Chapter Three: Believing for Twenty Minutes

{Royal Leadworth Hospital}

Doctor Ramsden frowned as the patients quieted down, almost like nothing had happened. She neared one, reading a graph.
"I don't think they were even conscious," she said.
"Doctor Ramsden, there is another sort of er, funny thing."

Rolling her eyes, Doctor Ramsden shook her head.
"Yes, I know. Doctor Carver told me about your conversation. We've been very patient with you, Rory. You're a good enough nurse, but for God's sake."
"I've seen them," Rory said.
"These patients are under twenty-four-hour supervision," Doctor Ramsden told him firmly. "We know if their blood pressure changes. There is no possibility that you could have seen them wandering about the village… Why are you giving me your phone?"

Rory glanced down at it.
"It's a camera too." Doctor Ramsden opened her mouth to speak just as her beeper went off. She pulled it out, looking at it. Raising her head, she spoke with a sharp clip in her voice.
"You need to take some time off, Rory. A lot of time off. Start now."

{Pond Residence}

The Doctor looked at the policewoman, his voice demanding.
"I need to speak to whoever lives in this house right now."
"I live here," the woman told him.
"But you're the police," he remarked.
"Yes, and this is where I live. Have you got a problem with that?"

Sitting up straighter, the Doctor questioned the woman.
"How many rooms?" Her brow furled.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"On this floor. How many rooms on this floor? Count them for me now."
"Why?" she asked, confused. "Because it will change your life."

Without removing her gaze, she pointed to each door as she counted.
"Five. One, two, three, four, five."
"Six," the Doctor corrected.
"Six?" she repeated.
"Look."
"Look where?"
"Exactly where you don't want to look. Where you never want to look."

She listened to his words, confusion appearing in her eyes for a little.
"The corner of your eye," he continued. "Look behind you." Looking through the corner of her eye, she turned, seeing another door at the end of the corridor.

Gasping, she stared at it.
"That's… that is not possible. How's that possible?"
"There's a perception filter all 'round the door," he answered. "Sensed it last time I was here. Should've seen it."
"But that's a whole room. That's a whole room I've never even noticed."
"The filter stops you from noticing."

Looking at the door, he clicked his tongue.
"Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding, and you need to uncuff me now." Slowly, the woman walked towards the door.
"I don't have the key. I lost it."

His eyes went wide.
"How can you have lost it?" Was she the worst policewoman in the world? One who he just happened to get stuck with. He saw her hand reaching for the door handle. "Do no touch that door!" he yelled. "Listen to me, do not open that."

Her fingertips touched the handle, and she slowly turned it.
"Why does no-one ever listen to me?" he despaired. "Do I just have a face that nobody listens to?" She disappeared inside the room, and he groaned in frustration. "Again! My screwdriver, where is it?"

The woman ignored him, taking in the room. It was dirty with a boarded-up window and packing boxes. The man continued talking.
"Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?"
"There's nothing here," she called back to him.
"Whatever's there stopped you from seeing the room. What makes you think you could see it? Now please, just get out."

The woman ignored him, looking around the nearly empty room. She caught sight of something small, lying on a box.
"Silver, blue at the end?"
"My screwdriver," the Doctor called back. "Yeah."
"It's here."

Pursing his lips, the Doctor half-shrugged.
"Must have rolled under the door."
"Yeah," the woman said, her voice sarcastic. "Must have. And then it must have jumped up on the box." The Doctor became worried.
"Get out of there. Get out of there! Get out!"

Still ignoring him, the woman tried to pick up the screwdriver, which was stuck to the box with some strange gunk. It took a moment to pry it up and he kept yelling for her to get out.
"There's nothing here," she finally snapped.

Surprisingly, his voice was somewhat calm when he spoke again.
"Corner of your eye."
"What?"
"Don't try to see it. If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you. Don't look at it. Do not look." His sighed when she let out a scream before ordering her out of the room.

The woman ran to him, holding the screwdriver in her hand as she slammed the door shut.
"Give me that!" She worriedly handed over the screwdriver and the Doctor pointed it at the door, locking it.

Quickly, he tried to free himself, frustrated when the screwdriver didn't work.
"Come on," he begged. "What's the bad alien done to you?"
"Will that door hold it?" the woman asked.
"Oh, yeah, yeah, of course," he said absentmindedly. "It's an interdimensional multiform from outer space. They're all terrified of wood."

From beside the Doctor, Emma started to stir. Her head was pounding as she blinked awake. She let out a quiet whimper as she tried to sit up. There was a bright light under a door.
"What was that?" the woman asked. "What's it doing?"
"Doctor?" Emma asked groggily. "What's going on?"

Frustrated that his sonic screwdriver wasn't working, the Doctor snapped at them.
"I don't know! Getting dressed?" He looked at the policewoman. "Run. Just go. Your back-up's coming. We'll be fine."
"There's no backup," the woman muttered.

His head shot up in confusion.
"I heard you on the radio. You called for backup." She shook her head.
"I was pretending. It's a pretend radio." The Doctor stared at him.
"You're a policewoman."
"No!" she pulled off her cap, long red hair falling out. "I'm a kissogram!"

Emma jumped as the door fell down, revealing a workman in overalls and toolbelt, with a black dog. She was awfully confused, and she could tell, from the woman's face, that the confusion was mutual.
"But it's just…"
"No, it isn't," the Doctor disagreed. "Look at the faces."

The man barked, startling the woman.
"What? I'm sorry, but what?"
"It's all one creature. One creature disguised as two. Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, didn't you? Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?"

Opening his mouth, the man revealed his long needle-like teeth.
"Stay boy!" the Doctor shouted. "Her and us, we're safe. Want to know why? She sent for backup."
"I didn't send for backup," the woman reminded quickly.
"He knows," Emma sighed. "He was trying to be clever." The Doctor rolled his eyes.
"Okay, yeah, no back up. And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had back up, you'd have to kill us."

A voice rang out, startling the lot of them. It was a familiar voice, one that Emma had heard only minutes ago.
"Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded."

The woman gulped, looking at the Doctor.
"What's that?"
"Well, that would be backup. Okay, one more time. We do have backup and that's definitely why we're safe."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"Well, safe apart from, you know, incineration."

As the voice continued to echo its threat of incineration, the Doctor struggled with the sonic. Emma managed to grab it from him, using it to unlock the cuffs that bound them to the heater. The Doctor hopped up, pulling Emma to her feet.
"Run! Run!" he shouted, pushing the non-policewoman down the stairs.

{Garden}

Once outside, the Doctor spun around to look at the woman.
"A kissogram?" he questioned.
"Yes, a kissogram," the woman said, brushing a piece of hair off her shoulder. "Work through it."
"Why'd you pretend to be a policewoman?" Emma questioned, crossing her arms.
"You broke into my house," the woman reminded them. "It was this or a French maid. What's going on? Tell me. Tell me!"

The Doctor was blunt with his answer as he marched to the Tardis.
"An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house. Any questions?"
"Yes."
"Me too," he said as he tried to open the Tardis doors.

When they didn't budge, the Doctor complained.
"No, no, no, no! Don't do that, not now!" He stomped his foot, much like a child, when the Tardis started to dematerialize.
"It's still rebuilding," Emma told him. "It's not going to let you in."

As the alien voice reverted around the area, the woman looked nervously around.
"Come on."
"No, wait, hang on." The Doctor looked curiously at a shed. "The shed. I destroyed that shed last time I was here. Smashed it to pieces."
"So, there's a new one," the woman shrugged. "Let's go."
"Yeah, but the new one's got old. It's ten years old at least. Twelve years… I'm not six months late. I'm twelve years late!"
"He's coming," Emma warned, looking toward the garden door.

Eyes slightly raged; the Doctor looked at the woman.
"You said six months. Why did you say six months?"
"We've got to go," the woman snapped.
"This matters! This is important. Why did you say six months!" The woman looked at him, her eyes angry.
"Why did you say five minutes!"

Now Emma was shocked.
"What?" she questioned, gazing at the woman. Was this truly Amelia Pond? The small girl they had left mere moments ago.
"Come on," Amelia snapped.
"What?" the Doctor echoed Emma's question.
"Come on!" Amelia grabbed the Doctor's tie, yanking him along.

{Village Lane}

Emma watched Amelia curiously as they walked down the street.
"You're Amelia?"
"And you're late," she snapped.
"Amelia Pond," the Doctor murmured. "You're the little girl."
"I'm Amelia. And you're late."
"What happened?" Emma asked softly.
"Twelve years."
"Oh Amelia," Emma sighed softly. "I warned you it might be longer than five minutes."
"You didn't say it would be twelve years!"

The Doctor rubbed at his head.
"You hit us with a cricket bat."
"Twelve years and four psychiatrists."
"Four?" Emma repeated.
"I kept biting them." At that, the corners of Emma's lips lifted slightly.
"Why?"
"Because they kept saying you guys weren't real."

The trio came to a stop when they caught sight of an ice-cream truck with its speakers repeating the warning.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"No, no, no. Come on!" Amelia complained. "We're being staked out by an ice-cream van!"
"What's that?" Emma asked the driver. "Why are you playing that?"
"It's supposed to be playing Claire De Lune," the man told her.

From all around them, the warning was being repeated. From a jogger's iPod, a woman's mobile phone.
"Doctor, what's happening?" Amelia asked. The Doctor didn't answer, instead burst into a nearby home.

{Mrs. Angelo's Home}

Emma's head tilted to the side when she caught sight of the telly. A giant eyeball was on every channel. An elderly woman, who was jabbing at her remote control, looked up as the Doctor entered her living room.
"Hello!" he greeted. "Sorry to burst in. We're doing a special on television faults in this area. Also, crimes. Let's have a look."

The woman smiled as he took the remote from her.
"I was just about to phone. It's on every channel… Oh, hello Amy dear. Are you a policewoman now?" Emma raised an eyebrow as Amelia looked down at her outfit before shrugging.
"Well, sometimes."
"I thought you were a nurse."
"I can be a nurse."
"Or actually… a nun?"
"I dabble," Amelia said, turning a light red.

The woman looked at Emma.
"Amy, who is your friend?"
"Whose Amy?" the Doctor asked. "You were Amelia." "
Yeah?" Amelia said. "Now I'm Amy."
"Amelia Pond," the Doctor muttered. "That was a great name."
"Bit fairy tale."

Tilting her head to the side, the old woman gazed at Emma.
"I know you, don't I? I've seen you somewhere before."
"I'm not sure that you have," Emma said, holding out her hand.
"I'm Emma. Emma Williams."
"Pleasure to meet you, Emma," the woman said, shaking Emma's hand. "I'm Mrs. Angelo."

They smiled at each other before Emma looked to Amy.
"What sort of job's a kissogram?" she asked, a hit of curiosity in her voice.
"I go to parties, and I kiss people," Amy shrugged. "With outfits. It's a laugh."
"You were a little girl five minutes ago," the Doctor snapped.
"You're worse than my aunt," Amy complained.

The Doctor turned to Mrs. Angelo.
"I'm the Doctor," he greeted. "I'm worse than everybody's aunt. And that is not how I'm introducing myself." He looked back at the telly, frowning as the warning was repeated in a different language.
"Okay. So, it's everywhere, in every language. They're broadcasting to the whole world."

Looking out the window, he stared up at the sky.
"What's up there?" Amy asked. "What are you looking for?"
"Planet this size," he muttered. "Two poles. Your basic molten core. They're going to need a forty percent fission blast. But they'll have to power up first, won't they? So, assuming a medium sized star ship, that's 20 minutes." He looked to Emma. "What do you think, twenty minutes? Yeah, twenty minutes. We've got twenty minutes."

Frustrated, Amy snapped her fingers to get his attention.
"Twenty minutes to what?" From the doorway, a male voice called out to them.
"Are you the Doctor?" Emma turned her head slightly to see a slightly attractive man watching them.
"He is, isn't he?" Mrs. Angelo gasped out. "He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor. All those cartoons you did when you were little, Amy. The Raggedy Doctor. It's him."
"Shut up," Amy mumbled.
"Cartoons?" the Doctor questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Eyes wide, the man in the doorway smiled brightly.
"Gran, it's him, isn't it? It's really him!"
"Jeff, shut up!" Amy said. "Twenty minutes to what, Doctor?"
"The human residence," the Doctor said. "They're not talking about your house; they're talking about the planet. Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship, and it's going to incinerate the planet… Twenty minutes to the end of the world."

{Leadworth}

Walking outside, Emma was a few paces behind the Doctor and Amy, looking around the small town.
"What is this place?" the Doctor was asking. "Where are we?"
"Leadworth," Amy answered. "Where's the rest of it?"
"This is it."
"Is there an airport?"
"No."
"A nuclear power station?"
"No."
"Even a little one?"
"No."
"Nearest city?"

At this point, the Doctor was becoming desperate.
"Gloucester. Half an hour by car." He shook his head.
"We don't have half an hour… Do we even have a car?"
"No."
"Well, that's good," he grumbled. "Fantastic, that is. Twenty minutes to save the world and I've got a post office. And it's shut."

Jogging up to be closer to them, Emma pointed at a small pond.
"What's that?"
"It's a duck pond," Amy replied.
"Why aren't there any ducks?" Emma asked, looking around.
"I don't know. There are never any ducks."
"Then how do you know it's a duck pond?"
"It just is! Is it important, the duck pond?" The Doctor clutched at his chest, feeling a spasm go through him.
"She doesn't know. Why would she know? This is too soon. I'm not ready, I'm not done yet."

Above them, the sky began to darken.
"What's happening?" Amy asked. "Why's it going dark? What's wrong with the sun?"
"Nothing," the Doctor said. "You're looking at it through a forcefield. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere. Now they're getting ready to boil the planet. Oh, and here they come. The human race."

A young man in scrubs caught his attention. The man was filming a stranger nearby.
"The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone."
"This isn't real, is it?" Amy asked. "This is some kind of big wind up."
"Why would I wind you up?"
"You told me you had a time machine."
"And you believed me."
"Then I grew up."

"Oh, you never want to do that. No, hang on, shut up. Wait. I missed it, I saw it and missed it. What did I see? I saw. What did I see? I saw, I saw, I saw?" He racked at his head. "Twenty minutes, I can do it! Twenty minutes, the planet burns, run to your loved ones and say goodbye or stay and help me," the Doctor told Amy.
"No."
"I'm sorry?" the Doctor asked.
"No!" she grabbed hold of his tie and pulled him up to a car that had just pulled up. She slammed the door on his tie and took the keys from the driver, locking the car.
"Are you out of your mind?" the Doctor asked.
"Who are you?" Amy asked Emma, ignoring him. "Tell me and I'll let him go."
"You know who we are."
"No, really. Who are you people?"
"Look at the sky. End of the world, twenty minutes."
"Well, better talk quickly, then."

The driver of the car looked over at them.
"Amy, I'm going to need my car back," he said.
"Yeah, in a bit, now go and have coffee," Amy commanded. The man rolled his eyes but walked off.
"Here," Emma told Amy, taking an apple from the Doctor's jacket. She handed Amy the apple with a face carved into it. "He's the Doctor. He's a time traveller. I'm Emma Williams. The girl who's always been with him. Everything we told you twelve years ago is true. We're real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let him go right now, everything you've ever known is over."
"I don't believe you."
"Just twenty minutes. Just believe us for twenty minutes. Look at it. Fresh as the day you gave it to him. And you know it's the same one. Amy, please, believe for twenty minutes." Amy sighed and unlocked the door of the car.
"So, what do we do?" Amy asked.
"Stop that nurse!" the Doctor said, rushing after the nurse with the phone.

{Leadworth Park}

Rushing onto the green grass, the Doctor grabbed the nurse's phone.
"The sun's gong out, and you're photographing a man with a dog. Why?" he asked the surprised nurse.
"Amy?" the nurse asked with a weird expression.
"Hi!" Amy said quickly.
"Emma, this is Rory, he's a friend."
"Boyfriend," Rory clarified.
"Kind of boyfriend…"
"Amy!"
"Man, and dog. Why?" the Doctor asked.

Rory's face turned into shock, "Oh my god, it's them."
"Just answer his question, please," Amy begged.
"It's him, though. The Doctor and Emma. The Raggedy Doctor and his friend?"
"Yeah, he came back," Amy said with a nod.
"But they were stories. They were a game!"
"Man, and Dog. Why? Tell me now!"
"Sorry," Rory said shaking his head. "Because he can't be there. Because he's…"
"In a hospital, in a coma," the Doctor finished with him.
"Yeah," Rory nodded.
"Knew it!" the Doctor told Emma. "Multiform. Do you see? Disguised itself as anything, but it needs a life feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind."

The man barked at them, and Emma stared at it.
"Prisoner Zero?"
"What? There's a prisoner Zero too?" Rory asked.
"Yes!" Amy told him. They looked up as an eyeball spaceship flew down.
"See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver," the Doctor told them before turning on the sonic.

The streetlights exploded, the car alarms started going off, a woman's mobility scooter zoomed down the road, and a fire engine drove past on its own. A fireman chased after it. "Oi, come back here! Come back now!"

The Doctor smirked at Emma, "I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" He turned and blew up a red telephone box. Emma jumped back as the screwdriver exploded in his hands. "No, no! No, don't do that!"
"Look, its going," Rory said pointing at the ship that was heading back up into space.
"No, come back. He's here!" the Doctor shouted, pointing at Prisoner Zero. "Come back! He's here. Prisoner Zero is here. Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is…"
"Doctor!" Amy shouted. "The drain." The Doctor turned just as Prisoner Zero disappeared down the drain. Amy's eyes were wide, "It just kinda melted and went down the drain!"
"Well, of course it did," the Doctor sighed.
"What do we do now?" Rory asked.
"It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open. No Tardis, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes. Come on, think. Think!"

They stood, watching the drain for a few seconds.
"So, that's the thing that hid in my house for twelve years?" Amy asked.
"Multiform can live for millennia," Emma said softly, not wanting to risk Amy's wrath. "Twelve years is a pit-stop."
"So how come you show up on the same day that that lot do? The same minute!"
"They're looking for him," the Doctor said. "But they followed me. They saw me through the crack, got a fix, they're only late because we are."
"What's he on about?" Rory asked Amy.
"Nurse boy, give me your phone."
"How can they be real?" Rory asked Amy again. "They were never real."
"Phone. Now. Give me." Rory passed the phone to the Doctor, and he flicked through the photos.
"They aren't real," Rory told Amy. "They were just a game. We were kids. You made me dress up as him!"
"These photos," the Doctor asked. "They're all coma patients?"
"Yeah."
"No, they're all the multiform. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."
"He had a dog though," Amy pointed out. "There's a dog in a coma?"
"Well, the coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog. Laptop!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Your friend," he pointed at Amy. "What was his name? Not him though, the good-looking one."
"Thanks," Rory rolled his eyes.
"Jeff," Amy answered.
"Oh, thank you," Rory snapped.

Emma smiled sympathetically at him, "I know how you feel."
"He had a laptop in his bag. A laptop. Big bag, big laptop. I need Jeff's laptop." He pointed at Rory and Amy. "You two, get to the hospital. Get everyone out of that ward. Clear the whole floor. Phone me when you're done."Amy nodded before looking at Rory,
"Your car. Come on." The Doctor took hold of Emma's hand, and they raced away.

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