Hide- Part 2
I groaned as slowly woke up, my head still pounding. I opened my eyes to find myself lying on a couch in the living room in Palmer's house, "Here." Emma Grayling said, handing me a glass of light yellow liquid.
I took a gulp of it and immediately sat up, coughing. "Ugg. What was that?" I asked, my eyes watering.
"Have you never had whiskey before?" Emma asked, taking the glass back and setting it down on a small table next to the couch.
"That was whiskey?" I asked and coughed, "I'm seventeen!"
Emma's eyes widened, "Oh. Sorry 'bout that."
I gave Emma a smile, "It's alright. Do you have any water?"
"Yes, of course." Emma said and went to get another glass from the cabinet on the other side of the room. She poured water from a jug and handed me the glass.
"Thanks." I said, sipping the cold water. I looked around, "Where's The Doctor and Clara?"
"They left. The Doctor said you would be fine until they came back."
I looked down at my glass that was almost empty, "Yeah."
"Do you like him?" Emma asked cautiously.
I looked up at Emma, who had taken a seat in an armchair across from the couch, "Who, The Doctor?"
"Well, who else would I be talking about?"
"Of course not! He already has a wife!" I said, thinking about my parents tales on River Song, 'and a grandchild,' I thought, thinking about Susan. "It's just... he's supposed to be training me and all he ever seems to have time for is Clara. It's Clara this and Clara that. Clara are you okay? Then only a nod in my direction. I've known The Doctor longer. My whole life, actually."
"The Doctor doesn't look that old." Emma said.
My eyes widened slightly and I recognized my mistake, "He's older than he looks. It's part of the perks of our job."
"You mean the Ministry." Emma said.
"Yes." I said. I hated lying to her, "The Ministry."
"What exactly is your job. Mr. Palmer doesn't seem to like anyone working for them." After a minute, "Sorry."
I watched Emma's eyes when she talked about Alec Palmer. She liked him.
I smiled at her, "It's completely understandable. I wouldn't like them either if I was him."
"I thought you worked for them." Emma said, crossing her legs.
"I do." I lied again, "All I'm saying is that I understand why Mr. Palmer doesn't trust us." I noticed how Emma was becoming tense so I stopped, "Do you know why I passed out at the same time you did?"
Emma gradually relaxed again, though she was still a bit tense, "I do not know. I know I can sense... things. Perhaps you can as well."
"Perhaps." I responded. I briefly wondered if it had anything to do with my heritage of being half time-lord.
Mr. Palmer walked into the room from one of the doors that goes into the rest of the house, "Ah, Ms. Harkness, You're up. The Doctor and Ms. Clara left a little while ago."
"I'm aware." I responded.
"Are you two alright?" Mr. Palmer asked, "I understand why you collapsed, Emma. Why did you, Ms. Harkness?"
I looked at Mr. Palmer, "I'm not entirely sure. Though I did get a headache after we left the music room."
We all froze as the door opened and The Doctor and Clara came inside. Emma breathed out. The Doctor handed over a roll of film for developing to Mr. Palmer. Clara walked over to Emma and I with a far away look on her face.
"What's wrong?" Emma asked.
"I just saw something I wish I hadn't." Clara responded.
"What did you see?" Emma asked.
"That everything ends."
"No, not everything. Not love. Not always."
"Right, done. That's it. Gather round, gather round. Roll up, roll up." The Doctor said after Mr. Palmer and The Doctor went to work on the film. They made slides from the negatives.
The Doctor activates the projector with the sonic screwdriver, "The Ghost of Caliburn House. Never changing, trapped in a moment of fear and torment. But, what if she's not? What if she's just trapped somewhere time runs more slowly than it does here? What if a second to her was a hundred thousand years to us? And what if somebody has a magic box. A blue box, probably. What if said somebody could take a snapshot of her, say, every few million years?" Up comes a shot of a dark woman in a white coverall, running, "She's not a ghost. But she's definitely a lost soul. Her name is Hila Tacorian. She's a pioneer, a time traveller, or at least she will be in a few hundred years."
"Time travel's not possible." Palmer argued, "The paradoxes-"
"Resolve themselves, by and large."
"How long has she been alone?" Emma asked, staring at the photos.
"Well, time travel's a funny old thing. I mean, from her perspective, she crash landed three minutes ago."
"Crash landed? Where?" Emma asked.
"She's in a pocket universe. A distorted echo of our own. They happen sometimes but never last for long." The Doctor blows up a blue balloon, then a red one. "Our universe. Hila Tacorian's here, in a pocket universe. You're a lantern, shining across the dimensions, guiding her home, back to the land of the living."
"But what's she running from?" I asked.
"Well, that's the best bit. We don't know yet. Shall we see?" The next slide shows an strange alien creature, "Oh." The creature is hiding behind a tree.
"What is that?" Clara asked.
"I don't know. Still, not to worry." The Doctor said.
"So, what do we do?"
"Not we, you. You save Hila Tacorian because you are Emma Grayling. You are the lantern. The rest of us are just along for the ride, I'm afraid. We need some sturdy rope and a blue crystal from Metebelis Three. Plus some Kendal Mint Cake."
"Come on, Clara, Lia." The Doctor said and we ran to the Tardis. I glanced at Emma on the way out who was looking at Mr. Palmer.
"Can't you just, you know?" Clara started after we were in the Tardis console room.
"What?" The Doctor asked.
"Fly the Tardis into the parallel universe?"
"Ah, it's not a parallel universe. It's a pocket universe. Plus, it is collapsing. I mean, the Tardis could get in there all right, but entropy would bleed her power sources, you see? Trap her there until the entire universe decayed back into the quantum foam. Which would take about three minutes, give or take, you know."
A thick silver cable and other wires run from the Tardis into the house. A large crystal is held in a cradle at head height. Clocks have been places around the music room. Emma and Palmer are wearing coats.
"What is that?" Clara asked, talking about the equipment.
"A subset of the Eye of Harmony." The Doctor told her.
"I don't-" Clara started.
"Of course you don't. Be weird if you did. I barely do myself. Right. You, sit down. All the way from Metebelis Three." The Doctor puts a headset with a blue gem in it onto Emma.
"What does it do?" Emma asked.
"It amplifies your natural abilities like a microphone, or a pooper scooper." The Doctor explaned.
"What exactly is this arrangement?" Mr. Palmer asked.
"A psychochronograph."
"Forgive me, but isn't it all a bit well, make do and mend?"
The Doctor puts on a parachute harness. "Non-psychic technology won't work where I'm going. Listen, all I need to do is dive into another dimension, find the time traveller, help her escape the monster. get home before the entire dimension collapses and Bob's your uncle."
"Doctor, will it hurt?" Emma asked.
"No. Well, yes. Probably. A bit. Well, quite a lot. I don't know. It might be agony. To be perfectly honest, I'll be interested to find out." The Doctor said.
Emma looks at Palmer, who nods, "I'm talking to the lost soul that abides in this place. I'm speaking to Hila Tarcorian. The clocks start to go backwards. The Doctor hitches his harness to a thick rope as the black disc appears and a strong wind blows through.
"See? The Witch of the Well! It's a wormhole! A reality well! A door to the echo universe. Ready?" The Doctor called.
"Ready!" Emma yelled back.
"Geronimo!" The Doctor yelled and leaped into the wormhole. The rope unwinds from the winch.
"Doctor!" Clara yelled after him.
"Doctor! Doctor! Come home. Come home!" Emma called into the wormhole, "Doctor! Doctor come home! Doctor, we're here. Doctor! Doctor!" Emma had tears streaming down her cheeks, "I'm not strong enough!"
"Just a few more seconds." Clara pleaded.
Emma screamed and I winced at Emma's pain, rubbing my forehead as a sharp pain pulsed, strangely in time with Emma's screams.
The rope tugs three times and I helped Mr. Palmer reign in the rope. A women, whom I assumed was Hila Tarcorian flew out of the wormhole and landed on the floor. Emma collapsed and the wormhole closed.
"No!" Clara yelled as I rushed over to Emma. "Wake up! Wake up! Open the thing."
Emma blinked open her eyes, "I'm sorry."
Mr. Palmer shushed her, "Don't be sorry. Don't be. What you did-"
"Wasn't enough. She needs to do it again." Clara said forcefully.
"Clara." I said, warningly.
"She can't. Look at her." Mr. Palmer argued with Clara.
"She has to! We can't leave him."
Palmer sighed, "I know that you feel you can't do this, Emma, but look at that woman over there. You saved her. She's only here because of your strength, and so am I."
Clara ran out of the room. 'Probably to the Tardis.' I thought.
"I was as lost as her, but being with you, you gave me a reason to be, Emma. You brought me back from the dead." Palmer said to Emma. Emma puts the headset back on and all of us join hands. Once I joined hands, the pain in my head intensified and I gripped Palmer harder to keep myself upright.
"Doctor." Emma called. The wormhole reopened, "Doctor can you hear me? Doctor! Doctor, we're here. Come home!" A few moments passed by, "Doctor, hurry!" Emma screamed as the Tardis materializes with The Doctor clinging to the outside of it. Morning sunshine shines through the windows. I sighed in relief and leaned up against the wall, my energy spent.
I took Emma in a side hallway while The Doctor was talking to Clara, Hilda and Palmer. "Emma, I have a theory on why we seemed to why we both passed out at the same time."
Emma crossed her arms and leaned up against the wall, not in an angry way, but more in a keep-yourself-warm kinda way, "Oh, good. Because I have no idea. You're not a medium-psychic, are you?" Emma raised an eyebrow at that part.
I grimaced at the thought of being able to 'communicate' with the dead, "No, I don't think so. In order for me to tell you my theory, you have to swear never to repeat what I say to another person. You can tell Palmer, but just make sure he knows that if he tells anyone, I'll be very, very angry."
Emma swallows. "Yeah, I promise."
I smiled halfway, "Good. I'm part Time-Lord, part human." At Emma's confused look, I clarified, "Part alien."
Emma's eyes widened drastically, "Are you really from the Ministry?"
I winced, "Actually, No. That's just a cover. Though that doesn't really matter right now. I need your opinion on my theory. I have a feeling that The Doctor will ask you a similar question about Clara."
"Clara?" Emma frowned. "Is she an alien too?"
I rolled my eyes, "No, she's human. Very human. But back to my theory. Is it possible that, since you are a psychic, I picked up on your, I don't know, your psychic abilities. Like I could be some sort of receiver using my Time Lord abilities like that?"
"Well, I don't know anything about your, what did you call it, Time-Lord, species. It is quite possible that under the right conditions, your theory could be correct. You visited the music room, the center of the house, before you passed out, right?" I nodded, "That could have intensified your... reaction? I'm only guessing at this point." Emma said, reluctantly.
I let out a tiny laugh, "Yeah, so am I. I guess all I have to do is wait to see if it happens again."
"Amelia!" The Doctor yelled, "Time to go!"
I sighed, "Well..."
"Well." Emma responded, a smile crossing her face and we laughed. "It certainly has been interesting."
"It certainly has." I replied. I walked to the door to the room where everyone else was, I glanced back to Emma who hadn't moved, "Good luck with Palmer." I said with a suggestive smile. Emma blushed and I walked away.
I watched, next to The Doctor and Clara as Emma hugged Hila goodbye in front of the Tardis, "Where will you go?"
"He can't take me home." Hila said, "History says I went missing."
"But he can change history." Emma protested.
"No, no, no, I can't, actually." The Doctor said, interrupting their conversation, "There are fixed points in time, you see-"
Clara went up to The Doctor, "Hi."
"What?" Clara takes the Doctor away from their conversation and I stepped farther back as Mr. Palmer walked up.
"I knew you were there. I could feel you." Hila said.
"I know."
"Have we?" Hila started to ask.
"We can't have. You haven't even been born yet."
The Doctor got away from Clara and came back to the conversation, "No, you can't have met but she can be your great, great, great, great, great granddaughter. Yours too, of course. But you guessed that already, didn't you." Mr. Palmer and Emma stared at each other and then Hila, "Oh. Apparently not."
"The paradoxes-" Mr. Palmer started.
"Resolve themselves, by and large. That's why the psychic link was so powerful. Blood calling to blood, out of time. Not everything ends. Not love. Not always." The Doctor said.
"Doctor, what about, what about us? Emma and me?" Palmer asked.
"What about you?" The Doctor asked.
"Well, what's supposed to happen? I mean, what do we do now?"
"Hold hands. That's what you're meant to do. Keep doing that and don't let go. That's the secret. "
"Oh, I'm so slow! I am slow. I'm notorious for it. That's always been my problem. But, but I get there in the end. Oh yes." The Doctor said, getting very excited.
"Doctor?" I asked, wondering what he was getting excited about now.
"How do sharks make babies?" The Doctor asked. The Doctor, Clara and I walked away from the Tardis and towards the house.
"Carefully?" Clara replied.
"No, no, no. Happily!"
"Sharks don't actually smile. They're just, well, they've got lots and lots of teeth. They're quite easy."
"Exactly. But birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. Every lonely monster needs a companion."
I noticed movement in the upper window of the house, ""There's two of them?" I breathed out.
"It's the oldest story in the universe, this one or any other. Boy and girl fall in love, get separated by events. War, politics, accidents in time. She's thrown out of the hex, or he's thrown into it. Since then they've been yearning for each other across time and space, across dimensions. This isn't a ghost story, it's a love story!" Then he realizes he has put his arm around Clara's shoulders.
"Sorry." The Doctor ran back to Hila, Emma and Mr. Palmer.
"I'm sorry! I understand now! I can take you to her! I can take you to a safe place far away from here! You can be together! Well, come on, then. She's waiting!" The Doctor called out into the pocket universe. The creature from the house is next to The Doctor. Clara and I are watching from next to the counsel, "Well, hello again, you old Romeo, you. Now, here she comes."Get ready to jump."
Thank You to my favorite: redrosebird
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