. Every time they turned, it seemed that a wire behind them suddenly exploded. Alex, despite her best attempts, jumped every time this happened.

"What's going on with the wires?" she asked after the eighth one they passed exploded.

"Despite their great power, not even Lylon circuits can handle the huge flux of power currently going out." The Doctor pushed Alex ahead of him, urging her to keep going. "If we don't get out of here in," he paused to look at his watch, "three minutes, this plant will blow up with us in it."

Alex nodded. "Got it," she said as they ran around a sharp corner. "Three minutes or turn into confetti. Got it, got it, got it."

Maybe the Doctor was rubbing off on her a little more than she was willing to admit.

It seemed to the duo that the plant had somehow increased in size for as they ran through mazes of wires and corridors, they didn't seem to get any closer to a door. Finally, they reached the door leading to the main part of the plant. Barely losing momentum, the two slammed the door open and ran even harder.

At that moment, the Doctor noticed a doorway that he hadn't taken notice of on previous ventures into the plant. He tugged on Alex's arm and pulled her back toward him before walking into the room.

Gathered around in the tiny room were a few hundred people. They were hunched around the walls and corners, packed together like sardines in a container. Littered about the floor were packs of stage makeup, brushes, and makeup wipes. The Doctor was confused for a moment until he saw that the Lylon's skin was actually a gray metallic color, a color totally unnatural to humans. Standing in the center of the packed room was Carslile, his silver skin covered with a thin sheen of sweat. The Doctor carefully approached him, keeping Alex behind him.

"What are you lot doing here?" the Doctor demanded. "You should have escaped by now."

Carslile glared at him. "Your interference has caused us our death, Doctor."

"Oh, please," the Doctor exclaimed, "you can leave! You need to leave or you all will explode!"

"We cannot survive with primitive electricity," Carslile retorted. "If we leave now, we will die out in a few months. I and everyone else here would rather die in an explosion than slowly wither away due to starvation."

Alex's head peeked out from around the Doctor's frame. "Please, don't do this to yourselves," she pleaded. "There's got to be another option, some other way."

The Doctor nodded encouragingly. Sparks flew out from each corner of the room. "Yes, there are other planets, uninhabited ones, in the Andreas Belt. My ship could take you to one of them easily."

But Carslile wasn't going to be moved. Alex could clearly see that and she suspected the Doctor could too. "I must decline your . . . offer, Doctor." Carslile paused and looked thoughtful for a moment. "It's interesting to hear your offer though, considering this is coming from the man who willingly killed his entire race." Alex saw the Doctor's back stiffen, Carslile's words bothering him more than he wanted to admit. "I wonder, can your conscience handle killing another race?"

The Doctor was silent. Alex knew no cheeky response or flippant retort would be coming from him. How big was his guilt, she wondered. She had seen a glimpse of it last night, but who knew how far inside him it extended. It could be the size and length of one of those bottomless pits, dark and damp and filled with rotten regret. That pit would just extend further down with the killing of the Lylon's. She couldn't let him bear it.

Alex stepped out from behind the Doctor, her eyes turning from topaz to the Doctor's own dark green. "He's not going to bear the burden alone." Her voice was cool and calm, much like the Doctor's at his worst moments. At that moment, she looked so much like the Doctor, Carslile actually backed up a little in fear.

The Doctor felt her words ringing in his ears. How could Alex possibly say that? She barely knew him and yet she was willing to carry part of the burden for killing all of the Lylon's. He felt so amazed and proud of her while he also felt the large desire to protect her fragile human innocence from such things. At that moment, he felt a small hand snaking its way down his arm to wrap loosely around his wrist. Just a split second after she did this, the Doctor gently guided her hand to rest firmly in his.

The Doctor eyed the Lylon's one final time. "What she said," he replied before pulling Alex after him to continue running, leaving the Lylon's to their doom.

"We've got less than a minute!" the Doctor yelled as the two ran into reception. He pushed Alex ahead of him to the doors. "Don't look back! Just RUN!"

Alex didn't need further prodding. Within a few seconds, she was outside. She whirled around only to see a mass of tweed pushing her to the ground. A split second later, BOOM! Alex shut her eyes as the plant exploded, sending mass amounts of building material, glass, and other things scattering into the night air. There were smaller explosions as electric equipment blew up.

Alex carefully opened her eyes and she became aware that something was lying on her back, keeping her pressed into the ground. She shifted slightly to see a bright red bowtie hanging loosely in front of her. "Comfy, Doc?"

More than I should be, the Doctor thought. "Right, sorry," he said, rolling off of her and landing on the ground next to her. Once he had stopped moving, he turned to examine Alex. There were no injuries as far as he could see, but her beautiful light brown hair was streaked with ash and dust. At least it was tousled and messy though, so that made up for it.

"You okay?" Alex asked.

"Fine. You?"

Alex grinned cheekily at him. "Never better."

Alex rolled onto her back and looked over at the spot where the plant used to be. All that was left of the Carslile-Locke Electrical Power Plant were heaps of metal, brick, sharp edges of glass, and other rubbish. In there, just beyond the ruins, were undoubtedly the corpses of all the Lylon's. Alex swallowed and tried not to think about that. They had chosen their deaths, after all. There wasn't anything she or the Doctor could do to change their minds.

"You okay?" the Doctor asked. Alex knew he was talking about what had happened in there, how she had stood up for him, not about any possible physical injuries.

"I think so," she answered hesitantly. "Nothing I can't handle."

As she kept her eyes on the ruins of the electrical plant, she was aware of the Doctor's hand latching onto her own. He squeezed it slightly, just enough to make warm tingles run down Alex's spine. "Thanks," he said softly, so softly that she almost didn't hear it.

Alex smiled and squeezed back. She knew what it was for. "No problem," she said in a matching soft voice.

The two probably would have stayed like that for a long while but right at that moment, a bunch of cars began coming up the drive. Rolling over onto their fronts, the Doctor and Alex watched as Lacey's car, Ross's car, and Mike's truck pulled up in front of them, none of them properly parked. Sitting in the Rabbit were Lacey, Marigold, Amy, and Rory while Ross, Emmy, and Lola were in Ross's truck. Bree was already clambering out of Mike's truck as he snitched a cigarette.

Marigold stepped elegantly out of the Rabbit, practically rivaling the Queen of England. She and Bree came to a stop right in front of the two. Marigold's arms were crossed and Bree's eyebrow was shaped in a questioning arch.

"Okay, you two," Marigold began.

"You have got one hell of an explanation due," Bree finished.

A/N: Short chapter, I know. After this, we have the last installment of 'Bristol, KY Stop' tomorrow and then after that, we begin 'Amy's Choice'! Who liked the part where Rory slammed the door open? I thought he should get a little hero moment. :)

Also, I went back and revised 'The Eleventh Hour' a little. Nothing major, but I took a few lines out and changed things because I received word that someone thought I was copying another story because things in those chapters sounded similar to the other story. I have absolutely no intention of plagiarizing anyone and am fully against anyone who does stuff like that.

Some notes on reviews. . .

Gwilwillith - I know! All of this tension is crazy . . . and there's even more to come! *smiles evilly*

rycbar15 - Glad you like the Lylon's! Yeah, locking her in the closet does seem like something he'd do, lol. And glad you still enjoyed the Clara thing. :)

ElysiumPhoenix - Sadly, no ass-kicking in this. :( I think, what with them trying to stop the power suck and with all the Lylon's dying, Alex didn't give much thought to it.

jesterlover - Yeah, I figured that part would upset some people. On the bright side, they stopped the aliens though!

TheGirlWhoWaited - Yeah, the Doctor is a bit frustrating at times, isn't he? :)

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and thanks to those who followed/favored this story. Please review and see you tomorrow!