Chapter Four: Fourteen Years

{Mrs. Angelo's Home}

Jeff was lounging on the bed, using his laptop when the Doctor and Emma ran into the room.
"Hello," the Doctor said cheerfully. "Laptop. Give it to me please."
"No, no, no, no, wait…" Jeff said, pulling it closer to himself.
"It's fine," the Doctor said. "Give it here please."
"Hang on!" Jeff said as the Doctor pulled it out of his hand.
"Blimey," the Doctor said flushing a dark red as he closed down the browser. "Get a girlfriend, Jeff."

Mrs. Angelo walked into the room, confused at the sudden clammer.
"Gran," Jeff said, his face bright red.
"What are you doing?" she asked the Doctor.
"The sun's gone wibbly, so right now, somewhere out there, there's going to be a big old video conference call," the Doctor told her. "All the experts in the world panicking at once, and do you know what they need? Me. Ah, and here they all are. All the big boys. NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore…"
"I like Patrick Moore," Mrs. Angelo said.
"I'll get you his number, but watch him, he's a devil," the Doctor warned her.
"You can't just hack in on a call like that," Jeff argued.
"Can't I?" the Doctor challenged. Six faces appeared on the screen, their conversation coming to an abrupt stop.

As the Doctor showed them his psychic paper, Patrick Moore questioned who he was as another man asked what he was doing.
"Hello. Yeah, I know you should switch me off, but before you do, watch this." He played a video.
"It's here too, I'm getting it," Patrick Moore said.
"Fermat's theorem, the proof. And I mean the real one. Never been seen before. Poor old Fermat got killed in a duel before he could write it down. My fault. I slept in. Oh, and here's an oldie, but a goodie. Why electrons have mass. And a personal favourite of mine, faster than light with two diagrams and a joke. Look at your screen. Whoever I am, I'm a genius. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas pay attention."

The Doctor paused for a breath and smiled at Emma. She smiled back, this was her Doctor, ready to do whatever it took to save the planet.
"Sir, what are you doing?" someone from NASA asked as the Doctor started typing on Rory's phone.
"I'm writing a computer virus. Very clever, super-fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on. And why am I writing it on a phone? Never mind, you'll find out. Okay, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who words for you, sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Bebo, twitter, radar dish, whatever you've got. Any questions?"
"Who's your lady friend?" Patrick Moore asked, looking at Emma. She blushed, looking away and the Doctor frowned.
"Patrick, behave."
"What does this virus do?" a man asked.
"It's a reset command, that's all. It resets counters. It gets in the Wi-Fi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time. But yeah, I could be lying, why should you trust me? I'll let my best man explain." The Doctor looked over at Jeff. "Jeff, you're my best man."
"Your what?" Jeff asked confused.
"Listen to me, in ten minutes, you're going to be a legend, in ten minutes, everyone on that screen is going to be offering you any job you want. But first, you have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff, right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today is the day you save the world!"
"Why me?"
Emma rolled her eyes, "It's your bedroom." The Doctor handed Jeff the laptop before rushing out. Emma followed a few steps behind.
"Oh wait," the Doctor said once they reached the front door. "Jeff, delete your internet history!" he shouted back into the hallway.

{Leadworth}

Rory's phone started ringing in the Doctor's pocket as the Doctor and Emma looked around for a ride to the hospital. The Doctor paused and answered it.
"Doctor?" Amy's voice came through the phone. "We're at the hospital, but we can't get through."
"Look in the mirror," the Doctor commanded. Amy said something else, and the Doctor looked over at the fire engine."Don't worry, I've commandeered a vehicle."

Emma hopped into the front seat of the fire engine and the Doctor crawled into the seat beside her. They started driving and the phone rang again.
"Are you in?" the Doctor asked.
"Yep, but so is Prisoner Zero."
"You need to get of there."

The Doctor yanked away from the phone when he heard something loud.
"Amy? Amy, what's happening? Amy, talk to me!"
"We're in the coma ward, but it's here. It's getting in."
"Which window are you?"
"What, sorry?"
"Which window?"
"First floor, on the left, fourth from the end." The Doctor hung up and sent her a text as they pulled up to the hospital.

{Royal Leadworth Hospital}

"Head towards the first floor on the left, fourth window from the end and don't stop," the Doctor told Emma.

She did as she was told, and they burst through the wall.
"Right! Hello. Are we late?" the Doctor leaned down and checked his watch. "No, three minutes to go. So, still time."
"Time for what, Time Lord?" the alien asked.
"Take off the disguise off. They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies."
"The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire!"
"Okay, you came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave," Emma told it.
"I did not open the crack."
"Somebody did," the Doctor said. "The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from? You don't, do you?"

The alien's voice changed from a woman into a little girl.
"The Doctor in the Tardis doesn't know. Doesn't know. Doesn't know!" It quickly changed into a woman's voice again. "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."

The Doctor nodded absentmindedly as he looked down at his watch.
"And we're off. Look at that!" he told Emma, pointing at the clock on the wall that showed all zeros. "Look at that. Yeah, I know, just a clock. Whatever. But do you know what's happening right now! In one little bedroom, my team is working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word all over the world, quantum fast. The word is out. And do you know what the word is? The word is Zero. Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth's communications, I'd probably take that as a hind. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet. I'd be able to track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute? The source, by the way, is right here." He held up Rory's phone as a bright light appeared outside. "Oh! And I think they just found us!"
"The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me."
"Yeah, but this is the good bit. I mean, this is my favourite bit. Do you know what is phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here. Ooooo and being uploaded about now. And the final score is, no Tardis, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare. Who da man?" He winched at his words, "Oh, I am never saying that again."
"Then I shall take a new form."
"Oh, stop it. You know you can't. It takes months to from that kind of psychic link."
"And I've had years."

Emma raced to Amy as she collapsed on the ground.
"Amy?" the Doctor asked, kneeling beside her. "You've got to hold on. Amy? Don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please."
"Doctor, Emma," Rory said, watching the alien morph into a gangly man with a ripped shirt and floppy hair.
"Well, that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?" the Doctor asked with a frown.
"It's you," Emma told him.
"Me? Is that what I look like?"
"You don't know?" Rory asked confused.
"Busy day, why me though?" the Doctor asked the alien. "You're linked with her. Why are you copying me?"
"I'm not," a little Scottish girl's voice said coming out from behind a curtain and taking hold of the alien's hand. "Poor Amy Pond. Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor, she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've been."
"No, she's dreaming about me because she can hear me. Amy, don't just hear me, listen. Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see. Remember you went inside. I tried to stop you, but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Amy, dream about what you saw."
"No. No. NO!" the little girl and the Doctor shouted before turning back into their natural form.
"Well done, Prisoner Zero. A perfect impersonation of yourself," the Doctor said with a smirk.
"Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained," the eyeball's voice said.
"Silence, Doctor," Prisoner Zero rasped. He had transformed into an eel like alien. "Silence will fall."

Prisoner Zero disappeared in a rush of wind and Rory raced to the window.
"The sun. It's back to normal, right? That's, that's good, yeah?" Rory asked. "That means it's over?" Emma smiled as Amy opened her eyes.
"Amy, are you okay?" Emma asked gently.
"What happened?" Amy asked.
"He did it," Rory answered for Emma, coming into Amy's viewpoint. "The Doctor did it."
"No, I didn't," the Doctor told them, opening the phone again.
"What are you doing?" Emma asked, standing.
"Tracking the signal back." He turned to Rory with a sheepish expression. "Sorry in advance."
"About what?" Rory asked.
"The bill." The Doctor pressed a few buttons before holding the phone to his ear. "Oi, I didn't say you could go! Article fifty-seven of the shadow proclamation. This is a fully established level five planet, and you were going to burn it? What? Did you think no-one was watching? You lot, back here now!"
Rory turned to Emma, "Did he just bring them back? Did he just save the world form aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?" Emma shrugged and she, Amy, and Rory watched as the Doctor started heading to the doors.
"Where are you going?" Amy asked as they followed the Doctor through the hospital.
"The roof," the Doctor answered before slowing down. "No, hang on."
"What's in here that you need?" Amy asked as he opened the door to a locker room.
"I'm saving the world; I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show."
"You just summoned aliens back to Earth. Actual aliens, deadly aliens, aliens of death… and now you're taking your clothes off," Rory said. "Amy, he's taking his clothes off!"
"Turn your back if it embarrasses you," the Doctor snapped. Rory and Emma turned around.
"Are you stealing clothes now?" Emma asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "Those clothes belong to people, you know."
"Amy," Rory said to his girlfriend. "Are you now going to turn your back?"
"Nope."

The Doctor led the way up to the roof with a new shirt and several ties draped around his neck. The alien ship was hovering overhead.
"So, this was a good idea, was it?" Amy asked. "They were leaving!"
"Leaving is good, never coming back is better," the Doctor told her. "Come on, then! The Doctor will see you know." The eyeball dropped down onto the roof and scanned the Doctor.
"You are not of this world."
"No, but I've put a lot of work into it," the Doctor said, pulling on his suspenders, before looking at the ties around his neck. "Hmmm, don't know. What do you think?"
"Is this world important?"
"Important?" he asked, balling up a tie and throwing it to Rory.
"What's that mean, important? Six billion people live here. Is that important? Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi? Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?" The eyeball projected a picture of the earth between them.
"No," it said.
"Are the people of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?" The Doctor threw another tie to Amy and Rory.
"No."
"Okay. One more. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many." The projection showed different types of invaders of Earth. "And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?" The projection changed to run through all the faces the Doctor had ever had.
"Hello. I'm the Doctor," the Doctor said, stepping up to the eyeball with a small smirk. "Basically… run." They eyeball zoomed back up to its ship and left quickly. Emma brightened when she heard the sound of the Tardis materializing. The Doctor ran to her, took hold of her hand and they raced off.

{Garden}

They found the Tardis waiting for them in Amy's backyard, as good as new.
"Okay, what have you got for us this time?" the Doctor asked, staring at it for a few seconds. He always waited to imagine what it would look like on the inside before he went in. He went to the door and slid in his key, turning it to unlock the door. They looked inside, Emma smiling and the Doctor staring at it in awe.
"Look at you. Oh, you sexy thing! Look at you!" he said excitedly before rushing inside, Emma right behind him.

They did a quick jump to the moon, just to practice before going back to Leadworth. Amy was outside, in her nightie and robe when they left the Tardis.
"Sorry about running off earlier," the Doctor told Amy. "Brand new Tardis. Bit exciting. Just had a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in. She's ready for big stuff now!"
"It's you," Amy said in disbelief. "You came back."
"Course I came back. I always come back. Something wrong with that?"
"And you kept the clothes."
"Well, I just saved the world. The whole planet for about the millionth time, no charge. Yeah, shoot me. I kept the clothes."
"Including the bowtie?"
"Yeah, it's cool, right Emma?" the Doctor asked defensively.
"Yes… actually, not really"
"Is he really from a different planet?" Amy asked.
"Yeah," Emma answered.
"Okay," Amy said with a nod, understanding his weird fashion sense.
"So, what do you think?" the Doctor asked.
"Of what?" Amy asked, crossing her arms.
"Other planets. Want to check some out?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means, come with me and Emma."
"Where?"
"Wherever you like."
"All that stuff that happened. The hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero…"
"Oh, don't worry, that was just the beginning. There's loads more."
"Yeah, but those things, those amazing things, all that stuff," she said with a smile before frowning and stepping up to the Doctor's face. "That was two years ago!"
The Doctor gapped at her, "Oh...! Oops."
Emma sighed, "Sorry Amy. He never checks the time."
"Yeah, I've noticed."
"So that means…" the Doctor asked.
"Fourteen years!"
"Fourteen years since fish custard! Amy Pond, the girl who waited, you've waited long enough." Amy shook her head and stepped back.
"When I was a kid, you said there was a swimming pool and a library, and the swimming pool was in the library."
"Yeah, not sure where it's got to," the Doctor said with a shrug. "It'll turn up. So, coming?"
"No."
"You wanted to come fourteen years ago."
"I grew up."
"Don't worry, I'll soon fix that."

Smirking, the Doctor snapped his fingers, and the Tardis doors opened. He smiled at Emma as Amy entered slowly. He closed the door behind the three of them as Amy stared in awe at the inside of the Tardis. It was bright coloured with a bunch of flashy things on the walls.
"Well?" the Doctor asked. "Anything you want to say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all."
"I'm… I'm… I'm in my nightie."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Emma said. "Plenty of clothes in the wardrobe. And possibly a swimming pool. So, all time and space, and everything that ever happened or will. Where do you want to start?"
"You are so sure that I'm coming," Amy remarked. "Cause you're the Scottish girl in the English Village and I know how that feels," Emma told her.
"Oh, do you?"
"All these years living here, most of your life and you've still got that accent. I've been flying around for years, haven't been home in a couple hundred and I've still got the accent. Yeah, you're coming. Besides, we're alike, Amy. And if I were you, I'd be thrilled to fly away to all time and space."
"Can you get me back for tomorrow morning?" Amy asked.
"It's a time machine. I can get you back five minutes ago. Why, what's tomorrow?" the Doctor asked.
"Nothing. Nothing. Just you know, stuff."
"Alright, then. Back in time for stuff," the Doctor agreed.
"Why me?" Amy asked, going to stand beside the Doctor while Emma stood back.
"Why not?" the Doctor asked.
"No, seriously. You're asking me to run away with you and your girlfriend in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. Why me?"
"I don't know. Fun. Do I have to have a reason?"
"People always have a reason."
"Do I look like people?"
"Yes."
"Been knocking around on our own for a while. Mostly my choice, Emma doesn't have a choice, she's kinda stuck with me, but I've started talking to myself all the time. It's giving me an earache."
"You're lonely even though you have a companion with you already. That's it? Just that?"
"Just that. Promise. Besides, Emma gets sick of only my company."
"Okay," Amy nodded. What else could she say?
"So, are you okay, then?" Emma asked. "Because this place, sometimes it can make people feel a bit… you know."
"I'm fine," Amy said with a smile. "it's just, there's a whole world in here, just like you said. It's all true. I thought… Well, I started to think that maybe he was just, like, a madman with a box."
"Amy Pond, there's something you'd better understand about him, because it's important, and one day your life may depend on it. He's definitely a madman with a box."
"Ha, ha!" the Doctor laughed. "Yeah, I am. Goodbye Leadworth, hello everything!"
"Better hold on," Emma warned as the Tardis started to shake. "He's a terrible driver."

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