A/N: Alex's outfit for this chapter can be viewed on my Tumblr, under the name 'darksideofparis'.

Alex peered out over the desert that surrounded the Trojan Gardens. The Trojan Gardens were on some planet that she could barely pronounce the name of but that didn't matter. The gardens were beautiful.

Alex picked up a waxy leaf and examined it. There were several types of flowers here. She had seen dozens of roses, tulips, gardenias, violets, buttercups, and even flowers that weren't native to Earth here. In addition, weeping willows and other leafy trees were spread out everywhere, offering inviting places to sit. Alex doubted she would see anything like this ever again.

The Trojan Gardens reminded her a lot of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the wonders of the ancient world. Upon saying this to the Doctor, he'd told her that these gardens were actually modeled on the Babylonian ones. Alex had also caught something about how the flooding at the Hanging Gardens was not his fault, no matter what anyone said, but he had wandered off before she could pry any information out of him.

Now, she was wandering alone along the terraces. The Doctor had gone off to find Amy, leaving Alex in the rose garden. Not that she minded. Roses were her favorite flower, red ones especially.

Alex bent down to sniff a pink tea rose. As she rose back up, she caught a man in official royal robes admiring her. She tried not to think too much about it. The Doctor had said he knew the prince here. They were probably just being monitored to make sure they behaved themselves.

Alex smiled at the man and he nodded back. He then bent down and made a checkmark on a clipboard. Plant inspector? Alex thought a little humorously. She giggled a little and went back to observing the plants.

About fifteen minutes later, Alex had almost reached the end of the rose garden. She never knew there were so many varieties of roses. There were even alien roses in strange color combinations and patterns that she could never imagine being on a flower.

Aside from flowers, she had also encountered many other officials, male and female. She had been able to recognize them due to their fancy purple and gold robes and strange white hats that kind of looked like the ones nuns wore. Every single one she encountered seemed truly delighted to meet her. One young woman even bent down and called her 'your highness'. Alex was a little puzzled, but decided to go along with it. The Doctor's psychic paper had probably told them she was the princess of France again.

Just as Alex was about to examine a yellow rose with fuchsia dots on it, she heard somebody running up the path behind her. Alex whirled around in time for her to see the Doctor sprinting towards her. He looked truly panicked. As soon as he was close enough, he grabbed her wrist. "We have to go. Now!" he said, leading her off the path and through a thicket of bushes.

"What?" Alex cried. "Doctor, what's going on?"

"It's nothing, don't worry," the Doctor dismissed.

That wasn't going to stop Alex though. Alex yanked her wrist away from him and stopped in her tracks. "Tell me," she insisted. She watched as he went a few steps further before realizing she wasn't with him and he turned around. "Tell me. Now."

The Doctor groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "Okay, but it's not that bad."

"If it's not that bad, then why aren't you telling me?"

The Doctor stepped closer to her and gripped her hands. "Alright, if I tell you, you have to promise not to freak out."

Oh, that's reassuring! Alex thought. Aloud, she said, "Not instilling a lot of confidence in me, Doc!"

The Doctor let out a long breath. "Okay! I sort of, maybe, accidentally . . . got you engaged to the prince."

Alex's eyes nearly bulged out of her head. "You did WHAT?!" she screeched.

The Doctor clapped a hand over her mouth. "Shh! Keep your voice down!" he whispered. "I barely managed to lose those officials!"

Alex jerked his hand away from her mouth. "How the hell did you get me engaged to a prince who I only met for five minutes?!" she whisper-yelled. "What, did you just walk up and go oh, here's my lovely companion Alex, marry her!"

"No!" the Doctor cried, offended that Alex would even consider the possibility he would do that to her. "Apparently, the laws regarding marriage have changed a little since I was last here. Now, if a man meets a woman he wants to marry, he can declare them engaged."

"And the woman gets no say in this?" Alex questioned, appalled.

"They can, but the man also gets the right to have the woman and her family thrown in prison until she agrees to marry him. When I went to see the prince, he mentioned you and casually asked if you and I were an item." Alex groaned. This was the one time the Doctor should have said they were.

"Yes, yes, I know," the Doctor sighed, hearing her groan. "I should've said that. Instead, I said no and the next thing I knew, the prince was declaring that he was going to marry you straight away. I objected and he sent those officials after me, trying to throw me in prison so he could blackmail you into marrying him!"

Alex shook a little, though from anger or fright she didn't know. "That's horrible!" she cried. She pulled the Doctor into a hug, one which he was happy to reciprocate. "Wait, what are those officials?"

"They are the official Royal Marriage Consultants," the Doctor explained, pulling back a little. Alex could feel the anger and contempt in his words. "They cater to the prince's every whim on marriage. When he decides he wants to get married, the consultants make sure every wedding detail is taken care of and that the bride-to-be is happy."

Alex shook her head, remembering how excited the officials she encountered in the garden looked and how that one had addressed her as 'your highness'. It all made sense now. "B-but I don't want to get married!" she exclaimed.

"I know," the Doctor said, gripping her shoulders tightly. "And that's why we've got to get out of here. The TARDIS is on the other side of the gardens. We need to find Amy and get there before those officials find us."

"Find the princess to be!" a voice suddenly cried out a short distance away.

"And we better do it quickly," the Doctor murmured before running off, Alex tightly gripping his hand.

It didn't take them too long to find Amy. She was sitting under a weeping willow, admiring some flowers that were able to grow in the shade, no sunlight required. "Hey Doctor, Alex," she greeted, not noticing their expressions of panic or the sudden increase in voices shouting about trying to find the princess bride. "What were you–oh!"

This last part was exclaimed because the Doctor grabbed her hand with his free one and rapidly pulled her up. "Oh, nothing!" he nonchalantly said. "We just have to get back to the TARDIS right now."

"Why?" Amy questioned as she struggled to keep up.

"Ask the Doctor," Alex answered, glowering at the aforementioned person.

"I'm sorry, Ally!" the Doctor cried as he continued to pull the girls along.

"What did you do?" Amy demanded, looking at the Doctor bewilderedly as they turned a corner past some ugly topiaries.

"Got me engaged to the prince!" Alex shouted.

"What?!" Amy exclaimed. "How'd you manage that?!"

"Doesn't matter," the Doctor said, skidding to a stop as they came upon the TARDIS. Alex ran over and yanked on the door handle, surprised to find that the Doctor had locked it for once. As if sensing her plight, the door unlocked and Alex rushed in. The Doctor pushed Amy inside and stood in the doorway for a moment, listening to all the clatter and alarm being raised at Alex's absence.

Hearing a bush rustling nearby, the Doctor stepped inside and closed and locked the door. "Alright, girls!" he cried, running up to the console. "Change of pace! How about a museum?"

"How about the Musée d'Orsay?" Amy suggested. "I've never been and I hear they have a new Van Gogh exhibit."

The Doctor grinned. "Very well, Pond. Musée d'Orsay, 2010, here we come!"

~Living the Life of Ally~

A little while later, the group were in the Van Gogh exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay. Alex leaned closer to the Doctor as they walked behind a tour guide and group. The Doctor wrapped an arm around her shoulders and smiled down at her.

"I love the impressionists," Alex murmured, pausing to examine Café Terrace at Night a little closer. "They're my favorite paintings. Monet's Water Lilies is my favorite."

The Doctor was surprised by this. "Water Lilies?" he repeated.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Alex is afraid of water and would hate that. But I actually don't. Monet managed to make water look peaceful and beautiful and I like that." Alex probably would have added more but she then became aware that the tour guide ahead of them was speaking again and she promptly began listening.

". . .so this is probably one of the last paintings Van Gogh ever painted," the tour guide, in thick Clark Kent style glasses, a tweed jacket, and bowtie explained. He nodded to the painting Wheatfield with Crows. "Those final months of his life were probably the most astonishing artistic outpouring in history. It was like Shakespeare knocking off Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear over the summer hols. And especially astonishing because Van Gogh did it with no hope of praise or reward. He is now. . ."

The tour group headed off, but the Doctor and Alex stayed where they were. Amy turned around and smiled at the Doctor. "Thanks for bringing me."

"You're welcome."

"You're being so nice to me," Amy observed. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"I'm always nice to you!" the Doctor cried defensively.

"Not like this," Amy protested. "These places you're taking me. Arcadia, the Trojan Gardens—"

"Which I'm still mad at you about," Alex interrupted, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at the Doctor.

"I said I was sorry!" the Doctor cried.

"Now this," Amy quickly added. "I think it's suspicious."

Alex bit her lip. She wasn't surprised Amy had come to this realization. The Doctor wasn't exactly being subtle in taking her on these exciting trips as an unspoken apology for Rory's death. They'd been to a whirlwind of places since Rio and the Musée d'Orsay was only the latest stop.

"What? It's not," the Doctor replied, pulling Alex back to attention. "There's nothing to be suspicious about."

"Okay, I was joking," Amy revealed. She arched an eyebrow at him. "Why aren't you?" She then turned to Alex. "And why are you being so quiet? You'd have usually jumped in and told me to stop being so paranoid by now."

Alex shrugged and turned away so she wouldn't have to meet Amy's eyes. "The flippant side of my brain is taking a day off."

Amy snorted. "There's a miracle."

Thankfully, the tour guide chose that moment to start talking again. "Each of these paintings now is worth tens of millions of pounds," he informed his captive audience. "Yet in his lifetime, he was a commercial disaster. Sold only one painting and that to the sister of a friend. We have here possibly the greatest artist of all time, but when he died, you could've sold his entire body of work and got about enough money to buy a sofa and a couple of chairs. . ."

The audience laughed at the tour guide's attempt at a joke, but Alex smiled sadly. It really was sad. Van Gogh was a brilliant artist, but he never got any respect because people thought he was mad.

The group headed off, Alex and the Doctor about to follow them. "Who is it?" a young child asked behind them.

"It's the doctor!" another child cried.

The Doctor and Alex whirled around, curious to see what child would recognize the Doctor and why, but then they saw two boys in private school uniforms examining Portrait of Dr. Gachet. "He was the doctor who took care of Van Gogh when he started to go mad!" the second child explained.

"I knew that," the first child argued.

The Doctor and Alex looked at each other and smiled, both a little embarrassed by their suddenness and paranoia. But before they could say anything about it, Amy came running up. "Look!" she cried, pulling the Doctor – and, by extension, Alex – towards a specific painting on the wall. She held her Van Gogh exhibit brochure up to the painting for a side-by-side comparison. "There it is! The actual one." She lowered the brochure, allowing herself to fully absorb the beauty of The Church at Auvers.

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, noticeably marveled by the painting before them. "You can almost feel his hand painting it right in front of you, carving the colors into shapes. . . Wait a minute."

The Doctor frowned and stepped closer to the painting, closer than Alex thought was probably allowed. She expected alarms to blare or security to step up and haul him back, but surprisingly, nothing happened. Either the Musée d'Orsay was getting a little lax on its security or she had just seen Ocean's Eleven way too many times.

"What?" Amy asked.

"Well, just look at that," the Doctor urged, making the girls look closer at the painting.

Alex narrowed her eyes but then widened them in surprise. "Oh," she breathed.

Amy continued to squint at the painting. "What?" she demanded, still not seeing what was wrong.

"Something not very good indeed," the Doctor murmured.

"What thing not very good?"

"Look there." Alex pointed to a section of the painting. "Right in the window of the church."

Amy turned and looked where Alex had pointed. Sure enough, there was something in one of the windows of the church that was not meant to be in the painting. It appeared to be a gray alien-type of face.

"Is it a face?" Alex questioned. "It kinda reminds me of a giant parrot."

The Doctor shook his head briefly at her words but quickly focused back on the matter at hand. "Yes," he confirmed. "And not a nice face at all. I know evil when I see it and I see it in that window." Suddenly, the Doctor had grabbed Amy and Alex's hands and was dragging them across the room over to the tour guide, who was now standing in front of Still Life with Twelve Sunflowers.

"It has changed hands for something in the region of twenty—"

"Excuse me!" the Doctor interrupted, rushing up. "If I can just interrupt for one second." He pulled out his psychic paper and held it up to the guide. "Sorry, everyone, uh . . . routine inspection, ministry of art and . . . artiness. So, er. . ."

Alex mentally rolled her eyes as she tried to look official. Smooth, Doc, she thought.

"Dr. Black," the tour guide introduced himself when the Doctor trailed off.

"Yes, that's right," the Doctor said, shaking Dr. Black's hand. "Do you know when that picture of the church was painted?"

"The Church at Auvers," Alex clarified.

"Ah, well, ah, well, what an interesting question," Dr. Black mused. "Most people imagine—"

"I'm going to have to hurry you," the Doctor interrupted. "When was it?"

"Exactly?"

"As exactly as you can," the Doctor confirmed. "Without a long speech, if poss. I'm in a hurry."

"Don't be rude!" Alex hissed.

"Well, in that case," Dr. Black thought, not having heard Alex, "probably somewhere between the first and third of June."

"What year?" Alex asked.

"1890," Dr. Black answered. "Less than a year before. . ." He trailed off and Alex thought the man actually looked pained. "Before he killed himself," he finished somberly.

The Doctor, barely noticing this, smiled broadly. He'd gotten some very helpful information, sparing them from hopping all over Vincent Van Gogh's timeline. "Thank you, sir. Very helpful indeed." He then noticed Dr. Black's bowtie. "Nice bowtie," he admired. "Bowties are cool." Alex and Amy only looked at each-other and rolled their eyes.

"Thanks," Dr. Black nodded before lowering his gaze to look at the Doctor's own. "Yours is very. . ."

"Oh, thank you. Keep telling them stuff." The Doctor turned to Amy and Alex and grabbed one of each of their hands. "We need to go!"

"What about the other pictures?" Amy squeaked, looking back over her shoulder at the artwork.

Alex shook her head. "Amy, honey, get some perspective, okay?"

"I thought you said your flippant side was taking the day off!" Amy cried.

Alex shrugged. "It got bored."

"Art can wait," the Doctor jumped in, interrupting the girls' bantering. He pulled the girls in front of him and pushed them ahead out of the exhibit. Alex turned back to glare at him, but he ignored her. "This is life and death. We need to talk to Vincent Van Gogh!"

~Living the Life of Ally~

A few minutes later, the three were in the TARDIS. Alex leaned against the railing while Amy stood right next to the Doctor, watching as he maniacally flew the TARDIS through the time vortex.

Alex loosened her black leather vest, re-tying it so that it clung tighter to her slim frame. She had paired it with a black floral print dress, black tights, combat boots, and a pair of birdcage earrings. As she adjusted it, a sudden thought occurred to her. "Doctor, why do they pronounce it that way?" she abruptly called out.

The Doctor and Amy looked up at her, identical expressions of confusion on their faces. "Why does who pronounce what in what way?" the Doctor asked. He made a face and looked at Amy. "That wasn't confusing to just me, was it?" Amy shook her head.

"I mean why was Dr. Black pronouncing Vincent's name that way?" Alex clarified. She scrunched up her face. "Van Gogh." She shook her head. "It sounds like he was throwing up!"

"Alexandria!" the Doctor and Amy scolded, both looking disgusted at the image that had popped in their brains based off Alex's words.

"Well, it does!" Alex cried adamantly.

Amy shook her head at her friend while the Doctor just sighed. "That's the proper way to pronounce it, Ally."

"Not where I come from," Alex argued.

Amy snorted. "We know that. Do you know how many people in Leadworth couldn't understand your accent when you first arrived? All that y'all and stuff."

Alex only stuck her tongue out at her.

Thankfully, the TARDIS chose that moment to land. The Doctor jumped away from the console and over to Alex. He grabbed her hand and pulled her along after him to the doors, Amy just behind them.

Alex gazed around in wonderment at the scenery. They were actually in Arles, France. It was early evening and the moon was just peeking out over the roofs of the houses. They were in a small cobblestoned alleyway and the air smelled of salt-water from the nearby Rhone River, freshly baked bread, and tulips from a window box above them.

Alex smiled a little. She'd always wanted to go France. Paris, specifically, but Arles was still lovely. Maybe I can get the Doctor to take me on a full tour of Paris sometime, not just the Musée d'Orsay, she thought. She shook her head. Ever since Rio, she'd been trying to keep an emotional distance from the Doctor, but it wasn't working. She was drawn to him in ways she couldn't explain, and no amount of will power could change that.

"Right, so here's the plan," the Doctor announced, interrupting her thoughts. He led the girls down the alley, Amy scampering up to walk on his other side, her nose buried in the pamphlet from the museum. "We find Vincent and he leads us straight to the church and our nasty friend."

Amy nodded approvingly. "Easy peasy!"

Alex winced, remembering what she had learned about Vincent Van Gogh in art history. The word 'easy' was not one generally associated with him. "I don't think it'll be that easy," she murmured kindly, an undercurrent of sadness beneath her words.

The Doctor nodded in agreement. "I suspect nothing will be easy with Mr. Van Gogh."

"Gogh," Alex muttered, pronouncing it as 'go'.

The Doctor continued, either not hearing her or choosing to ignore her. Alex suspected the latter. "Now, he'll probably be in the local café," he guessed. "Sort of . . . orangey light, chairs and tables outside."

Amy held up her pamphlet, showing him Café Terrace at Night, one of Alex's favorite paintings. She used to have a poster of it hanging in her room back in Bristol. "Like this?"

The Doctor nodded. "That's the one," he confirmed.

Alex happened to look away from the painting for a brief moment and caught a glimpse of the orangey light the Doctor had described. Craning her head out further, she spotted a café that looked identical to the one in the painting. Grinning, she tapped the Doctor's shoulder. "Or indeed like that," she nodded.

The Doctor and Amy looked up and grinned. "Yeah," the Doctor hummed, wrapping an arm around Alex's shoulders and leading her forwards. "Exactly like that."

Alex observed the goings-on at the café as they approached. A few waitresses in long black dresses and white aprons and caps were cleaning the tables. A few patrons lingered on one side of the porch, smoke from their pipes drifting upwards into the deep dark sky. A man in fancy clothes was leaning in the doorway, observing all this.

"Good evening," the Doctor greeted as they approached. "Does the name Vincent Van Gogh ring a bell?"

"Don't mention that man to me!" the man in the doorway sighed in utter exasperation before heading inside.

Alex frowned. "Pardon us," she muttered in barely concealed anger. Reluctantly shifting away from the Doctor, she hopped up onto the porch, planting herself directly in front of one of the waitresses. "Excuse me. Do you know Vincent Van Gogh?" she inquired.

The waitress dropped her rag onto the tabletop and fixed her with a disdainful expression. "Unfortunately," she replied, putting her hands on her hips.

"Unfortunately?" Amy repeated as she made herself comfortable at a table near the door.

The waitress turned to address her. "He's drunk, he's mad, and he never pays his bills," she retorted irritably.

"Good painter though, eh?" the Doctor commented. However, the waitresses began laughing mockingly.

Alex glowered at them. "You know your faces could freeze like that," she said coldly. The waitresses abruptly stopped laughing and scurried off as they saw Alex's arms crossed and her eyes narrowed, dark green hurricanes whirling in them.

Alex crossed over to the Doctor as the latter sat down in a chair. The Doctor had watched Alex's standoff with the waitresses with a mixture of pride and a slight bit of doubt, wondering if he should have stopped her from scaring them like that. Quickly though, his sense of pride and his respect for Vincent crushed that doubt into tiny little pieces.

He reached up and rubbed a hand on her shoulder. "Good job, Ally," he complimented.

Alex looked down at him in surprise. "Really?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'd have thought you'd frown on that sort of thing."

"Protecting someone? How could I frown on that?" The Doctor moved his hand up to twirl a lock of her hair. "Just remember that—"

"I know, Doc," Alex cut him off before he could go into what she already knew. "I'm not going to change history or anything. But that doesn't mean I'll let such verbal mockery take place while I'm here."

The Doctor nodded. "I know." And he did know. Alex was actually the first companion of his not to show a desire to change history. She already seemed to know that history was full of good and bad parts and that the two parts often equaled each-other out. It only made the Doctor like her more than he knew he should.

"Come on! Come on!" a voice suddenly cried out from inside the café. The Doctor dropped his hand from Alex's hair and readied himself for the person about to come out the door. "One painting for one drink. That's not a bad deal."

"It wouldn't be a bad deal if the painting were any good," the man from earlier retorted as he came out, a small painting in hand. Behind him, his hopeful customer, a man with bright red hair and wearing raggedy clothes, followed.

The man in the fancy outfit, who Alex guessed was the owner, held the painting up to compare it side by side with his customer. "I can't hang that up on my walls!" he protested. "It'd scare the customers half to death. It's bad enough having you here in person, let alone looming over the customers day and night in a stupid hat!"

The Doctor looked over at Amy, on the other side of the two men, and pointed excitedly at the red-headed man. Amy had a huge grin on her face, her eyes as wide as saucers. The Doctor looked over at Alex and noticed that her eyes were also wide and rapidly changing colors; topaz and light green swirled by in half a second before going to honey-colored, then dark green. She was also clutching the top of the chair tightly with one hand, as though she were about to fall.

"About to faint, Ally?" the Doctor said lowly, chuckling a little. "Don't worry. I'll catch you if you do."

Alex looked down at him and smirked. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" she said in a similar voice. The Doctor shivered slightly. Her voice that low was incredibly sexy.

But before either of them could take this extreme flirting a step further, the owner spoke again. "You pay money or you get out!" he snapped to Vincent.

"I'll pay if you like," the Doctor spoke up. Alex arched an eyebrow but her gaze was focused on Vincent, who had now turned to look at the Doctor with a bewildered expression.

The owner was also looking at him bafflingly. Alex could practically hear the unspoken question running around in his head: Who is this idiot and what does he think he's doing? "What?" he questioned aloud.

"Well, if you like, I'll pay for the drink," the Doctor explained. "Or I'll pay for the painting and you can use the money to pay for the drink."

"Exactly who are you?" Vincent questioned, staring at him, Alex, and Amy with a confused expression.

"Oh. . ." The Doctor thought really quickly as he hooked an arm around Alex's waist. "I'm new in town."

Vincent nodded, watching the interaction between Alex and the Doctor. "Well, in that case, you don't know three things," he shot back. "One, I pay for my own drinks, thank you." This statement caused a roar of laughter to go around the café, quickly ceasing as Alex glared sharply at them, her hurricane eyes turning copper.

Vincent looked at her with slight amazement as everyone around them quickly ceased laughing. He watched as Alex's glare fell and her eyes switched to a calm light green. "Two," he continued, "no one ever buys any of my paintings or they would be laughed out of town. So if you want to stay in town, I suggest you keep your cash to yourself. And three, your friends are cute, but you should keep your big nose out of other people's business."

Alex giggled at being called 'cute' by Vincent Van Gogh, causing the Doctor to frown. No! I'm the only one who gets to do that to her, he thought sourly. He quickly pulled Alex down to sit in his lap. Alex was surprised, but very quickly complied. Best of all, she stopped giggling.

Meanwhile, Vincent turned back to the café owner. "Come on, just one more drink. I'll pay tomorrow."

"No," the owner said firmly.

"Or, on the other hand, slightly more compassionately, yes?"

"Or, on the other hand, to protect my business from madmen, no!" The owner, now irate, shoved the painting Self Portrait with Straw Hat towards Vincent, trying to get him to take it.

Vincent started to beg again but by this point, Amy had had enough. "Oh look, just shut up, the pair of you!" she cried loudly, causing all attention to shoot to her. The Doctor smirked at her proudly while Alex clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing as Amy sashayed her way up to the owner. "I would like a bottle of wine, please, which I will then share with whomever I chose." This last part was said to Vincent, who Amy gave a little wink.

"That could be good," Vincent smirked as he gave Amy a wink of his own.

"That's good by me," the owner agreed.

Amy smiled. "Good." She turned to enter the café to find a table as the owner followed her.

Alex waited until Amy was out of earshot before turning to the Doctor and blurting, "She's flirting with Vincent Van Gogh! Can she do that? Is she allowed to do that?"

"What, you think the universe will collapse because Amy Pond winks at Vincent Van Gogh?" the Doctor asked, smirking at her, while also noticing Alex was still pronouncing Vincent's last name as 'go'.

"Well, I don't know," Alex sputtered. "Just . . . didn't seem right, is all."

"Not jealous, are you, Ally?" the Doctor asked, hoping with every cell in his body that she wasn't. He didn't mind that she liked Vincent as an artist, but as a crush? If that part was true, he'd need to do something. Lock her up in the TARDIS to keep her away from him, maybe.

Alex made a face. "No!" she snapped. How could she be when she really only had eyes for the Doctor? Feelings that she really wasn't supposed to have?

The Doctor nodded in reply, not trusting his mouth to not blurt out how fantastic that was. God help him if he did that and Alex rebuffed him.

A few moments later, the group were seated inside the café. Alex sat in the Doctor's lap, finding the spot quite comfortable. The Doctor's arm was loosely wrapped around her waist, holding her in place. Alex took a sip of wine but, finding it sour, placed it back down next to the Doctor's untouched glass. She then looked over at Amy, who was sitting across from Vincent, talking.

"That accent of yours," Vincent commented to Amy. "You from Holland like me?"

Amy looked confused. "No," she replied at the same time the Doctor said, "Yes." Amy and Alex looked at him, puzzled. "She means yes," the Doctor said.

Alex relaxed back into the Doctor's chest, feeling him tense up beneath her in excitement and his hearts begin to beat faster. It must be something to do with the TARDIS translation matrix, she privately mused, remembering how on a trip to an alien planet in the 51st century she had asked him how come she could hear English. If we're hearing a Scottish Vincent Van Gogh, then he must be hearing a Dutch Amy. She giggled under her breath a little, wondering if her American accent was playing or not.

Vincent, noticing her giggling, turned to her. "And you are from America. Strange that you are traveling so far from home."

Alex shrugged. "I like traveling!" she chirped. "And there's too much industrialism at home. Chokes the lungs." Vincent nodded, accepting her words.

"Show-off," the Doctor whispered lowly in her ear, unknowingly making a flash of heat race through Alex. He turned back to Vincent. "So, start again. Hello, I'm the Doctor," he introduced himself, lifting a hand to Vincent.

"I knew it!" Vincent exclaimed as the others frowned at him.

"Sorry?" the Doctor asked, lowering his hand.

"My brother's always sending doctors," Vincent explained before taking a nervous sip of his wine. "But you won't be able to help."

"Oh, no, not that kind of doctor!" the Doctor laughed. His gaze moved from Vincent over to a painting leaning against the wall next to him. He grinned and his eyes lit up as he pointed at it. "That's incredible, don't you think, Amy, Ally?"

Alex leaned over the table and squinted. She could barely make the painting out in this dim lighting. Someone really oughta complain about that, she thought absently as she made out the painting. It appeared to be of two workers sleeping at the foot of a haystack. Not wanting to hurt Vincent's feelings, she happily nodded. "Oh, yes, marvelous!" she cried, settling back against the Doctor's chest.

Amy, who could see it better, also nodded. "Absolutely!" she agreed. "One of my favorites!"

"'One of my favorite what's?" Vincent snapped, causing Amy's face to go pale as she realized what she'd said. "You've never seen my work before."

"Ah, yes," Amy said slowly as she wracked her brain for an excuse. "One of my favorite paintings that I've seen . . . generally."

"Then you can't have seen many paintings," Vincent said ruefully, staring into his wine forlornly. "I know it's terrible. It's the best I can do." He took a sip of wine before leaning forward to look at Amy. "Your hair's orange," he observed.

Amy leaned forward as well. "Yes. So's yours."

"Yes. It was more orange, but now is, of course, less."

Alex and the Doctor looked at each-other. This was just getting . . . weird. Alex arched an eyebrow in a silent question to ask the Doctor to do something. The Doctor nodded and quickly opened his mouth. "So, er, Vincent!" he cried, attracting the artist's attention. "Painted any churches recently? Any churchy plans? Are churches, chapels, religiousy stuff like that, something you'd like to get into?"

"Fairly soon?" Alex added before turning to the Doctor and saying, "And as a christened Catholic, I'm offended you would use such a term as religiousy, which is not, in fact, a real word."

The Doctor shushed her to allow Vincent the chance to reply. "Well," he said slowly, "there is this one church I'm thinking of painting when the weather is right."

The Doctor and Alex smiled. "That is very good news," they said together, surprising Vincent, who looked at them with startled eyes while Amy just rolled hers.

Right at that moment, the sound of a woman screaming echoed throughout the café, causing everyone to jump. The group looked over at the doors just in time to see an older, plump woman run in. "She's been murdered!" she shrieked. "Help me!"

"That, on the other hand, isn't quite such good news," the Doctor reflected as people began running past them to see what was going on outside. Alex hopped up and was halfway across the room by the time the Doctor jumped up and cried, "Come on Amy, Vincent! Alex, wait up!"

Alex impatiently waited for the Doctor as instructed. As Amy and Vincent went past her, the Doctor came up and grabbed her hand. "I'm not letting you out of my sight with a murderer around," he said in explanation as he pulled her out the doors onto the street.

Alex nodded in understanding. "Can I do the same with you?" she requested.

"Don't worry about me, Ally," the Doctor said as he pulled Alex around a corner into an alleyway. Along the wall in the alley was the body of a young woman, a large crowd gathered around her in a half circle.

"She's been ripped to shreds!" one man exclaimed.

Alex peered over the Doctor's shoulder. She winced and averted her eyes. That part was definitely true. It looked like the woman had been killed by some sort of beast.

"Please, let me look!" the Doctor called out, pushing his way through the crowd as Alex followed him. "I'm a doctor!" He knelt down next to the girl while Alex stood behind him. "Oh no, no, no," he murmured.

Another woman began pushing her way through the crowd. "Away, all of you vultures!" she screamed. "This is my daughter!" She knelt down next to the dead girl. "Giselle," she breathed. "What monster could have done this?"

She looked up and noticed the Doctor and Alex next to her, Vincent kneeling next to the Doctor. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Get away from her!" she yelled, waving her arms at them.

The Doctor and Vincent jumped to their feet and backed away. "Okay, okay," the Doctor agreed, holding his hands up in a non-confrontational gesture, all the while making sure that Alex was safely behind him.

But the woman still wasn't satisfied. She reached and grabbed a rock from the ground and hurled it at Vincent. "Get that madman out of here!" she screamed as the crowd began following her lead and throwing rocks at the four. "You bring this on us! Your madness! You!"

The Doctor grabbed Alex's hand and ran off, Amy and Vincent hot on their heels. The group continued running until they felt they were far enough away from everyone. They leaned against some stone walls, panting heavily. The Doctor managed to catch his breath first and quickly examined Alex. If any of those stones had injured her. . . Luckily, Alex was perfectly fine, and the Doctor turned his attention to Vincent, who had suffered the brunt of the attack. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yes," Vincent sighed nonchalantly. "I'm used to it."

"Barbarians," Alex sneered. She brushed some rock dust off her dress and vest. "The lot of them!" Then, a thought occurred to her. "Has anything like this murder happened here before?" she wondered.

"Only a week ago," Vincent revealed. He shook his head sadly. "It's a terrible time."

The Doctor sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "As I thought. As I thought. Come on!" He grabbed Alex's hand and began leading her along. "We'd better get you home."

"Where are you staying tonight?" Vincent wondered as he followed them, Amy just behind him.

"Oh! You're very kind," the Doctor grinned, stopping to pat Vincent's shoulder.

Alex giggled as she took in Vincent's resigned expression, knowing that hadn't been what he meant at all. "Sorry," she mouthed over her shoulder as the Doctor pulled her off down the street.

Vincent chuckled a little and began following them, Amy next to him. "So, who is this Doctor and Ally?" he asked.

Amy smiled a little. "They're just the Doctor and Alex," she replied. "Don't let the Doctor or Alex hear you calling her Ally. Only the Doctor is allowed to do that."

"A shame," Vincent said. "Such beauty and charisma and optimism. She looks like an Ally."

Amy absorbed this. It was kind of true. Alex did have the outer appearance of an Ally. But Amy had known her by Alex for so long, that it was hard to really make this Ally stick to the person she knew.

Ahead of them, the Doctor and Alex were whispering to each-other. "That's Vincent Van Gogh!" Alex cried excitedly.

The Doctor rolled his eyes at her continued pronunciation of 'Gogh' as 'go'. "It's 'goff', Ally."

"It sounds weird!" Alex insisted.

He shook his head. "Just drop it, Alex!"

~Living the Life of Ally~

A little while later, the group were walking through a dark courtyard. Alex wrapped an arm around the Doctor's, getting closer to him. She was getting a weird feeling that something bad was about to happen. Alex couldn't explain what exactly she was feeling. Maybe it was one of those sixth senses they said some people had. Or she could be overreacting. Seeing that girl's mutilated body had set her on edge.

"Dark night," the Doctor commented to Vincent, who was still walking behind him with Amy. "Very starry."

Alex grinned as she caught the Doctor's reference to one of her favorite Van Gogh paintings, Starry Night. "It is," she noticed, looking up at the night sky. "Just makes you want to capture the fleeting moment on canvas."

Vincent looked at her, surprised by this. "That's exactly how I feel when I paint," he revealed. He had to admit, this Alex girl was growing on him.

Alex looked back at him and grinned. "I think that's how all the Impressionist painters feel."

Vincent nodded, accepting this, and hurried to catch up with the Doctor and Alex as they neared the front door. "It's not much," he warned, opening it and stepping inside. "I live on my own. But you should be okay for one night. One night."

Alex giggled. "I think that was directed at you, Doc."

The Doctor was about to reply when Amy stepped up. "We're going to stay with him?" she whispered excitedly.

"Until he paints that church," the Doctor confirmed.

"Or until he kicks us out," Alex quipped. "Whichever comes first."

"Watch out!" Vincent called ahead of them. "That one's wet!"

"What?" Amy asked as they looked at him in confusion. Vincent nodded to something behind them before turning away and heading further into the house.

The group turned, finding themselves facing a long clothesline hanging by the door. Various things were hanging from it, including Vincent's hat. But now, the group found themselves face-to-face with Bedroom in Arles, just painted and still, like Vincent said, wet. The group grinned at each-other before heading into the house.

Inside, Vincent lit a lamp. "Sorry about all the clutter!" he apologized.

Amy and Alex looked around at the so-called clutter. It was actually several of Vincent's paintings. Alex spotted Starry Night, Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Café Terrace at Night, and several others. "Some clutter," the Doctor observed, pulling Alex to his side and smiling as he saw her look around eagerly at everything.

"Wow," Amy breathed as she looked around, trying to take in everything all at once. "I mean, really. Wow."

"It's incredible," Alex said.

"Yeah, I know it's a mess!" Vincent cried, sounding exasperated, as though he'd heard similar reactions to the state of his house before. "I'll have a proper clear out. I must, I really must."

Vincent left them in the living room and headed to the kitchen. "Coffee, anyone?"

"Not for me, actually," the Doctor said.

Alex looked at him in surprise. "You don't like coffee?" she said incredulously.

The Doctor shook his head. "Not really. Too . . . jittery and it tastes disgusting."

Alex just shook her head. "Wow. First alcohol, now coffee? We really need to work on broadening your horizons, Doc."

"My horizons are already broad enough!" the Doctor argued.

Alex gave him a doubtful expression and twirled around to head into the kitchen. The Doctor followed her, the two stepping in just in time to see Vincent setting the coffee kettle on one of his paintings. Alex's face paled. "A hundred art historians just started crying and they don't know why," she whispered to the Doctor.

The Doctor nodded in agreement, cringing a little as he watched Vincent move the kettle to the table and wipe away the coffee ring it left behind on the painting. "You know, you should be careful with these," he suggested gently. "They're precious."

"Precious to me," Vincent clarified. "Not precious to anyone else."

"They're precious to me!" Amy called, suddenly popping into the kitchen.

"Me too," Alex added, moving closer to the painting and carefully dabbing the coffee stains away with the sleeve of her dress.

"Well, you're very kind," Vincent nodded to both girls. He handed Alex a cup of coffee, which she sipped at eagerly. "And kindness is most welcome."

"Right, so, this church then," the Doctor began as Vincent went over to the fireplace and reached for some firewood in the cabinet next to it.

Alex blew on her coffee. It was no Starbucks or Blondie's, but it would do. "It's near here, isn't it?" she finished. She and the Doctor smirked at each-other, realizing they had finished each-other's sentences again.

"What is it with you two and the church?" Vincent wondered.

"Oh, just casually interested in it, you know," the Doctor muttered.

Vincent snorted. "Far from casual. It seems to me you never talk about anything else."

Alex shrugged. "Well, I'm Catholic. Being interested in churches is in the job description."

Vincent chuckled. "You I don't mind," he said, nodding to her. He tilted his head at the Doctor. "Now, him? He's a strange one."

"Tell me about it," Alex joked. She moved over to a chair in front of the fireplace and sat down, turning to watch Amy play with a paintbrush she had picked up. Instead, she saw the slightly stormy gaze of the Doctor.

The Doctor could feel his hearts racing and his blood thrashing around inside him. It felt like it was trying to break through his skin. Here were Vincent and Alex, calmly getting along, laughing about him. Vincent and his Ally. The Doctor couldn't help it. He was feeling jealous, incredibly jealous, more jealous than he had felt with Rose and all her pretty boys. He had to stop this little flirt-fest. He had to get Alex back to him.

"Okay, so, let's talk about you then," he said in what he hoped was a casual voice. He went over and stood behind Alex's chair, placing a hand on each of her shoulders. He was pleased when Alex automatically relaxed into his palms. "What are you interested in?"

Vincent, not noticing or choosing to ignore his obvious jealousy, waved an arm around the room. "Well, look around," he replied, looking at other paintings hung or stacked around the room. "Art. It seems to me there's so much more to the world than the average eye is allowed to see. I believe, if you look hard, there are more wonders in this universe than you could ever have dreamed of."

Alex smiled. Vincent had no idea how right he was. Looking up, she saw the Doctor smiling as well and she knew he was thinking the same thing.

The Doctor looked down at her. "You don't have to tell me," he said, moving a hand through Alex's hair as he contemplated one wonder of the universe before him.

~Living the Life of Ally~

"It's color!" Vincent shouted, making poor Alex jump. She watched, slightly awed with his passion and slightly disturbed with the madness that came with that passion, as he inched closer to the Doctor. "Color that holds the key! I can hear the colors! Shh . . . Listen to them. Every time I step outside, I feel nature is shouting at me. 'Come on! Come and get me! Come on!'"

Okay. . . Alex inched her way out of her chair and out of the room as Vincent grabbed the Doctor's jacket lapels and pulled him closer so the man could fully grasp Vincent's crazy connection with nature. Realizing Amy had been absent for much of Vincent's lecture, Alex headed outside. Sure enough, there Amy was, admiring several of the paintings hanging from various clotheslines around the yard.

She looked away from one painting and smiled. "Hey," she greeted. "I heard shouting in there. What's up?"

"You're missing Art 101 as taught by Professor Van Gogh," Alex quipped. She shivered a little in the cool night air, wishing she had thought to bring along a jacket.

"Too bad," Amy mused, turning to look at another painting.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, I wish my old art history lectures were that entertaining." She sighed a little, knowing that Vincent's passion for art was really more sad than entertaining. "I hate to say it, I really do, but I think there's a bit of truth to that 'crazy genius' thing."

"Mmm," Amy murmured, not moving her eyes away from a painting, but Alex knew that she agreed with her. "Let's see, there's Mozart, Virginia Woolf. . ."

"Sylvia Plath, Tchaikovsky," Alex added. "Edgar Allen Poe. . . Anyone else?"

Amy was about to reply when she was suddenly thrown to the ground. Amy's eyes widened and she scrambled to get up. "Alex!" she cried weakly.

"Amy!" Alex dove to her side and helped her up. "Are you okay? What—" But before Alex could finish her sentence, a force hit her in the side, sending her flying across the yard, nearly banging her head into the stone fence lining the property. She sat up, her head spinning a little, and watched as Amy was knocked onto her knees again.

Alex looked around, trying to see what was attacking them. Then . . . she saw it. Her face paled and her eyes widened. At the same time Amy let out a shriek, Alex screamed. "DOCTOR!"

"ALEX! AMY!" the Doctor's voice called out. A second later, he came barreling out of the house, Vincent right behind him. Looking around, the Doctor hurried to Amy first and helped her up, before sprinting over to Alex. Before Alex knew it, she was being pulled upright into his arms.

The Doctor clutched her close. If anything had happened to her . . . No, he had to concentrate. "Girls? What happened?" he demanded.

"I don't know," Amy gasped. "I didn't see it. I was having a look at the paintings out here and talking to Alex when something hit me from behind."

"And then it hit me to the side," Alex explained into the tweed material of the Doctor's jacket.

"It's okay," he assured her, pulling Alex even closer to him and planting a kiss on the top of her head. What he really wanted to do was kiss her on her beautiful pink lips and make her forget the terrifying thing that had just happened to her, but he couldn't for so many reasons. Instead, he maneuvered her behind him, keeping himself in front of her as he surveyed the yard. "He's gone now and we're here."

"No! No!" Vincent suddenly shouted, looking off into the distance at something.

Alex peeked around the Doctor's shoulder and immediately jerked her head back. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"Take it easy," the Doctor implored calmly, stepping towards Vincent slowly as the girls nervously backed away. "Take it easy."

"What's happening?" Amy demanded. "What's he doing?"

"I don't know!" the Doctor called back. Is he having some sort of fit or something?

Right at that moment, Vincent picked up a discarded pitchfork and held it in front of him like a weapon. Only problem was that he was pointing it straight at the Doctor, Amy, and Alex. "Oh, dear," the Doctor muttered.

Oh, shit! Alex thought as Vincent began running straight towards them.

Vincent shouted as he ran towards them, pitchfork aimed like a sword, forcing the group to scatter in various directions as he ran towards the other side of the yard. "Run! Run!" he yelled at them.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the Doctor breathed, pushing Amy and Alex towards the door. "That's not a bad idea. Girls, get back! He's having some kind of fit." This seemed to be pretty accurate as the Doctor watched Vincent stab at . . . something near the stone wall. "I'll try to calm him down."

"Doctor!" Alex called but the Doctor didn't listen, already heading across the yard.

"Easy, Vincent, easy," the Doctor softly crooned as he jumped in front of Vincent and whatever he was stabbing at. "Look. Look, look, look. It's me, it's me, it's me. It's the Doctor, look. No one else is here. So, Vincent—"

Alex's eyes widened in horror. "Doctor!" she shrieked, pushing past Amy as she ran towards the Doctor.

"Look out!" Vincent also shouted.

Alex let out a tiny scream as she watched a large scaly tail bang into the Doctor's side, sending him flying and tumbling across the yard. She breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the Doctor start to get up, but her attention quickly became distracted as a loud roar sounded throughout the property, courtesy of the huge monster in front of her.

Alex allowed herself to very quickly study it. It was the monster from the window of the church in the painting. Like she had originally thought, it kind of looked like a parrot mixed with a rhino mixed with a gecko. Or something like that.

"I can't see anything!" Amy shrieked. "What is it?!"

"That is a good question." The Doctor reached down and grabbed a stick, running up to join Vincent. "Let me help you!"

Vincent stared at him. "You can see him, too?" he wondered.

"Yes . . . ish," the Doctor replied. Alex watched with a mixture of outrage and amusement as the Doctor ran to a completely different section of the yard and began waving the stick around. "Well, no. Not really." A split second later, another roar rang out and the Doctor was thrown over a table to Vincent's feet.

"You couldn't see him?" Vincent guessed.

Alex let out a low growl and grabbed a nice stout stick at her feet. "Damn right he can't!" she cried, rushing over to Vincent's side. She aimed the stick towards the monster before her. "But I can!"

Vincent gawked at her. "You can?!" he cried.

"Giant rhino with a little bit of a parrot mixed in?"

"Yes!"

Alex nodded. "Just checking." Glancing back at the Doctor, she shook her head as she watched him wave a stick around in a completely different area of the yard. She turned back and readied her stick at the monster.

Amy watched as Alex and Vincent continued to struggle with the invisible monster. As they took a few well-placed aims at the creature, Amy determined that they were trying to scare it off. A few seconds later, there was a loud roar and then the sound of retreating footfalls. As the creature ran away, it knocked down a couple of scarecrows. Then, it was gone, the only evidence it had even been here being a few ripped paintings, the fallen scarecrows . . . and the Doctor still swinging loudly, unaware that the threat was gone.

Alex turned to him and shook her head. "He's gone!" she cried.

The Doctor whirled around, looking mildly embarrassed. "Oh, right. Yes," he panted, dropping his stick. "Of course."

Alex released her stick and flew forward into his arms. "Idiot," she muttered into his jacket as she tightly wrapped her arms around him. She was too exhausted from fighting a monster only she and Vincent could see to bother slapping him.

The Doctor pulled her close to him. "Says the girl who willingly fought an invisible monster."

"Not to me," Alex retorted.

She felt the Doctor stiffen beneath her. "You could see it too?" he breathed. Alex nodded.

The Doctor felt a swirl of emotions run through him. Alex could see the monster? And she had fought it? He felt proud of her and thrilled but also scared and nervous and angry. What if Alex got hurt? He'd never forgive himself if Alex got hurt and he couldn't protect her because they were battling a monster only two out of the four of them could see.

He pulled her closer to him, if such a thing was even possible based on how close they already were. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "Come on," he murmured, releasing her and pulling her along back to Vincent's house.

A/N: Aw, the Doctor's jealous of Vincent! And who liked the beginning part where Alex almost got married? :)

Notes on reviews. . .

SopherGopher'sAwesomeSister - Lol, I should say something about how you shouldn't procrastinate on homework, but I'm doing the same thing right now with AP European History, so it would be hypocritical. :) Glad you liked the original chapter, even if it did have enough fluff but, at the same time, not enough at all! :)

SopherGopherroxursox - Fan-freaking-tabulous, yes! I think that sums 10's hair up quite perfectly. :) I'm so glad you love this story, especially the original chapters! :D

jesterlover - Glad you loved it and that you're caught up! :)

royslady51 - Yeah, we American Southerners are tough. :) But Alex does loosen up when she meets the Doctor and starts getting to know him and falling for him... :)

rycbar15 - Lol, I think most everyone was expecting a way different kiss than the one Alex gave him! Yeah, poor Ally at the end. We saw her thoughts here about trying to keep an emotional distance from the Doctor but it not working. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)

NunquamAlius - Yeah, at least Rory comes back. :) Lol, the Doctor kinda acts like a teenager sometimes, doesn't he, 11 in particular! :)

ShadowTeir - I know! Poor Alex! :( Just hang onto the knowledge that they will get together eventually. :) I'm still kinda hoping for a 12/Clara romance, but I'm sure whatever they do will be good. :) Aw, I'm glad you like the story so much that you're re-reading it! Hope it's good the second time around as it was the first! :)

Gwilwillith - Lol, that describes these two to a tee! :) Thanks!

Timey-Wimey Somn-Like Lass - It IS an addictive story, isn't it? I want the Doctor to remember Angel so bad . . . and then push River out into a black hole when he realizes how cruel she's being to Angel. :) Lol, don't worry, they will get together eventually! I like 'Vincent and the Doctor', mostly because I like Vincent Van Gogh too and his work. Like Alex, I'm a big Impressionist fan. :) Hmm...good question! I can't say but I will go to my stock answer and say that all will be revealed eventually! :)

TheGirlWhoWaited - Yes, I had to do it. What can I say? I'm evil. :} But I'm glad you loved the chapter though! :)

TheUltimateGuest - Thanks! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)

Guest - Glad you love the original parts! In answer to your question, there will be some original add-ins in Season 6, but probably not as much as there are in here, as Season 6 has a lot going on in it. :)