"Unbelievable." Zara muttered as the taxi slowed down in a street of shops. "Because of course migration would happen now." Martha and The Doctor half nodded in agreement with her. Four things and a lizard, bang in the middle of the city. The three of them stepped out of the taxi, The Doctor carrying a bow, Martha arrows and Zara a PDA, when a blonde woman came running out of a shop towards them, carrying a purple file.
"Doctor! Doctor! Doctor!" She cried.
The Doctor turned round and looked at her, "Hello. Sorry, bit of a rush. There's a sort of thing happening. Fairly important we stop it."
"My God, it's you." She breathed. "It really is you. Oh, you don't remember me, do you?"
"Doctor, we haven't have time for this." Martha called. "The migration's started."
"Look, sorry, I've got a bit of a complex life." The Doctor apologised quickly. "Things don't always happen to me in quite the right order. Gets a bit confusing at times, especially at weddings. I'm rubbish at weddings, especially my own."
"Oh, my God, of course." The woman said. "You're a time traveller. It hasn't happened to you yet. None of it. It's still in your future. "
"What hasn't happened?"
"Doctor, please." Zara groaned. "Twenty minutes to red hatching."
"It was me." The woman said in realization. "Oh, for God's sake, it was me all along. You got it all from me."
"Got what?" The Doctor asked.
"Okay, listen. One day you're going to get stuck in 1969. Make sure you've got this with you." She handed him the file. "You're going to need it."
"Doctor!" Martha shouted.
"Yeah, listen, listen, got to dash. Things happening. Well, four things. Well, four things and a lizard."
"Okay. No worries." The woman nodded. "On you go. See you around some day."
He turned to leave before glancing back at her, "What was your name?"
"Sally Sparrow."
"Good to meet you, Sally Sparrow." He turned and ran off with Martha and Zara.
...
The console room was eerily quiet. Martha was asleep in her room, tired after the long day with 'four things and a lizard' and The Doctor fiddled with controls of The TARDIS as Zara sat on the jump seat, hugging her legs to her chest.
"Can I ask you something?" She mumbled.
The Doctor pulled the scanner round to himself, "Course." He called over his shoulder.
"Why did John Smith fall in love with me?" She was curious, she'd been wondering ever since they left 1913. Why had he fallen in love with her? Why?!
"Dunno." He muttered, peering at the scanner carefully. "Could of... easily been... Martha, I suppose." He peered in closer at the screen.
Zara frowned, "What is it?"
"Disturbance in time... uhm, a house in Wester Drumlins, 2007." Zara stood up with a huff, moving over to The Doctor, peering over his shoulder, "What do you reckon?" He asked, looking down at her as she frowned at the screen. "Worth a look?"
"Don't see why not." She shrugged before looking up towards the staircase. "MARTHA!" She shouted, making The Doctor wince and make him rub his ear.
"Yeah, thanks for that."
...
The Doctor, Zara and Martha made their way up the path to the house in the darkness. Zara wrapped her blazer around herself tighter, shivering.
"Why did we have to come in the middle of the night?" Martha asked, keeping close to The Doctor as she eyed the shaking trees. "It's... creepy."
"Nah!" The Doctor cheered throwing one arm around Martha's shoulder, another round Zara's. "Just adds to the mystery."
"It's a bloody great mystery to me why we have to come at this time of night." Zara muttered, leaning into The Doctor's side.
...
The three of them walked into the creaky drawing room, their feet scratching against dead leaves on the floor, dodging cobwebs hanging from the ceiling.
"Spooky." Martha remarked. "Very Scooby Doo." She looked over at the window, spotting a stone angel by a bush in the darkness, before looking away with a frown.
"Not with The Doctor around." Zara muttered. "With him, the human is an alien, not the other way round."
"Oh come on!" The Doctor grinned, bounding on his toes and making the old floor boards squeak. "Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Back in The TARDIS with a cup of tea." Zara countered, earning a pout from The Doctor.
Martha looked back over at the window to find the stone angel had move forward dramatically, "Doctor, Zara..." She began, nodding over at the angel calmly. "That statue has moved."
Zara and The Doctor looked over, The Doctor slightly stunned and Zara staring, not bothered.
"Ah!" Zara nodded. "That's a Weeping Angel. Never seen one before."
"What, not even a picture?" Martha asked, glancing at The Doctor as he stared at it carefully, not blinking. "What are you doing?"
"If you blink, even for a second, they will move and kill you." Zara shrugged, not bothered as Martha stared at her, shocked. "But no, no picture. An image of an angel itself becomes an angel, or something, anyway."
"Do you think there's more than one of them?"
"Well-" Zara began as something poked her in the back.
...
The three of them banged against a brick wall, breathing heavily, taking in their surroundings.
"Possibly." Zara finished as the three realised they'd been taken by another angel, transported away.
"Where are we?" Martha gasped.
"Well," The Doctor groaned, scrambling to his feet and pulling the girls up and along the alleyway. The three peered out into an everyday street, a poster slathered onto the wall next to them, half ripped. "I'm gonna guess," He looked at the poster. "1969."
...
Martha shut the door to the tiny studio flat she, The Doctor and Zara lived in. She sighed, looking at the two mattresses to her left, one double and one single, at the door in front of her, slightly opened to reveal a small bathroom before looking over to her right at The Doctor, facing in her direction, in the small kitchen, stirring something in a pot with a wooden spoon as Zara sat sideways, cross legged, next to the pot, peering in.
The Doctor looked up at her, "How was work?" He asked, looking back down at the pot.
"Same old." Martha sighed, pulling her handbag off of her and throwing it onto one of the mattresses. "What you making?"
"Dinner." Zara muttered, peering in at the spaghetti in the pot.
"Ah." Martha nodded, leaning against the work surface. "Any news on The TARDIS?"
"Nah." The Doctor shook his head.
"Billy should be here any day though." Zara smiled.
"But the timey wimey detector is nearly ready."
Zara glared at him, whacking him round the ear and ignoring his whine, "It's not a timey wimey detector!" She scolded. "It's a micro fabricated hydroenergised extrapolated-" She looked at The Doctor and Martha's amused looks, knowing they weren't going to called the radio with a fan attached to it the correct name. "Timey wimey detector." She sighed, giving in.
The Doctor peered into the pot again, "Right!" He announced, turning off the oven. "Dinner is served!"
...
"No!" Martha cackled, placing down her wine glass as she sat on the single mattress, looking over at The Doctor and Zara who sat side by side on the double. "There is no way anyone could marry down The Doctor or Zara Saxon!"
"Oi!" The Doctor exclaimed as Zara laughed loudly. "I was married, I've done the whole marriage life thing, thank you!"
"Yeah, on Gallifrey." Martha pointed out. "But c'mon, you, married?!"
"I could get married!"
"Really?" Zara laughed, making him look at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Ok, I tell you what." He turned to her, taking her wine glass and putting it down. "If we're both so unmarriable, we could get married! Run off to intergalactic Vegas with Martha at our side, the worst marriage in the universe!"
Zara laughed, "I'm not marrying you!"
"Why not?!"
"Because it's you, Doctor."
"We'd make a brilliant bad married couple!"
"Oh we'd be the best worst married couple." She nodded, smirking. "Ok, I tell you what, seeing as you'll regret this because of the wine you've been drinking," She grabbed his glass out of his hand, draining the last of it and putting it down next to her. "I'll marry you the day Rose Tyler finds her way back to this universe."
The Doctor eyed her, finally being able to talk about Rose normally now that he had her and Martha... if he lost even one of them... he'd close up again, he knew he would.
"It's impossible for Rose to come back." He said simply.
"Exactly." Zara smirked.
He breathed in sharply before smirking, "Ok."
"Hey Martha-" Zara turned to look at Martha, only to find her asleep on the mattress she sat on. The Doctor rolled his eyes, laying back against the mattress he and Zara sat on, his head resting on one of the pillows. Zara smiled, half throwing the messed up duvet across Martha. "Good night Doctor Jones." She muttered, laying back next to The Doctor.
...
A whirring filled the dark room and Zara opened one eye blearily. She pushed herself up, leaning over The Doctor, laying against him and reaching out for the source of the noise. The Doctor moaned, wrapping a arm around Zara's waist as she grabbed hold of the timey wimey detector with one hand, trying to find the file they got from Sally with the other.
"Doctor get up." Zara mumbled, earning a moan from The Doctor in return. "Billy's here, come on."
...
The two of them and Martha, who wasn't amused to be woken up, made their way down the same alleyway they arrived in, watching Billy slide down the wall, The Doctor holding out the timey wimey detector they'd used to track.
"Welcome." The Doctor called.
Billy looked around, confused and breathless, "Where am I?" He asked.
"1969. Not bad, as it goes. You've got the moon landing to look forward to."
"Oh, the moon landing's brilliant." Martha grinned. "We went four times, back when we had transport."
"Working on it."
Billy shook his head, "How did I get here?"
"The same way we did." Zara said. "The touch of an angel. Same one, probably, since you ended up in the same year." Billy began to pull himself up. "No, no. No, no, no, don't get up. Time travel without a capsule. Nasty. Catch your breath."
"Don't go swimming for half an hour." The Doctor added.
"I don't." Billy gasped. "I can't."
"Fascinating race, the Weeping Angels." Zara continued as The Doctor sat down next to him. "The only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely."
"No mess, no fuss, they just zap you into the past and let you live to death." The Doctor added. "The rest of your life used up and blown away in the blink of an eye."
"You die in the past, and in the present they consume the energy of all the days you might have had. All your stolen moments. They're creatures of the abstract. They live off potential energy."
Billy stared at The Doctor and Zara, stunned, "What in God's name are you talking about?"
"Trust me." Martha smiled. "Just nod when they stop for breath."
"Tracked you down with this." The Doctor held up the timey wimey detector. "This is my timey-wimey detector. It goes ding when there's stuff. Also, it can boil an egg at thirty paces, whether you want it to or not, actually, so I've learned to stay away from hens. It's not pretty when they blow."
"I don't understand." Billy frowned. "Where am I?"
"1969, like we said." Martha said softly.
"Normally, I'd offer you a lift home, but somebody nicked my motor." The Doctor sighed. "So I need you to take a message to Sally Sparrow. And I'm sorry, Billy. I am very, very sorry. It's going to take you a while."
...
"I'm here!" Martha, carrying a tin of paint and a roll of wallpaper, called through the house, shutting the door behind her. She looked around the house, shivering at how it was the same house they'd been in, but 40 years before. "They only had black, is that alright?!"
"That's!" Zara called through in between laughs. "Fine! Martha!" Martha frowned, walking through the house and into the drawing room, watching as The Doctor had Zara held up in the air, his arms round her waist, tickling her. Martha smiled, shaking her head at them and with one final laughing scream, Zara turned herself in his arms, hugging him as he laughed back. "What are you two up to?"
The Doctor looked over at Martha with a pout, "She called my flying skills tacky!"
"Come on!" Martha shook her head, putting down the tin of paint and roll of wallpaper. "We've got a message to leave Sally."
...
"So," Martha began, sitting on one of the mattresses as Zara attached a camera she'd put together onto a stand. "We put this video of us on the dvds as easter eggs yeah? For Sally?"
"Yep." Zara nodded, pressing a button and looking over at The Doctor. "Right, it's ready."
...
Back in 2007, Larry Nightingale put a dvd into a portable player, sitting in the drawing room of the house.
"Okay, this is the one with the clearest sound." Larry explained. "Slightly better picture quality on this one, but I don't know."
"It doesn't matter." Sally shook her head.
"Okay." Larry nodded, pointing at the screen as an image of The Doctor appeared. "There he is."
"The Doctor."
"Who's the Doctor?"
"He's the Doctor."
"Yup. That's me." The Doctor nodded on screen.
Sally eyed the screen, "Okay, that was scary."
"No, it sounds like he's replying, but he always says that." Larry shrugged.
"Yes, I do." The Doctor agreed.
"And that."
"Yup. And this."
"He can hear us." Sally's eyes widened. "Oh, my God, you can really hear us?"
"Of course he can't hear us." Larry rolled his eyes, holding up a bit of paper. "Look, I've got a transcript. See? Everything he says. Yup, that's me. Yes, I do. Yup, and this. Next it's-"
"Are you going to read out the whole thing?" He said at the same time as The Doctor.
"Sorry."
Sally turned back to the screen with a frown, "Who are you?"
"I'm a time traveller." The Doctor replied. "Or I was. I'm stuck in 1969."
Martha pushed her way on screen, "We're stuck. All of space and time, he promised me. Now I've got a job in a shop and Zara hands out leaflets! We've got to support him!"
Zara laughed, her arm appearing on screen, lightly pushing her away, "Martha."
"Sorry." Martha muttered.
"I've seen this bit before." Sally frowned.
"Quite possibly." The Doctor nodded.
"1969, that's where you're talking from?"
"Afraid so."
"But you're replying to me. You can't know exactly what I'm going to say, forty years before I say it."
"Thirty eight." Zara called from off screen.
"I'm getting this down." Larry said, scribbling down everything Sally said. "I'm writing in your bits."
"How?" Sally frowned, talking to the screen. "How is this possible? Tell me."
"Not so fast."
"People don't understand time." The Doctor sighed. "It's not what you think it is."
"Then what is it?" Sally asked.
"Complicated."
"Tell me."
"Very complicated."
"I'm clever and I'm listening." She snapped. "And don't patronise me because people have died, and I'm not happy. Tell me."
Zara laughed, earning a pout from The Doctor. "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect," She began to explain off screen. "But actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint-"
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey stuff." The Doctor grinned.
Sally frowned, "Yeah, I've seen this bit before. You said that you stole that sentence from her."
"I stole it from her, yeah."
"Next thing you're going to say is, well I can hear you."
"Well, I can hear you."
"This isn't possible."
"No." Larry beamed. "It's brilliant!"
"Well, not hear you, exactly," The Doctor corrected himself. "But I know everything you're going to say."
"Always gives me the shivers, that bit."
"How can you know what I'm going to say?" Sally asked.
"Look to your left." Zara called.
Sally glanced to her side, watching Larry, "What does he mean by look to your left?" He asked as he wrote. "I've written tons about that on the forums. I think it's a political statement."
"He means you." Sally said. "What are you doing?"
"I'm writing in your bits. That way I've got a complete transcript of the whole conversation. Wait until this hits the net. This will explode the egg forums."
"I've got a copy of the finished transcript." The Doctor explained. "It's on my autocue."
"How can you have a copy of the finished transcript?" Sally frowned. "It's still being written."
"I told you. I'm a time traveller. I got it in the future."
"Okay, let me get my head round this. You're reading aloud from a transcript of a conversation you're still having."
"Yeah. Wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey."
"Never mind that." She looked over at Larry. "You can do shorthand?"
"So?" He shrugged.
"What matters is, we can communicate." The Doctor continued. "We have got big problems now. They have taken the blue box, haven't they? The angels have the phone box."
"The angels have the phone box. That's my favourite, I've got it on a t-shirt."
"What do you mean, angels?" Sally asked. "You mean those statue things?"
"Creatures from another world."
"But they're just statues."
"Only when you see them."
"What does that mean?"
"The lonely assassins, they used to be called." Zara called from off screen. "No one quite knows where they came from, not even the Face of Boe and he taught me about them, but they're as old as the universe, or very nearly, and they have survived this long because they have the most perfect defence system ever evolved."
"They are quantum-locked." The Doctor nodded in agreement. "They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze into rock. No choice. It's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing, they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. Of course, a stone can't kill you either. But then you turn your head away, then you blink, and oh yes it can."
Sally glanced over at an angel close by, "Don't take your eyes off that." She told Larry.
"That's why they cover their eyes." The Doctor continued. "They're not weeping. They can't risk looking at each other. Their greatest asset is their greatest curse. They can never be seen. The loneliest creatures in the universe. And I'm sorry. I am very, very sorry. It's up to you now."
"What am I supposed to do?"
"The blue box, it's my time machine. There is a world of time energy in there they could feast on forever, but the damage they could do could switch off the sun. You have got to send it back to me."
"How? How?"
The Doctor frowned, looking over at Zara with a frown. Zara leaned back, looking at the camera to find the autocue had finished.
"And that's it, I'm afraid." Zara said. "There's no more from you on the transcript, that's the last we've got. I don't know what stopped you talking, but I can guess." She moved round, both her and Martha moving into shot., "They're coming. The angels are coming for you. But listen, your life could depend on this."
"Don't blink." The Doctor said sternly. "Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink. Good luck."
The picture froze and Sally gasped, "No! Don't! You can't!"
"I'll rewind him." Larry stuttered.
"What good would that do?" She snapped before realising the two were staring at each other, "You're not looking at the statue."
"Neither are you."
The two gulped, looking up to see the angel towering over them, reaching out, mouth wide open.
...
"Where do you want to go first?" Zara looked up from sitting on the work surface at The Doctor's question. She looked over at him, leaning against the fridge, the sound of Martha in the bathroom echoing under the closed door. "When we get out of here?"
Zara smiled, "I don't mind."
"I was thinking the three of us should go ice skating."
"Ice skating?" She frowned. "I can't skate."
"How do you know if you've never tried?" He raised an eyebrow at her.
"If I've never tried how could I ice skate?"
The Doctor paused, considering it, "I suppose. That makes sense. Me, you and Doctor Jones, ice skating, it'll be fun-" He was cut off as a wheezing filled the air, blowing them about as The TARDIS faded into view. "Aha!" He cheered, bouncing on his feet. The bathroom door swung open and Martha bolted out, grinning in delight. The Doctor ran over and pulled her into a hug, spinning her around. The TARDIS stabilised and The Doctor bolted up to the door, unlocking it and ran in, pulling Martha with him by the hand. Zara smiled, shaking her head, and stepped into The TARDIS. She looked out at their small flat one more time before shutting the door behind her.