Mistressnmoon: Gosh, it's been awhile. Sorry that I'm posting this nearly a week late. But I had to use a different site to get the lines then I normally use due to the fact my normal one only goes to season four, and this is a season five episode. So it took me a little more time, because the new one isn't nearly as descriptive and makes it so I have to watch the episode a bit more. (I also know the older ones better since I've watched them more.) Among other reason for it taking so long. Anyways. I don't think I have a whole lot to say, unless you wanted to hear random things about my life. Oh, I know! I'm going back to school in about a week, and while I still plan on getting a new chapter out every month, I know I'm pretty bad about writing when I'm at school. So. This means that you should shoot me a message if you notice it's been forever since I updated. Because sometimes I just don't notice it's been awhile. I think that's the only thing I had to say. So I hope you enjoy!
There are spoilers for season FIVE. Nothing major, but be warned.
aandm20: I agree, I actually wouldn't have had any ideas if I hadn't gone on with the plot, haha.
Shara Raizel: I'm glad to hear you liked the filler though! And yeah, the plot is always better. Though this is almost a subplot to get back to the real plot, so... I hope you like it regardless!
Chapter Eight
I wobbled on the spot for a moment, holding my head, before I adjusted to having traveled with my time watch. I may have been using my watch more lately, having been traveling alone for about a year, but I still wasn't use to traveling with my watch. And after traveling in the TARDIS, I don't think I would ever be use to it again.
"Robin?" When I turned around I saw a rather strange sight. I saw a taller man, with floppy brown hair, a red bow tie, red suspenders, and a tweed jacket. And that wasn't the strangest part, the strangest part had to be the random small brown bag that was resting in his hands. Was this really someone that I was going to know?
"Who are you?"
"Me? Why I'm the Doctor." I stopped to look at the man, really look at him, before I raised an eyebrow at him and asked,
"So what, you wear bowties now?"
"Of course I wear bowties, bowties are cool." I kept my eyebrow raised at the Doctor, and chuckled lightly at the man in front of me.
"Sure they are… You've changed."
"You haven't. Not yet at least." My face quickly fell, and I narrowed my eyes at the man, unsure what the hell that was suppose to mean.
"I haven't seen you in a year, but the last time I did you had just regenerated. So excuse me if I think you've changed just a bit." The man blinked at me, before he stared at me as if something just occurred to him.
"Blimey, it's still early for you. Very early."
"Then I suppose I'll run into an early version of you later on?" He opened his mouth to say something, before I cut him off. "Spoiler, I know. I've heard that more times then I'd like. So where's the TARDIS? I'd like to say hello to her too." The Doctor rubbed the back of his head, awkwardly if I might add, before hesitantly telling me,
"About that…" When he didn't seem like he was going to continue, I jokingly asked him,
"Don't tell me you lost the TARDIS?" Rather then deny my question, joking or not, he let out an awkward laugh, and said,
"Maybe?" I felt my anger bubble beneath the surface, more then a little pissed that he had lost the TARDIS. Seriously, how does someone do that? It's a big BLUE box.
"You did what?! Seriously, how do you lose something like that?" I gave the man a glare, debating whether he was actually the Doctor or not.
"It wasn't my fault!"
"Of course it wasn't." I let out a scoff, making it obvious that I didn't believe him.
"It wasn't! The TARDIS took off right after landing, something made her take off. But Amy told me where to go!" I paused at this, before I quietly asked,
"You've got new company then?" I was quick to ask another question, deciding I didn't want to know the answer after all. "So you're heading somewhere then? What exactly are you going to do without the TARDIS?"
"Something very clever that I haven't thought of yet."
"So you're going to make it up as you go along then? Mind if I join you? After all it's been awhile since I've seen you."
"Yes. Sure. Why not?" Once again I raised my eyebrow at him, wondering just how strange this regeneration was. Then again, I hadn't really gotten to know his last regeneration, so he could have been just as strange then as he is now.
"So where are we heading then, Doctor?" I flailed my arms a bit, stopping myself from walking any farther, when the Doctor suddenly stopped and started walking towards a housing complex.
"Here. We are going… Here." I frowned for a moment; before I followed him to the place we were suppose to be lodging at.
"You know that you're a bit weird, right?" I grinned back the Doctor when he answered while knocking on the door,
"They never stop." I gave a small nod, about to respond when the door opened too a larger sized man, who told the two of us,
"I love you!" I giggled when I saw the man's shocked face; clearly we weren't who he was expecting to be at the door. This didn't seem to be as obvious to the Doctor because he started telling the man,
"Well, that's good, cos we're your new lodgers. Do you know, this is going to be easier than I expected!" The man sputtered for a moment, before he finally got out,
"What?" I smiled at his confused expression before I opened my mouth to tell him,
"We wanted to rent your spare room." The man still seemed confused as he told the Doctor and I,
"But I only just put the advert today, I didn't put my address."
"Well, aren't you lucky we came along? More lucky than you know." The Doctor looked up at the man, while I tried to give him a soft smile that wouldn't make him think that the two of us were complete nutters. "Less of a young professional, more of an ancient amateur, but frankly I'm an absolute dream." I cleared my throat, not wanting to be left out, I was 'an absolute dream' to live with to! That's why I gave the Doctor a pout when he turned to look at me. "Oh, right. Robin here is very nice to live with too." As usual I smacked his arm, not very hard, while giving him a frown. So he was an 'absolute dream' and I was just 'nice to live with'? Not fair. While I was pouting about it to the Doctor, not that he seemed to be noticing, the man who owned the place seemed to be freaking out; I guess he didn't like the thought of us living here.
"Hang on, mate, I don't know if I want you two staying, and give me back those keys, you can't have those!" I stopped pouting and gave the man another smile as he grabbed the, frankly feminine, keys back from the Doctor who had grabbed them from the man earlier.
"Yes, quite right. Have some rent." The Doctor handed the man the brown paper bag, and I peered in it with the man only to see a ridiculous amount of money. "That's probably quite a lot, isn't it? Looks like a lot. Is it a lot? I can never tell." I gave the Doctor another frown, muttering about how clueless he was, when he stepped past the man into the house. The man and myself followed the Doctor, and the man closed the front door behind me. The lights flickered, and I narrowed my eyes at them. In my experience flickering lights were never a good thing, even more so when statues were involved. But thankfully they weren't, as far as I knew, and this was just an unusual problem of sorts.
"Don't spend it all on sweets. Unless you like sweets. I like sweets. Ooh." I snorted, unattractively, when the Doctor gave the man Gallic air kisses, which seemed to increase the man's thoughts about our increasing craziness. "That's how we greet each other nowadays, isn't it?" As usual around the Doctor I choked on my laughter, and only barely managed to stop when the Doctor gave me an annoyed look. "My silly friend over here is Robin. And I'm the Doctor. Well, they call me the Doctor, I don't know why." I nearly snorted again, thinking to myself that people only call him that because he insists that that's his name. If he didn't introduce himself as the Doctor, then people wouldn't call him Doctor. "I call me the Doctor too. Still don't know why."
"Craig Owens. Robin and the Doctor?" I beamed at the man, nodding while telling him,
"Yep." Not even seconds after I answered Craig, the Doctor asked him,
"Who lives upstairs?"
"Just some bloke." I frowned, wondering what exactly that was suppose to mean, before opening my mouth to ask Craig,
"What's he look like?"
"Normal." Just great. It's always the normal people you have to look out for. Normal is never a good thing. "He's very quiet." And wouldn't you know it, there was a loud bang from the normal bloke. "Usually. Sorry, who are you two again? Hello?!" I grinned as Craig entered the flat, following the Doctor and myself. "Excuse me?" I eyed the suspicious looking stain in the corner of the room, as the Doctor went straight over to look at it.
"Ah! I suppose that's… dry rot?" I raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, before skeptically suggesting,
"Or damp." Craig also made a suggestion as to what the stain could be, but he was much less concerned about it then I was.
"Or mildew."
"Or none of the above." A sigh escaped my lips, and I shook my head a little. Seriously, why bring it up if you're just going to worry the man?
"I'll get someone to fix it."
"No, I'll fix it. I'm good at fixing rot. Call me the Rotmeister. No, I'm the Doctor, don't call me the Rotmeister. This is the most beautiful parlour I have ever seen, you're obviously a man of impeccable taste." I grinned at the Doctor as he sat on Craig's countertop, before jumping up on it myself. "We can stay, Craig, can't we? Say we can." I noticed that Craig looked confused, again.
"You two haven't even seen the room."
"The room?" I chuckled at the Doctor, and his obliviousness. I don't know why he ever thought that he would be able to blend in as a human. He's just too unique for that.
"Your room."
"Our room? Oh, yes, our room, our room. Take us to our room!" As usual around us, Craig looked highly confused, but he still led us to the room we would be staying in.
"Yeah, this is Mark's old room, he owns the place, moved out about a month ago. An uncle he'd never even heard of died and left a load of money." Huh, well that isn't suspicious at all. I eyed the Doctor, while he tested the bed to see how the mattress was, wondering if he had anything to do with that.
"How very convenient. This'll do just right. In fact..." I flinched when there was suddenly a loud noise from above; this really wasn't the time to be picky… "No time to lose. We'll take it. Ah...you'll want to see our credentials." I watched the Doctor, eyebrows raised, as he pulled out his psychic paper, and flipped through it. "There… National Insurance numbers… NHS numbers… References…"
"Is that a reference from the Archbishop of Canterbury?" Well…. That seems a bit extreme. But I guess it's okay, as long as Craig doesn't think we're too crazy.
"We're his special favorites." The Doctor placed a finger on his lips, as if telling us to keep quiet, and keep his secret. Or I guess our secret? "Are you hungry?" I eyed the Doctor, with a funny expression on my face, at the random comment. "I'm hungry."
"I haven't got anything in." I stood in confusion, with Craig, before the two of us followed the Doctor into the kitchen. When we got there, the Doctor was raiding the fridge and Craig's cabinets.
"You've got everything I need for an omelet fines herbs! Pour deux!" I rolled my eyes at him as he started cooking at an impressive rate, before settling into one of the chairs at the kitchen table, and upon seeing the picture of the woman on the fridge I asked,
"So who's the woman on the fridge?"
"My friend. Sophie." I smiled at Craig and asked him in a soft tone,
"Is she your girlfriend?" I giggled a little when I noticed how flustered Craig became at my questioning. He so liked her.
"A friend who is a girl. There's nothing going on."
"Ah, that's completely normal. Works for me." Once more I rolled my eyes at the Doctor, thinking to myself how not normal he was. After rolling my eyes, I turned my attention back to Craig again so that I could ask him,
"So where'd you meet your… friend?" Craig smiled, in a silly manner, not having noticed the implication I was trying to make with my pause. He clearly likes the girl, even if they're only friends.
"We met at work about a year ago at the call center."
"Oh, really, a communications exchange? That could be handy." Handy? What exactly does the Doctor think is going to happen?
"Firm's going down though. The bosses are using a totally rubbish business model. I know what they should do, I got a plan all worked out, but I'm just a phone drone, I can't go running in saying I know best. Why am I telling you two this? I don't even know you two." It sounded to me that Craig needed to take more initiative, it would more then likely work out in his favor. Anyways, in response to Craig's question I told him,
"He's just got one of those faces."
"People never stop blurting out their plans when we're around." I chuckled, thinking about just how true that had been when I had been traveling with the Doctor. I mean, people still blurt out their plans when it's just me, but that's a skill that the Doctor has simply perfected.
"Right, where's your stuff?"
"Don't worry, it'll materialize, if all goes to plan." Craig gave the Doctor another strange look, and I let out a sigh.
"Don't think about it too much, Craig. Just go with it, and eat your omelet." As I finished speaking, the Doctor placed three omelets on the table, and the other two quickly joined me at the small table. Craig was fairly quick to follow my advice, and we all ate with very little small talk. But once we had all finished eating, the conversation picked up again.
"Oh, that was incredible! That was absolutely brilliant. Where did you learn to cook?"
"Paris, in the 18th century. No, hang on, that's not recent, is it? 17th? No, no, no, 20th. Sorry I'm not used to doing them in the right order." I stared at the Doctor, wondering just what went through that head of his.
"Has anyone ever told you that you're a bit weird?" I chuckled a bit, upon realizing that I had asked the Doctor the same exact question earlier. And the Doctor gave the same response he had given me,
"They never really stop." I bit back my chuckles when the Doctor gave me a wink, as if to prove that his answer was true. "Ever been to Paris, Craig?" Once more the Doctor randomly changed the topic. And once more I shook my head at the man, before I grabbed the plates and started rinsing them off in the sink.
"Nah, I can't see the point of Paris. I'm not much of a traveler."
"I can tell from your sofa." I turned to give the Doctor a frown, ready to hit him if this went where I thought it was going.
"My sofa?"
"You're starting to look like it." And with that I smacked the Doctor on his arm. I felt relief flood my body when Craig laughed. Seriously, we didn't have the room yet, and we clearly needed to be here to save the TARDIS.
"Thanks, mate, that's lovely! No, I like it here." I glanced over at Craig, and noticed that he was… well, he was pretty much fondling them. "I'd miss it, I'd miss…"
"Those keys?" If it weren't for the fact that I was trying to stifle my laughter, I probably would have hit the Doctor yet again.
"What?" I bit back my chuckle, and informed Craig,
"Well… Craig, you're sort of… well, fondling them." Craig seemed to be flustered by my response, before he set them down on the sofa's arm and told the Doctor and myself,
"I'm holding them." The Doctor and myself gave Craig a skeptical look before we both told him,
"Okay."
"Anyways…" I watched, now smiling again, as Craig stood up and walked to the table by the door. My smile grew into a grew when I saw him pull a set of keys out of the table by the door. "These… Thses are your keys. Sorry but there's only one set." I shook my head briefly before calmly stating,
"It's okay, I'm pretty much always with this bloke." Craig nodded, and when he looked like he was about to ask me a question, probably about how I was related to the Doctor, the Doctor himself asked,
"I can stay?"
"Yeah, you're weird and you can cook and she seems nice enough, it's good enough for me." Craig paused for a moment, a moment which he used to hold up each key, "Right, outdoor, front door, your door." For whatever reason this seemed to overjoy the Doctor,
"Our door. Our place. Our gaff. Ha-ha! Yes! Me with a key." And even though he had only been holding the keys for a few seconds, I grabbed them from his hands, and told him,
"I don't trust you with the key."
"Why not?" It seems the Doctor was offended by me taking the keys, but I just don't trust him with the key we were sharing.
"No offence, but if you lost the TARDIS, then you're going to lose these keys." The Doctor gave a nearly pouty look, and just when I was about to give the keys back to the Doctor Craig told us,
"And listen, Mark and I, we had an arrangement where if you two ever need me out of your hair, just give me a shout, OK?" I bit my lip when Craig winked at the two of us, he probably thought we were a couple or something silly like that. After all, how many people want to move into a one person room with another person? Not many. I nearly snorted with laughter when the Doctor winked back, clearly not knowing what Craig meant.
"Why would I ever want that?"
"He thinks we're a couple, Doctor." The Doctor gave me a strange look, one that I wasn't sure what he was thinking, before muttering out,
"I keep forgetting how early this is for you." I gave the Doctor a funny look of my own, curious about what the hell that was suppose to mean, until Craig asked us,
"You're not a couple then?" I shook my head, while the Doctor continued to look at me in that funny way, and Craig continued to speak as if this didn't bother him in the least. "Then you can still give me a shout out if either of you two want to bring someone around. A girlfriend or…." I nearly laughed again when Craig looked towards the Doctor, and rather then direct his comment towards me, directed it towards the Doctor. "A boyfriend?" The Doctor stop staring at me funnily when he heard Craig, and responded with,
"Oh, I will. I'll shout if that happens. Yes. Something like…. I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS!" I shook my head, and gave Craig a look that told him I thought that the Doctor is also crazy.
"I won't shout that, but on the unlikely chance it does come up, I'll let you know."
"By the way, that…. The rot. I've got the strangest feeling we shouldn't touch it." I watched the Doctor leave the room with a shake of my head.
"Sorry about him Craig, he's… well as you can tell, he's a very strange man. You'll get use to it at some point." Craig gave me a small shake of the head, before I gave him a smile and made my way to the bedroom.
Several hours later I was laying on the bed, only to have the Doctor flop onto the bed next to me, with a blinking communicator in his ear, calling his replacement companion.
"Earth to Pond, Earth to Pond. Come in, Pond." I didn't hear the response, but I did see the Doctor wince suddenly. There was probably some type of feedback or something. "Could you not wreck my new earpiece, Pond?" There was a pause in the one sided conversation I was listening to, before the Doctor spoke again, "And where's the other one gone off to?" I raised an eyebrow at the man, wondering who he was traveling with… Maybe he knew who Electra is at this point. Because as far as I know, the Doctor I traveled with had never met the woman. "How's the TARDIS doing then?" There was a pause, again, before the Doctor sat up suddenly while telling his companion, "Ooh, nasty." I sent a frown towards the Doctor, worried for the TARDIS. "She's locked in a materialization loop, trying to land again… but she can't." There was another pause, where I assume his companion Pond, was talking before the Doctor gave his next response, "I don't know what it is yet!" I suppose they were talking about whatever was upstairs, stopping the TARDIS from landing. And suddenly the Doctor was standing on the bed, with me glaring up at him as if I was daring him to jump. Because if he starts jumping, then I'm either going to fall off the bed, or get hit with his jumping feet. "Anything that can stop the TARDIS from landing is big, scary big! I can't go up there until I know what it is and how to deal with it! It is vital that this "man" upstairs doesn't realizes who and what we are." My glare deepened when the Doctor bounces on the bed, smiling of all things! Two jumps later I was sprawled on the floor, glaring up at the man. He glance down at me, still smiling, before he mouthed 'sorry' and kept jumping on the bed. With an irritated sigh I sat up on the floor where I had fallen, arms crosses, and still glaring at the Doctor. "So no sonicking. No advanced technology. I can only use this" The Doctor didn't so much as pause as he tapped the earpiece, "'cos we're on scramble.
I continued to glare as he jumped off the bed, and with a suspicious look, I climbed back onto the bed. "To anyone else hearing this conversation, we're talking absolute gibberish."
"And that's not suspicious how?" I muttered out. The Doctor just gave me a look, and continued talking into the earpiece.
"All I've got to do is pass as an ordinary human being. Simple. What could possibly go wrong?" I let out, yet another, snort as I heard the Doctor. And I silently watched him put on the sunglasses, for seemingly no reason. Seriously, had he seen himself? Not only is the way he acts totally not human, but he wears a bow tie. And as much as I enjoy people expressing individuality in their clothing, he sticks out like a sore thumb. Nobody wears bowties in this century. "So you're just going to be snide and cynical? No helpful hints?" I rolled my eyes at the man, and mutter to myself,
"Get rid of the bowtie."
"Bow ties are cool." I gave the Doctor a mildly alarmed look, thinking he might have heard me, but he was just checking himself out in the mirror. So clearly the person he was talking to had said the same thing as me. "Come on, Amy, I'm a normal bloke, tell me what normal blokes do." Once more, I rolled my eyes at the man. Had he forgotten that I'm human too? Well… maybe I'm not 'normal' but I'm certainly able to blend in way better than the Doctor. And his next statement nearly proved it, "I could do those things! I don't, but I could!" I was on my feet in an instant, staring worriedly at the ceiling. There had been a large crashing noise, and that most certainly was not good. "Hang on. Wait, wait, wait! Amy?! Electra!?" I gave the Doctor a surprised look, before noticing the clocks were spinning back and forth. "Interesting."
"Localized time loop?" The Doctor met my eyes, which looked more worried then he was letting on, and nodded.
"Time distortion." For a moment I thought he was talking to me, but when he continued speaking I knew he was talking to Amy and Electra. Speaking of her, I wonder if this is the first time she meets me? "Whatever's happening upstairs, is still affecting you." I could faintly hear some screaming, and possibly cursing, through the Doctor's earpiece before the Doctor told the two, "My end's good." There was another pause, before the Doctor gave another response, "No, no, no, not really! Just keep the zigzag plotter on full, that'll protect you. Amy, I said the zigzag plotter!" Once more, there was a pause, before the Doctor answered, in nearly cooing voice, "Thank you Electra. Oh. Now, I must not use the sonic. I've got work to do, need to pick up a few items." I sighed and reluctantly got off the bed to meet the Doctor. No way I was letting him go out alone, he seems to draw trouble to him constantly. Several minutes later, the Doctor threw some items on the bed, and I followed him out of the room.
I was seriously starting to question the Doctor's sanity. Some of the items he bought were such garbage. And to make it worse, he was walking backwards towards the house, pulling the cart. When there was a sudden meowing in the distance, from a cat, the Doctor suddenly said,
"Shh! Don't get comfortable!" I threw the man a strange look, still wondering about his sanity. Once he saw my look, only because I wasn't opening the door or giving him the keys, he told me, "I speak every language." I continued to give him a strange look, before I let out a chuckle, and went to open the door.
"Every language? What, can you talk to babies then?"
"Yes." I fumbled with the key a bit, surprised by his answer. Though I probably shouldn't have been, considering he was just talking to a cat.
"Okay then." Once we had gotten back to the room, I told the Doctor, "You can stay up all night working on…. Well working on whatever the hell you're working on, but if you don't need my help, then I'm going to bed." My only response was a distracted nod of the head, mainly because the Doctor had already started working on his non-technology device. I rolled my eyes at the man, before I pushed the bed over against the wall, and lay as close to the wall as possible until I fell asleep.
After I had woken up, and taken a shower, the Doctor decided to do the same. So as I sat in our room, letting my hair dry, Craig tried to see how much longer the Doctor would be,
"Doctor!"
"Hello?!" I glanced towards the door, mildly shocked that I was able to hear the Doctor's muffled response.
"How long are you going to be in there?"
"Oh, sorry, I like a good soak!" Like that was a proper answer. Seems like his manners really haven't improved at all. I glanced wearily up towards the ceiling, as it made another loud banging noise from the upstairs. I frowned when I didn't hear Craig and the Doctor conversing anymore, and peeked out of the room. Strange, Craig isn't here. With a frown in place, I started making my way to the open front door. As normal my sonic hair sticks were twisted in my still drying hair, but I wasn't suppose to use those unless absolutely necessary. I stopped and turned around though, because there was a loud thump from the bathroom. And within seconds, the Doctor was rushing past me, looking like he had something in his eyes, with a toothbrush in his hand. A toothbrush for goodness sakes. With another sigh, I made my way to the door as the Doctor asked Craig,
"What did he look like?"
"More normal than you do at the moment, mate. What are you doing?" I watched blankly, knowing how crazy Craig must think the Doctor is.
"I thought you might be in trouble."
"Thanks?" Yep, Craig thinks the Doctor is crazy. Wonderful. "Well if I ever am, you can come and save me with my toothbrush." I rolled my eye as Craig walked past me to answer the ringing phone, and tried to give him a silent apology. I take my eyes off the Doctor for fifteen minutes, and this is what happens. The Doctor started creeping up the stairs, like he was going to investigate, when the front door opened. A woman with blonde hair, falling a little past her shoulders, was the one who opened the door. In fact, it was the same blonde haired woman that was on Craig's refrigerator.
"Ooh! Hello?"
"Ah! Hello! The Doctor." The Doctor made his way down the stairs, grinning happily again. "Right. You must be Sophie." Sophie made a noise of agreement, to let us know that's actually who she was, before the Doctor greeted her the same way he greeted Craig: with a Gallic air kiss.
"Oh… oh!" I noticed the quick look the Doctor threw upstairs before he went into the flat.
"Sorry about him. He… he has bizarre social skills. By the way, I'm Robin Williams." I gave her a smile of my own, before following the Doctor into the flat.
"No, Dom's in Malta, there's nobody around. Hang on a sec." Craig turned towards the Doctor, clearly upset, while he asked him, "We've got a match today, pub league, we're one down if you fancy it?"
"Pub league? A drinking competition?" He really does suck at being normal. Shoot, I'm American and I know that a pub league was soccer… Er, football.
"He means soc… Er football." Craig looked cross between laughing at me, for my American ways and thankful that I was more normal than the Doctor. He settled for giving me a nod, before asking the Doctor,
"Do you play football?"
"Football. Football! Yes, blokes play football! I'm good at football, I think." So much for being normal. Though I already knew that he was terrible at being normal, if he was normal he wouldn't be the Doctor. Craig seemed to over look the Doctor's strange behavior as he told the Doctor,
"You've saved my life!" I chuckled quietly to myself when Craig patted the Doctor's cheek. That's certainly not anything I ever thought I would see. Craig then turned his attention back to his phone. "I've got somebody. All right, see you down there. Hey, Soph." I watched the Doctor, still silent, as he opened the fridge and pulled out a carton of milk. Still in only his towel.
"Hey, I thought I'd come early and meet your new flatmates."
"Do you play, Sophie?" I watch, in near horror, as the Doctor drank directly from the milk carton. So much for that glass of milk I was planning on.
"No, Soph just stands on the sidelines, she's my mascot." I let out a small wince, knowing that was the wrong thing to say.
"I'm your mascot? Masco?!"
"Well, not my mascot, it's a football match, I can't take a date." Once again I winced, that's not something you say to a girl who you aren't dating.
"I didn't say I was your date."
"Neither did I." We all stood in an awkward silence, before the Doctor said,
"Better get dressed." He then handed the toothbrush back to Craig, and headed towards our room. I watched with a jealous glare, wishing that I could also leave the room. But since the Doctor was changing, I really couldn't get away with it.
"Oh, the spare kit's just in the bottom drawer."
"Bit of a mess." I watched, still a little jealous, as the Doctor closed the door. Still feeling a bit awkward, I told the two,
"I think I'm going to go for a quick walk, but I'll be back before the game." They gave me a nod, before I left with the keys in my hand.
Nearly an hour later we, we being Craig Sophie the Doctor and myself, were walking towards the soccer, er football, field with Craig worrying about what he should call the Doctor.
"What are you actually called, what's your proper name?"
"Just call me the Doctor." I rolled my eyes at him, thinking to myself that he totally wasn't being 'a normal bloke'. Couldn't he have just given Craig a fake name?
"I can't say to these guys, 'Hey, this is my new flatmate, he's the Doctor'
"Why not?" I gave the Doctor a dry look, thinking again about how it's impossible to have him act like a normal person.
" 'Cos it's weird." I nodded my head in agreement, and was still nodding a bit when Craig's teammates joined us.
"All right, Craig. Sophie. All right, mates."
"Hello, I'm one of Craig's new flatemate." I rolled my eyes again when the Doctor greeted the man with Gallic kisses. I probably should tell him that's not the correct greeting, but it's just a little too amusing to do that. "I'm called the Doctor." I took my chance when the Doctor let the man go, and stepped forward to shake his hand.
"And I'm Craig's other new flatemate, Robin Williams. Pleasure to meet you." I got a nod in response, as well as a smile.
"You too." The man then turned back to the Doctor, since the Doctor was the one filling in for their teammate. "All right, Doctor. I'm Sean. Where are you strongest?"
"Arms." I let out a soft giggle, before leaning over and whispering to the Doctor,
"He means what position on the field." I leaned away from the Doctor, noticing the look of understanding that flashed across his face.
"Oh. Not sure. The front? The side? Below?" He couldn't have just settled for 'I don't know', could he?
"Are you any good though?" In response to Sean's disbelief the Doctor spun the soccer ball on his finger, something that would have been more appropriate if this was basketball.
"Let's find out!" The Doctor then kicked the ball onto the field, before proceeding to run onto the field.
The more I watched the game, the more I realized just home much of a team player the Doctor wasn't. I mean, don't get me wrong, he was a great socc-football player. But he seemed to take every chance he could to intercept as many passes as he could, and to be honest he made Craig look terrible. Which is why he slowly started frowning more and more as the crowd around me cheered for the Doctor. I joined Craig in his frowning, a little annoyed with the Doctor. I suppose he really hadn't changed that much, even after regenerating. He still was the one being the best, and doing it all on his own even though he had so many people surrounding him, willing to help him. I was the only one that seemed to notice this though, because once the game was over everyone started cheering even louder for the Doctor; before we all made it over to the benches, most of the team having a can of beer in their hand.
"You are so on the team! Next week we've got the Crown and Anchor, we'll annihilate them!"
"No violence, not while I'm around, not today, not ever." Normally I would have laughed at the man, and corrected him on what he was thinking. But I was a little busy giving the Doctor an annoyed look that he wasn't even noticing. "I'm the Doctor, the oncoming storm... and you meant beat them in a football match, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"Lovely, what sort of time?" This time I let my eyes roll at him, it's not like we're going to be here next week. Not unless the Doctor does something stupid that is. Before I could comment on what the Doctor had said, Craig's beer can exploded all over him. Again. And Again. And yet again.
"Great. Another time loop." The Doctor nodded his head, giving off a serious expression, before he surprisingly responded to my comment.
"Yes. And we need to check on the others. And the TARDIS." I nodded, and followed him away from the group of humans as he spoke into his ear piece.
"Amy? What does the scanner say?" I watched the Doctor pale a bit, before he responded again, "Yes, yes, it's… it's good!" He was such a liar. And a bad one at that. "Zigzag plotter, zigzag plotter, you two." I barely heard the muffled screams through the earpiece. But I did hear it, and it made me worried. I may not be happy that Rose and myself got replaced, although it wasn't a surprise that I was replaced, but that didn't mean I wanted the two girls to get hurt. After all, Electra had helped me a few times in my past.
"Electra? Amy? Are you two there? Electra?" I noticed the edge of panic in his voice, before he visibly relaxed. "Ah, thank heavens. I thought the TARDIS had flung off into the vortex with you two inside it, lost forever." I gave the Doctor an incredible look. Had he really just told her that? What an idiot. "How are the numbers? Fives?" I then noticed that the time loop was finally over. Though I have to wonder if the others noticed that we were gone? "Even better. Still, it means the effect's almost unbelievably powerful and dangerous, but don't worry. Hang on, OK? I've got some rewiring to do." I raised an eyebrow at the man, wondering how the hell you can re-wire an earpiece, before grabbing onto his arm and tugging him in the direction of the house.
"Come on, you can fix that at the house Doctor. There's no point in us standing around like idiots." I heard the Doctor let out a sigh, before reluctantly following me back to the house we were currently staying in.
And nearly three hours later, and countless hits on his head, the Doctor was still working on his scanner in our room. And I was sitting out on the couch, pouting as I pretended to be reading a book. I was still pretending to read my book, when I heard Craig open his door and walk into the room. I gave him a brief glance, noticing the strange look he was giving me, before looking back at the book in my hands.
"Robin… Why are you out here?" My eyes narrowed in irritation, still looking at the book, as I thought of the clutter in the room.
"The Doctor already made a mess of our room."
"Oh. So… Sophie's coming round tonight and I was hoping that you two would give us some space?" I glanced up from the book page that I had been staring at, and instead stared at Craig. I gave a pointed look towards our bedroom door before opening my mouth,
"It's not me that you have to worry about. And a bit of warning, make sure you're ridiculously clear with him. Don't leave any room for questions." Craig gave me a weird look with his nod. He really doesn't understand how bad the Doctor will misunderstand things, if given the chance. I pretended to look back at the book in my hands, but I was really watching Craig over the edge of my book. Only a few seconds after Craig knocked on the door, the Doctor poked his head out of the room; making sure that Craig couldn't see in the room.
"Hello, flatmate."
"Hey, man. Listen, Sophie's coming round tonight and I was wondering if you could give us some space?"
"Oh, don't mind me. You won't even know I'm here." I rolled my eyes, not that the two knew it, at the men in this place. He had given the Doctor too much room, and it won't be the date he's expecting it to be. Another loud noise came from upstairs, making me glance up with a frown. "That's the idea." I glanced back towards my room, only to see that the door was shut. Clearly Craig doesn't understand what is going to happen, or rather that the Doctor is staying home tonight.
I stared out the crack in our door. Rather, I glared out of the crack in our door. I had told the Doctor that we should leave the house for Craig's date, so what do we do? We stay in so the Doctor can work on the stupid scanner that was making the bed unusable.
"Great. Excellent. Um, Soph...I've...I think..." Craig looked like he was nervous, and so did Sophie, as he tried to confess that he likes her. And I just new that the Doctor was going to ruin this, he was behind the couch after all.
"Where's this going?"
"I think that we… should…" I watched as Sophie nodded, waiting to hear what Craig had to say, when the Doctor's head popped up from behind the couch. I let out a soft groan, as the Doctor said,
"Hello."
"What?" I pushed open the door, scowling at the Doctor.
"Idiot! I told you to be quiet." Craig gave the two of us an annoyed look, clearly not pleased that we were still here.
"I thought you two were going out?"
"Just re-connecting all the electrics, it's a real mess. Where's the on-switch for this?" I rolled my eyes at the idiotic man, while I walked over to him and snatched the screwdriver and such from his hands.
"They really are on their way out."
"No, I don't mind, if you don't mind." I scowled, trying to get the screwdriver to work the way I wanted it to, but failing due to the fact that Craig sounded very upset.
"I don't mind, why would I mind?"
"Then you two should stay, and have a drink with us." I sighed, giving up on fitting the blunt end of the screwdriver into the screw, and handed the stuff back to the Doctor.
"What, do we have to stay now?"
"Do you want to stay?" I opened my mouth to say that we actually had plans, because I really did want Craig to be happy, considering how crazy it must be having the two of us for roommates, but the Doctor answered before I could even open my mouth.
"I don't mind."
"Me either." I knew I probably sounded a little annoyed, but seriously the Doctor couldn't take a hint.
"Ok!"
"Great!" Well this was going to be an awkward night.
Nearly an hour later we were all sitting around in a near circle. Craig and Sophie were still sitting on the couch, next to each other, just like they had been when we had first joined them. And the Doctor was sitting in the chair next to the couch, working on some random wires, while I sat on the ground near the Doctor's chair. Craig and myself seemed to be very bored, but Sophie was having a very interesting conversation with the Doctor.
"Cos life can seem pointless, Doctor. Work, weekend, work, weekend. And there's six billion people on the planet doing pretty much the same."
"Six billion people? Watching you two at work, I'm starting to wonder where they all come from." I gave an annoyed look towards the Doctor before muttering out,
"And whose fault is that?" They were doing just fine before we interrupted their night. It doesn't help that the Doctor is an attractive, smart, man. Because that just makes Craig look less impressive.
"What? What do you two mean by that?"
"So, the call center? That's no good? What do you really want to do?"
"Don't laugh." I smiled at the woman, telling her,
"We won't."
"I've only ever told Craig about it. I want to work looking after animals. Maybe abroad? I saw this orangutan sanctuary on telly."
"Then why don't you? It's not like there's anything stopping you, is there?" Craig, after hearing my suggestion, became irritated. I knew he was annoyed, even if it wasn't in his voice.
"She can't, you need loads of qualifications." That wasn't entirely true, because there are always organizations that need help. Ones that will train you as long as you're working for them.
"Yeah, true. Plus it's scary, everyone I know lives around here. Craig got offered a job in London, better money, didn't take it."
"What's wrong with staying here? I can't see the point of London." I smirked, knowing that the real reason he didn't want to leave was the girl sharing the couch with him.
"Well, perhaps that's you, then. Perhaps you'll just have to stay here, secure and a little bit miserable until the day you drop. Better than trying and failing, eh?" My arm twitched, wanting to hit the Doctor for being rude, but I knew what he was doing so I didn't hit him.
"You think I'd fail?" I glanced at the Doctor, who gave me a wink, before I quietly told Sophie,
"Well every single person on the planet has a dream Sophie, and very few of them achieve their dreams." The Doctor gave me a smile, before he continued with our goal,
"Exactly, so why pretend?" Once more my arm twitched, ready to hit the Doctor out of reflex. I didn't hit the Doctor though since I had joined in his plan, and instead chuckled at the Doctor when he took a sip of wine and made a face of dislike, before spitting it back into his glass. "Perhaps, in the whole universe, a call centre is where you should be?"
"Why are you saying that? That's horrible." I eyed Sophie for a moment, before I asked her,
"But is it true Sophie?"
"Of course it's not true. I'm not staying in a call center all my life, I can do anything I want!" The Doctor and myself gave her a large smile, as she finally got what we were saying. Because if I hadn't followed my dreams I would have never met the Doctor, or Jack, and would be working some boring day job.
"Oh! Yeah! Right!" I continued to smile brightly as she fist bumped the Doctor and smiled at myself. "Oh, my God! Did you see what they just did?"
"No, what's happening? Are you going to live with the monkeys now?" I hide my smile as I noticed how annoyed Craig sounded. Because, even though he might not like the idea of Sophie leaving, that idea might be the thing that makes him confess his love to her.
"It's a big old world, Sophie. Work out what's really keeping you here, eh?"
"I don't know. Dunno." I glanced towards Craig, smiling, before I told the girl,
"I think you'll figure it sooner or later." I watched her nod, in a distracted manner, before standing up and stretching. "I think I'm going to take my shower now, I'll see you all later. Bye Sophie."
"Bye Robin." A grin stretched across my face as I made my way to the bathroom, ready to take a shower. Once I had changed into my jeans and black leather jacket, I made my way back to the room; only for the Doctor to give me a grin and tell me that the shield for the scanner was up. I made sure to stay as close to the wall as possible, not wanting to be hit by the spinning machine.
"Right. Shield's up. Let's scan!" I rolled my eyes, before asking,
"So what's the scanner saying?" The Doctor looked at the converted digital clock, before answering into his communicator, I suppose they asked a similar question because the answer was similar to what I had asked,
"Upstairs No traces of high technology. Totally normal."
"Normal?" The Doctor ignored my, slightly panicked, question in favor of freaking out,
"No, no, no, no, it can't be! It's too normal." I hesitated when there was a pause, wondering what they were talking about, and suddenly the Doctor responded, "Without knowing, get myself and Robin killed, then you really are lost. If I could just get a look in there... Hold on." The Doctor stopped the scanner from scanning, before he continued speaking, "Use the data bank, get me the plans of this building - its history, the layout, everything. Meanwhile, I shall recruit a spy." I rolled my eyes, before stepping out of the room, and heading out of the room to take a walk.
I frowned a bit when I heard the Doctor yelling Craig's name, noting the panic in his voice. I raced to Craig's room, even though I was only in my towel from the shower I had just gotten out of, due to the fact that something was wrong.
"Ah crap." There was a large streak, a large black streak, running across Craig's arm. He just had to touch the 'mold', didn't he?
"Craig, I told you not to touch it! What's that? An unfamiliar and obviously poisonous substance. 'Oh, I know what would be really clever, I'll stick my hand in it!' Come on, Craig, breathe." I rushed over, as the Doctor pounded on Craig's chest, seeing if there was anything I could do to help him. There really wasn't, not until the Doctor got him breathing again. I leaned over, and placed my hand on Craig's forehead, and muttered out,
"Come on Craig, breath!" Craig let out a gasp, and finally started breathing again. Breathing heavily, but breathing none-the-less.
"Thems are healthy footballer's lungs!" I smiled, and kept an eye on Craig while the Doctor rushed out of the room with the teapot. A few minutes later the Doctor came back into the room with a hot teapot. I raised an eyebrow as the Doctor had Craig drinking the tea straight from the spout.
"I've got to go to work." Craig sounded very hoarse, and he was crazy if he thought he was well enough to go to work.
"Oh no. Not happening Craig. You need to rest up, and get better."
"One more." Craig took another drink from the tea pot, still anxious about work.
"It's the planning meeting, it's important." I gave Craig a frown, and so did the Doctor.
"You're important. You're going to be fine, Craig." The Doctor and I quietly slipped out of the room as Craig feel asleep.
"So Doctor. What should we do? Cause clearly that meeting is important to Craig." The Doctor turned to me with a grin on his face.
"I've always wanted to work somewhere."
"So you're filling in for Craig? Well I'm coming with you. Craig will be fine as long as he stays asleep, right?"
"Right." I exchanged grins with the Doctor, and after a moment I realized I was still only in a towel. My face quickly flushed, and I let out a loud squeaking noise.
"I'm…. Just… I'm going to go get dressed!" I'm pretty sure the Doctor could barely understand what I had said, since my words nearly slammed on top of each other. I dashed into our room, and I quickly changed into a pair of black skinny jeans, red v-neck short-sleeved shirt, and my black jacket that ended at the bottom of my ribcage. I threw on my black flats, and met the Doctor by the front door with my face still flushed.
One boring meeting, and five cups of coffee, later I was sitting next to the Doctor, fixing one of the broken office computers. I don't know how I got stuck with this, while the Doctor was dealing with customers, but I had. So I was sitting there, fixing the computer, when Craig suddenly showed up at the office when he should have been asleep in his room.
"What's he doing here? What are you doing here?" I glanced back up, away from my work, when I heard Craig speaking. The Doctor then spoke, but he spoke into his headset rather then answering Craig.
"If that's your attitude, Mr Lang, please take your custom elsewhere." I chuckled as the Doctor blew a raspberry into the headset.
"No, no, no, that's one of my best clients!"
"Hey Craig! How're you feeling dear?"
"Ah, yes how are you feeling Craig? Had some time to kill, I was curious, never worked in an office. Never worked in anywhere." I rolled my eyes at the Doctor, wondering if he even had a filter.
"You're insane!"
"Leave off the Doctor and Robin, I love them. They were brilliant in the planning meeting."
"You went to the planning meeting?" Once more I turned away from my work to look at Craig, smiling at him.
"Of course we did, you needed a representative since you were ill, right? And seriously, are you feeling better?"
"We were your representatives. We don't need Mr Lang any more. Rude Mr Lang." I sent a glare towards the Doctor, annoyed that he didn't let Craig answer my question. I genuinely wanted to know if Craig was feeling better, and I hadn't gotten an answer yet. I only stopped glaring at the Doctor when Sophie showed up with tea and biscuits.
"Here you go, and I found some custard creams!"
"Sophie, my hero." I gave a nod in Sophie's direction, smile in place.
"Thanks Sophie!" I smiled into my teacup when Sophie turned to Craig, wanting his opinion on the whole 'living with monkeys' thing.
"Hi, Craig. I went on the web, applied for a wildlife charity thing. They said I could always start out as a volunteer straight away. Should I do it?"
"Yeah, great, yeah, good, go for it." My smile morphed into s frown as I stared at Craig.
"You really aren't looking well Craig. You should go back home and rest some more." Sophie walked away, and Michael waved to Craig as he went to the door, frustration coming off of him in waves. Clearly we had disrupted his comfy little life, and made it more exciting and weird then he would ever want.
"Hello, Mr Joergensen. Can you hold? I have to eat a biscuit." I chuckled a bit, and watched Craig leave from the corner of my eye.
Several hours later we finally made it back to the house, and I had remembered why I didn't have a day job. I was born to travel, regardless of if it was threw time or just across the universe. I wasn't born to stay in one place for too long, in fact I'm surprised I was able to stay with the Doctor so long even with the excitement.
"Have you been upstairs?" I gave the Doctor a funny look, before I realized he was talking to the cat again. I guess this was who he got to be his spy? "Yes? Can you show me?" The cat let out another meow, which I couldn't understand since I didn't speak cat. "You can do it. Show me what's up there? What's behind that door? Try to show me. Ohh, that doesn't make sense! Ever see anyone go up there? Lots of people? Good good. What kind of people? People who never come back down. That's very bad."
"Ah crap, people not coming back down? That doesn't sound good Mr. Kitty." The door opened, and Craig stared at the two of us like he thought we were crazy. Which we probably were.
"Oh, hello."
"Hello Craig."
"I can't take this any more. I want you two to go!" I frowned, and after exchanging a worried look with the Doctor, the two of us followed Craig back into the flat. To which Craig shoved the brown bag with the rent money back to the Doctor. "You two can have this back an' all."
"What have we done?"
"I'm sorry if we did do anything wrong Craig." Craig looked between the two of us for a moment, before he settled on saying,
"For a start, talking to a cat." I grimaced as the Doctor threw the brown bag with the money casually over his shoulder.
"Lots of people talk to cats."
"Everybody love you, you're better at football than me, and my job, and now Sophie's all "Oh, monkeys, monkeys!" and then..." I flinched when he opened our door, reveling the stupid spinning scanner that had stopped me from sleeping the last two nights. "There's that!" The Doctor rushed towards the room, trying to fix the situation.
"It's art! A statement on modern society, 'Ooh, ain't modern society awful?'" I watched the Doctor stop the machine from spinning, frowning at the men in front of me.
"Me and you two, it's not gonna work out. You two have been here three days, the three weirdest days of my life."
"Craig, your days will only get weirder if we leave."
"I thought it was a good weird, but it's not, it's bad weird! I can't do this anymore!"
"I can't leave this place. I'm like you, I can't see the point of anywhere else. Madrid, hah, what a dump! I have to stay." I continued to frown at the two, worried that we were going to have to leave, in which case something terrible would happen to Craig.
"No, you don't, you have to leave!"
"Craig, we can't leave!" Craig gave me an odd look, before he yelled,
"Just get out!" Craig went to push the Doctor and myself out, but the Doctor quickly grabbed Craig by his lapels.
"Right! Only way! I'm going to show you something, but ssh, really, ssh! Oh, I am going to regret this. OK, right... First, general background!" My eyes widen in shock, had the Doctor really just head butted Craig? What the hell was going on? Both men groaned in pain while I continued to gasp at them, before Craig let out a gasp and pointed at the Doctor.
"You're a…"
"Yes."
"From…" Craig pointed up towards the sky, and I realized that the Doctor had transferred information about his life into Craig's head.
"Shh."
"You've got a TARDIS!" I smiled, glad that Craig understood a bit more about us.
"Yes. Shh!" The Doctor motioned to his face, grin on said face. "Eleventh! Right… Okay, specific detail!" This time, rather then freak out, I laughed when the Doctor head butted Craig. Probably telling him exactly why we were here, attempting to rent his room.
"You saw my ad in the paper shop window." The Doctor gave the man a nod,
"Yes, with this right above it." The Doctor pulled out the note, with Craig's address on it, a note that was signed by the Doctor's new companion. "Which is odd, because Amy hasn't written it yet. Time travel, it CAN happen."
"That's a scanner! You used non-technological technology of Lammasteen." The Doctor quickly clamped his hand over Craig's mouth, and the two of us hissed out,
"Shut up!"
"Aaargh! I am never, ever doing that ever ever again..." I chuckled, and wondered to myself if he had ever done that before, and watched as the Doctor turned on his earpiece. "Amy! Electra!"
"That's Amy Pond! And she's-" My eyebrows furrowed when Craig pointed towards me. What the hell is all this suppose to mean? First the Doctor talking about how early this is for me, and now this? "And she's a?"
"Yes. Now shh! Got those plans yet Amy?" After a pause the Doctor gave a response, "I've worked it out with psychic help from a cat." I chuckled a bit, having already guessed that the cat was the Doctor's spy. "Yes, I know he's got a time engine in the flat upstairs."
"He's got a what? How the hell did we not notice that?" I scowled when the Doctor gave me a shushing motion and continued to explain.
"He's using innocent people to try and launch it. Whenever he does, they get burnt up, hence the stain..." Craig glanced up at the ceiling for a moment, before asking,
"From the ceiling?" I gave the man a grin and told him,
"Well done, Craig."
"And you two, Miss Pond and Miss Electra, nearly get thrown into the Vortex." A loud crash came from the floor above us, making me scowl at the ceiling and Craig shout,
"People are dying up there!" And without a pause he continued to shout, "People are dying. People are dying."
"Amy! Electra!"
"They're being killed!"
"Well crap, someone's up there." I rushed out the door and the Doctor and Craig quickly followed me out of the small room.
"Hang on!" I glanced at the Doctor and could only assume that he was talking into his earpiece. I was half way up the staircase when I finally noticed that Craig had stopped, and that Sophie's keys were in the door.
"Craig, come on...someone's dying up there."
"It's Sophie. It's Sophie that's dying up there, it's Sophie!" Within seconds the two boys had joined me on the top of the stairs.
"Where's Sophie!?"
"Wait, wait! Amy? Just going in!" I tossed the Doctor an annoyed look, seriously, why weren't we rushing in to save Sophie, this wasn't the time for chatting. "Of course I can be upstairs!"
"Come on!" I nodded my head in agreement, who care if there was possibly not a real upstairs, we needed to save Sophie!
"There is no upstairs!" I glanced at the other two, not really caring about what she had said, seriously we just needed to go get Sophie out of there!
"Who the fuck cares?!" This seemed to snap the Doctor back, as he quickly used his sonic screwdriver to open the door, and the three of us rushed into the flat. Or, seeing as it wasn't a flat, the three of us rushed into the rather advanced spaceship.
"What?"
"What? Oh. Oh, of course! The time engine isn't IN the flat, the time engine IS the flat! Someone's attempt to build a TARDIS."
"No, there's always been an upstairs." I rolled my eyes, knowing that there must be a perception filter, and asked Craig,
"Has there really Craig? Think about it!"
"Yes. No. I don't…." This time, the Doctor answered instead of myself,
"Perception filter. It's more than a disguise. It tricks your memory." Suddenly Sophie's scream filled the room, and my hearts raced as I saw her being pulled towards the controls.
"Sophie!" We all ran towards Sophie in a panic. "Sophie! Oh, my God, Sophie!" Craig, clearly the most worried out of all of us, grabbed onto Sophie's hand to keep her from touching the glowing panel.
"Craig! It's controlling her. It's willing her to touch the activator."
"It's not going to have her!" The Doctor and I both rushed over and used our sonic devices to try and stop the panel, but it was deadlocked.
"Well shit, it's deadlocked!"
"You two have to do something!" I frowned when the machine suddenly let Sophie go, not liking the sudden change of life choices.
"What? Why'd it let her go?" I followed the Doctor's gaze, and noticed the same skeleton that he was seeing. I followed the Doctor with my eyes as he crossed the room; only to stop when the hologram of an older man appeared.
"You will help me."
"I was hoping he wouldn't say that…."
"Right! Stop! Crashed ship, let's see. Hello, I'm Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue. Please state the nature of you emergency."
"The ship has crashed. The crew are dead. A pilot is required." Great. Next he's going to say the Doctor is the best pilot.
"You're the emergency crash program. A hologram. You've been luring people up here so you can try them out." I rolled my eyes, and muttered to myself,
"How lovely…" The Doctor then used his sonic screwdriver, making the image flicker to a little girl and a younger man, before settling back on the older man.
"You will help me, you will help me, you will help me." Once again I rolled my eyes, because repeating yourself is sure going to get us to help you.
"Craig! Where am I?"
"Hush! Human brains aren't strong enough, they just burn. You're stupid, aren't you? You just keep trying." I opened my mouth, about to comment on the fact the Doctor was being blunt and rude, even if it was a killer crash program, when the hologram spoke up again,
"Seventeen people have been tried. 6,000,4000,026 remain." From the corner of my eye I watched Sophie stand up, thinking to myself that Craig really should get her out of here.
"Seriously, what is going on?"
"Oh, for goodness' sake. The top floor of Craig's building is in reality an alien space ship, intent on slaughtering the population of this planet."
"Oi! Manners!" The Doctor pointedly ignored me while he asked,
"Any questions? No? Good."
"Yes, I have questions." We all ignored Sophie, because if we made it out of this then she could get a proper explanation from Craig later.
"The correct pilot has now been found."
"I knew he was going to say that. I wonder why?" I gave the Doctor a pointed look, clearly blaming this all on him. Even if I probably would have gotten in trouble on my own.
"The correct pilot has been found. The correct pilot has been found." I watched with mild shock as the energy began pulling the Doctor closer to the control panel. Without a second thought I jumped to him, and held onto his hand to stop him from touching the glowing panel.
"It's pulling me in! I'm the new pilot!" I was close enough to the Doctor, since I was trying to hold him in place with my own much smaller body, to hear what Miss Pond was saying,
"Could you do it? Could you fly the ship safely?"
"No, I'm way too much for this ship. My hand touches that panel, the planet doesn't blow up, the whole solar system does." With more effort then it should have I grumbled out a question of my own,
"What about me Doctor?" The Doctor gave me an odd, nearly mushy, eyed look before he shook his head in a negative.
"No. I can't risk it. And you're too much for the ship too." Between the Doctor and my own effort, we were barely able to stop his hand from touching that stupid glowing panel.
"The correct pilot has been found."
"Shut the fuck up!"
"No… worst choice ever, I promise you. Stop this!" I let out a grunt, thinking about how the first time in a long time I didn't know how this would be ending.
"Doctor, love, it's getting worse!" The Doctor was thinking about a solution, while I was putting all my energy into holding his hand back so that he could spare that thinking energy.
"It doesn't want everyone. Craig, it didn't want you!"
"I spoke to him and he said I couldn't help him!"
"It didn't want Sophie before but now it does. What's changed?" The Doctor and I both let out a pain groan, while I held back the urge to start cussing at the Doctor to hurry up with his explanation. "No! I gave her the idea of leaving! It's a machine that needs to leave, it wants people who want to escape! And you don't want to leave, Craig, you're Mr Sofa Man."
"Doctor!"
"Fuck, Craig, you can shut down the engine!" The Doctor barely nodded, before he continued in a nicer way then I would have,
"Put your hand on the panel and concentrate on why you want to stay!"
"Craig, no!" I let out a soft growl, a little annoyed that Sophie would say that, but knew it was only because she cared about him.
"Will it work?"
"Yes!"
"Are you sure?" This time I stayed quiet, and let the Doctor be the one to answer. After all, two opinions are better then one.
"Yes!"
"Is that a lie?" If I hadn't been using all my muscles at the moment, I would have started laughing something ridiculously.
"Of course, it's a lie!"
"It's good enough for me. Geronimo!" Craig must have slammed his hand on the panel, because he let out a scream, and the machine let go of the Doctor. Which sent the two of us sprawling on the floor. I let out a groan of protest, but quickly detangled myself from the Doctor. It only took a few seconds after we stood up for us to reach Craig.
"Craig, honey, what's keeping you here?"
"Think about everything that makes you want to stay here! Why don't you want to leave?" The Doctor slapped Craig, which made him yell out,
"Sophie! And I don't want to leave Sophie! I can't leave Sophie! I love Sophie!" I let a small smile stretch across my face when Sophie grinned and gave her obvious response,
"I love you, too, Craig, you idiot!" I was a little surprised when she slammed her hand down on the control too, which lead to it sparking and smoking something crazy.
"Honestly, do you mean that?"
"Of course I mean it! Do you mean it? I rolled my eyes, even though this moment was a bit touching, it also was obvious. They clearly liked each other, and had for quite some time.
"I've always meant it. Seriously though, do you mean it?"
"Yes."
"But what about the monkeys?" Couldn't this be discussed later? When we weren't in a smoking space ship.
"Oh, not now, not again! Craig, the planet's about to burn! For God's sake, kiss the girl!"
"Kiss the girl!"
"Just fucking kiss already!" I grinned when the two kissed, and continued kissing even after they had their hands free. As if we weren't in a ship that was in meltdown. How sweet.
"Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me." I watched the hologram switch between its different voices and projections.
"Not happening."
"Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me."
"Did we switch it off?"
"It's the emergency shutdown." I tossed the Doctor a grin, and he calmly stated,
"It's imploding. Everybody out, out, out!"
"Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me." We let Sophie and Craig run out of the ship first, and then quickly followed them out. We all stopped running once we were across the street. We all watched as the perception filter disappeared and showed the ship. It only took a few seconds before the ship was gone, and everyone continued to walk about as if nothing had happened. Well, minus the strange look we got from randomly running onto the street and staring at nothing.
"Look at them. Didn't they see that? The whole top floor just vanished."
"Perception filter. There never was a top floor."
A few hours later the Doctor and I had gone back to the flat to return the keys, only to walk in on a make out session between Craig and Sophie. Due to that, we quietly placed the keys on the sideboard, and went to leave.
"Oi!" I jumped a bit, not expecting either of the two to notice us leaving. I smiled a bit when they walked over to us, and asked,
"What, you two trying to sneak off?"
"You two looked a bit busy." I barely resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at the two, it seemed a little inappropriate. Craig smiled, and picked up the keys to hand them to us.
"I want you two to keep these. Thank you."
"Thank you." This time I let the Doctor keep the keys, because as much as I hate to say it, it doesn't matter if we lose them. Neither of us are the type to visit old friends. "Cos we might pop back soon, have another little stay."
"No, you won't. I've been in your head, remember? But I still want you two to keep them."
"Thank you Craig."
"Thanks Craig!"
"Thank you, Doctor, Robin." I gave a grin and said,
"It was a pleasure you two, and I don't say that too often."
"Sophie. Now then. 6,000,400,026 people in the world. That's the number to beat."
"Yeah." I smiled, a similar smile on the Doctor's face, as I followed him out of the flat. A few minutes later, when we were approaching the TARDIS, I stopped. Something that made the Doctor look back at me, a curious expression on his face.
"Something wrong Williams?" I chuckled a bit, with a small smile on my face.
"Well isn't this where we have to part ways? It's not like I'm going to fit in with your new crowd." Or his old one for that matter, but I wasn't about to tell him that.
"Of course you will! They already love you after all!" I eyed the Doctor for a moment, once again wondering what that was suppose to mean, before I let out a sigh.
"That might be, but I have a feeling that this isn't where I'm suppose to be. Besides, I need to get to New Earth."
"What for?" I gave the Doctor an annoyed look, as usual, before I opened my mouth.
"I'm pretty sure already know, seeing as you seem to know everything about me, but I need to go to their hospital. I've been feel all out of sorts since Bad Wolf, and I've ignored it up til now. But something's up, and I want to get checked out by the best hospital."
"Ah. Right. I remember now. Well, then let me give you a ride." I gave the Doctor a 'are you serious' look. Before remembering how nice it was to travel on the TARDIS, and before I caved.
"Fine." I mumbled out, not liking the fact that he clearly knew something I didn't. But that seems to happen more and more.
"But first we need to leave that note!" I rolled my eyes, and followed the Doctor into the TARDIS.
