A/N I don't own BBC or DW
Book of the update: Warriors by Erin Hunter

Chapter 18: the Eleventh Hour

Rose dragged herself out of the pool with shaking arms, grumbling to herself. Who puts a pool in the library anyway? I mean, come on. The TARDIS sent her an apologetic hum, and she felt the tension go out of her shoulders with a sigh. She tried to stand up the best she could and shook off a bit, pulling off her jacket and dropping it in a soggy heap on the floor – er, back into the pool, that is. She tried her best to wring the water out of her hair, but still felt it dripping down her face and down her back as she tried to stand and walk, shoes squelching with each wobbly step.

A rope swung down, smacking her in the face and she jerked back, very nearly falling into the pool again. She looked up, straight through the door and through the hallway and through the console room and out the door. The Doctor was about halfway there, hanging on the rope, which was hooked to something outside. The TARDIS was on her side, completely wrecked. Rose patted the wall consoling and grabbed the rope, using it to keep her balance while she walked sideways, right up the wall. Well, floor, but it had become the wall.

When she got up to the destroyed console room again, which took a considerable amount of effort, she looked up and saw the Doctor's feet hanging down from the open door, his upper body leaned out over the edge, the rope just beside him. Rose made her way over to him and pulled herself up next to the Doctor, leaning the top half of her body over the edge.

"I love apples," he was saying to a little girl who was standing there looking stunned, shining her flashlight in their faces, "Maybe I'm having a craving!" he looked at Rose, grinning, "That's new. Never had cravings before."

He hoisted himself up with a grunt and swung his legs over the edge, sitting on the thin ledge that used to be the bottom of the TARDIS door. Rose tried, and failed, to pull herself up and out using upper body strength alone, and he reached down and grabbed her waist, gently, and pulled her up next to him with little to no effort.

"Are you okay?" the little girl asked slowly, but she didn't sound scared, just…a bit confused.

The Doctor pushed his floppy wet hair out of his eyes. "Just had a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

"You're soakin wet," she pointed out and Rose groaned.

"We were in the swimming pool," she tried to explain, but the girl didn't seem to understand.

"You said you were in the library," she scoffed and Rose glared half-heartedly at the Doctor.

"Thickhead over here decided to put the swimming pool in the library." He raised his hands in defense, water dripping off the tip of his nose and she grinned. Couldn't help it.

The little girl rolled her eyes, still shining the flashlight on them. "Are you a policeman?" she asked the Doctor, who leaned forward, looking at her.

"Why? Did you call a policeman?"

"Did you come about the crack in my wall?" she countered, and the Doctor looked at her some more, squinting his eyes as if he were trying to look right through her.

"What cra-ahghk!" He was cut off when his body had like, a spasm or something, and he fell right off the edge of the TARDIS onto the grass, making painful-sounding noises.

"Doctor!" Rose cried, jumping down next to him.

"Are you all right, mister?"

The Doctor got up to his knees, waving his hand and clutching his other hand to his hearts. "No, I'm fine," he told them, his voice sounding strained, "It's okay, this is all perfectly norm-" he jerked forward, clutching both hands to his chest, and picked his head up, opening his mouth. Golden regeneration energy came swirling out and he grinned. The pain seemed to have evaporated with the energy. He looked at his hands, which were also glowing.

"W-who are you?" asked the girl and he looked up at her, laughing.

"I don't know yet. I'm still cooking. Who am I?" he asked, looking at Rose, who grinned her tongue-in-teeth grin, mostly okay with this. It was her second go-around with his regenerations, after all.

"Haven't the foggiest," she told him honestly, then looked at the little girl, "Does it scare you?"

"No, it just looks a bit weird," she said in a sassy voice.

"No, no, no, she meant the crack in your wall. Does it scare you?" the Doctor corrected, still looking at his hands.

"Yes," the girl answered slowly, her mouth turning down.

Rose felt bad for her, but the Doctor smiled. "Well then," he said, hopping to his feet, "I'm the Doctor and this is Rose. Do everything we tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off," he looked at Rose for the last part and she rolled her eyes, getting to her feet as well. He turned and walked briskly in the wrong direction – though Rose guessed that he probably didn't know it was wrong – and promptly walked head-first into a tree, falling back onto the floor, the way it would happen in a corny television show.

"Ya' all right?" the girl asked and Rose rolled her eyes.

"He's fine."

"Early days, Rose, remember? Steering's a bit off." And with that he stood up and walked off, in the right direction this time, leaving Rose and the little girl to follow him.

DOCTOR WHO

Rose groaned and placed her head in her hands as he spat something else out onto the floor. So far, they'd found out that this regeneration did not like apples, yogurt, bacon, beans, and now bread and butter.

"We've got some carrots," said the girl, who Rose was beginning to feel very bad for.

"Carrots!" He exclaimed, "That's disgusting. Carrots are evil. No, I know what I need." He stood up and went to the fridge with her, pulling out a box from the freezer. "Fish fingers," and a box from the fridge, "And custard."

And fish fingers and custard it was. Rose looked at him while he ate them happily, dipping the fish fingers into the custard and then just pouring the whole bowl into his mouth. "Oh, that's disgusting," she told him and he turned to her with a custard-mustache and kissed her cheek, getting the stuff all over her face. She pulled away and wiped it off with the back of her hand. "Stay away from me!" She cried, laughing.

The girl was watching them with a bemused expression as she ate her ice cream – right out of the container, no less. If Rose had done that when she was little, Jackie would've been a bit less than pleased. Oh, God….Jackie. She'd never be able to see her mum again. She'd known that, of course. Said her goodbyes before she used the dimension cannon, but it was just now hitting her. The only person she really had in this universe was sitting next to her, eating fish fingers and custard.

"Funny," the girl commented, watching the Doctor lick his lips, still eating custard-coated fish fingers.

"Am I? Good. Funny's good."

There was silence, and Rose looked at the girl, who was still watching them with wide eyes. "What's your name?" she asked kindly, and the girl snapped right to attention.

"Amelia. Amelia Pond."

"Oh!" The Doctor exclaimed, "That's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond."

"Like a name in a fairytale," Rose agreed.

"Are we in Scotland, Amelia?"

She sighed. "No, had to move to England. It's rubbish."

Rose snorted, but the Doctor said nothing about Amelia's distaste for England. "What about your mum and dad then?" he asked instead, "Are they upstairs? Thought we would've awoken them by now." Rose elbowed him when she saw the look on Amelia's face and he stopped talking.

"Don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt."

"I don't even have an aunt," the Doctor told her with his mouth full of fish fingers.

Amelia's eyes widened. "You're lucky."

"I know."

There was silence for a moment or two and Rose felt the need to break it before it became uncomfortable. "So where's your aunt, then?"

"She's out."

"And she left you here all by yourself?" Rose was stunned; the girl couldn't have been older than maybe 7.

"I'm not scared!"

"Course you're not!" the Doctor agreed, still eating his fish fingers and custard, "You're not scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, people fall out of the box, man eats fish custard, and look at you. Just sitting there," he said with his mouth full, "So you know what I think?"

"What?" she asked softly and the Doctor's voice lowered to match hers.

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."

Amelia blinked, and for a moment, Rose thought she was going to cry, but then she was up on her feet. "Come on," she said, leading them up the stairs, probably to her bedroom with the crack in the wall.

The Doctor shoved his remaining fish finger into his mouth and jumped up, grabbing Rose's hand and pulling her with him when he passed her chair.

Amelia led them up the stair and to her bedroom, and when they walked in, she was standing in the middle of the room, pointing at a large crack on the wall. The Doctor released Rose's hand and went over to the crack, inspecting it. "You've had some cowboys in here," he mumbled, "Not actual cowboys. Though that can happen."

Amelia, who was standing by Rose, looked at the apple in her hand. "I used to hate apples," she said quietly, "so my mum put faces on them." She showed it to Rose, who smiled.

"She sounds like a good mum."

"Do you want it? In case you change your mind about apples?" Amelia asked, offering it to the Doctor, who took it and looked at its face before slipping it into his pocket.

"Thanks. I'll keep it for later." He went back to looking at the crack. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing, where's the draft coming from?" he looked at it in bemusement.

"Scan it. You've still got the sonic, don't you?" Rose prodded and he pulled it out of his pocket, scanning the crack in the wall.

"Thank you, Rose Tyler. Honestly, what would I do without you?" He scanned the wall and then looked at his screwdriver. "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. Do you want to know what the crack is?"

"What?"

"It's a crack. But," he continued, "I'll tell you something funny. If you knock this wall down, the crack would stay put, 'cause the crack isn't in the wall."

"Where is it, then?" Rose asked and he spun to then, sonic still in hand.

"Everywhere. And everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched," he turned back to the wall and put his ear to it, running his fingers along the crack, "pressed together…right here in the wall of your bedroom. Sometimes, can you hear…?"

"A voice," Amelia confirmed, "Yes."

There was a deep rumbling noise, almost like a roar, and the Doctor ran across the room and picked up the glass of water on Amelia's bedside table, tossing the water out onto the floor. He put the glass cup to his ear and walked back to the wall, listening.

"Prisoner Zero…." He said quietly, and Amelia finished it for him,

"has escaped. That's what I heard; what does it mean?"

"There's a prison on the other side of the crack, yeah? And they've lost a prisoner?" Rose asked and the Doctor nodded slightly.

"Exactly. And do you know what that means?"

"What?"

"It means you need a better wall." He walked over and picked up her dresser, taking it over to the crack. "The only way to close the breach is to open it up all the way. The forces will invert, and it'll snap itself shut. Or…."

"What?" Amelia asked anxiously and the Doctor put the dresser down and looked at her.

"You know when grownups tell you everything's going to be fine, and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"

"Yes," Amelia said, as though it happened to her a lot.

The Doctor looked at Rose briefly and his eyes widened as he looked back to Amelia. "Everything's going to be fine."

"Doctor, what're you…." She trailed off when he took her hand and pulled her beside him, and she pushed Amelia behind her a bit, to protect her as much as she could from whatever he was about to do.

He raised his hand with the sonic and adjusted the setting before turning it on the crack, and everything began to glow, and the crack opened.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped," said a booming, rumbly voice from somewhere in the black starry space inside the crack. It repeated that, over and over like a mantra.

"Hello?" the Doctor called, leaning toward the crack. Rose tightened her grip on his hand, a bit frightened. "Helloooo!" He called again, but jerked back just as fast when an eyeball appeared at the crack.

"What's that?" Amelia whispered, but the Doctor didn't answer. A light flew out from the eyeball and hit the Doctor in the chest. He fell backward, and the crack closed.

"There," he said," Y'see. Told you it would close. Good as new."

"Was that Prisoner Zero?" Rose asked, but he shook his head.

"No. No, I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was it sent me a message." He pulled out the psychic paper. "Prisoner Zero has escaped. But why tell us?" he wondered aloud after reading the message.

Rose got a chill, right down to her bones. "Doctor, you don't think…."

He looked at her, and then looked around the room. "I do think."

"What?" Amelia asked, confused.

"Prisoner Zero escaped through here," the Doctor told her, still looking around the room. "But he couldn't have. We'd know." He started as a thought came to him and ran out of the room, tugging Rose with him and leaving Amelia to follow behind.

He ran into the hallway and looked around. He looked at them. "It's difficult, brand new me. Nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing…..in the corner of my eye….." he turned, but didn't seem to see anything.

"Doctor," Rose said nervously, but she was unable to finish when the TARDIS bell began to ring and the Doctor ran to her, dropping Rose's hand and yelling no, no, no, and something about the engines.

Rose followed them, clutching her head, which had begun to pound like mad. She didn't even get to the kitchen when all of a sudden, everything went black, and all she knew was the pounding pain inside her head, the beautiful ship screaming in pain. And then there was nothing.

DOCTOR WHO

"Miss? Miss?" someone was shaking her. "Miss Rose?" she opened her eyes and blinked to clear the fogginess in her head.

"Yeah. Hey. I'm alright," she mumbled, her tongue tripping over the words in confusion. She sat up and grabbed her head as everything started to spin again.

"You'd better come quick if ye' want to see him land. He said five minutes, and it's been four already," said the little girl – Amelia.

Rose started. "See him land? He left?" she stood up and ran outside, ignoring the dull pounding in her head. She ran to the place where the TARDIS had crashed, looking around in a panic.

"Calm down," Amelia said, rolling her eyes, "He'll be back any minute now." she dropped the little suitcase she'd been holding and sat down on it, resting her chin on her hands. Rose noticed that the girl had on a thick winter coat and mittens and a funny little red hat with a puff on the top, her hair fluffed out underneath it.

Rose gaped at her. "He's gone. And you just let him go?" she shook her head and began to pace, wringing her hands. "No, that's fine. Nothing wrong at all. He'll be back. The TARDIS wouldn't let him leave me. He'll be back." And with those words, she came and plopped down in the grass beside Amelia, waiting.

"He'll be back, don't worry," the little girl promised, patting Rose on the head awkwardly. And when ten minutes had passed, the girl still had complete faith. "Maybe he's just a little late. He'll be here any minute now."

But as the minutes ticked on and soon turned into hours, Rose grew very worried indeed. And when she looked at her watch and saw that it'd been an hour and that little Amelia was nearly asleep, she stood up and picked up the little girl, carrying her inside despite her protests.

"We can wait inside," she told her in a falsely cheery voice, "He wouldn't want you catching cold."

And when Amelia fell asleep in the dining room chair, still waiting, Rose picked her up and set her down on the couch and snuggled her up in a blanket.

And when the sun rose and he still hadn't come back for them, her hope began to waver and she stopped looking out into the yard every five minutes.

And when Amelia's aunt, Sharon, came back, Rose spun a tale about a lost little girl and the neighbor who'd brought her home, and offered her services as a babysitter for the next time the little girl's aunt had errands to run. After all, it wouldn't do if the girl who waited was left waiting all alone. That just wouldn't do at all.

And so Rose became babysitter, and then full-time nanny to Amelia as she grew up, and Rose lived in the house, keeping an eye on the crack in the bedroom wall. And she kept an eye on that funny little door that shouldn't have been there, too, because it seemed like something she should watch out for.

And she was there when the little girl awoke to find that her raggedy doctor man hadn't returned, and she was there through all the tears. She was there to convince Aunt Sharon that the girl didn't need a therapist, she was only overly imaginative. And she was there to tell little Amelia Pond that she believed her tale of doctors and police and blue boxes and fish custard, because she had been there when the tale had taken place. She was there through second grade, and through third, and all the way up to eighth grade graduation, where Amelia Pond – no, Amy – waved at her old babysitter from up on stage. And she was there through high school, and through Rory, and through high school graduation. And she was there when Amy Pond – now all grown up – decided that she didn't believe the fairytales anymore. She didn't believe in her imaginary friend anymore, either, and so Rose had to leave. But she was always there, watching, waiting, helping.

She was there. As a babysitter. As a nanny. As an imaginary friend. As a neighbor. She was there through all of it in the life of Amelia Pond, for all 12 years. And she was always exactly the same.

A/N So, tell me what you think…? And, just want to brag about this, I KNOW THE DOCTOR'S ACTUAL CANON NAME LIKE FOR REALS.

Also, poll on my profile. Isn't gonna vote for itself, you know. River Song. Important. Hehe.