June 11th, 1994
The litter in the high street swirled, caught in a sudden gust of wind, and then, with a grinding sound, a flashing beacon appeared in midair. A moment later, the police-box exterior of the TARDIS materialized beneath it. The Doctor and Alex emerged, the former grimacing in frustration at his wibble-detector. Amy followed them and sighed. "We haven't moved."
"Oh, but we have," the Doctor argued. "Four-dimensionally. See, that." He pointed to the nearby branch of Our Price. "In seventeen years' time, that shop – that shop – will sell sandwiches and Danish pastries."
"In other words, we've traveled back in time," Alex said helpfully.
Amy nodded her thanks and looked around. "So this is 1994." All the shops were closed but one of them had a clock as part of its sign. She checked it. "At approximately five minutes past midnight."
"The time trace has almost faded," the Doctor reported. "He would've been transported through time, but at the same spatial coordinates. Allowing for the rotation of the Earth, its orbit around the sun, and the solar system's orbit around the Milky Way, of course."
"Then, er, why isn't he here?"
"He was." The Doctor pulled Alex along and over to a small café. Alex's heels made little clicks on the pavement, sounding rather loud in the otherwise quiet night. Amy followed them and looked inside the café. Squinting through the dim light inside, she could just make out chairs stacked on tables. "Under an hour ago," the Doctor continued, using the hand not holding Alex's to shake his wibble-detector. "We just missed him."
"Oh well," Amy shrugged. "Don't suppose he's got very far."
"In London?" the Doctor and Alex scoffed.
"Amy, London has a lot of transportation available," Alex reminded her, "even in 1994. He could be anywhere now."
Amy turned to the Doctor. "Can't you detect him with your amazing egg-boiling gadget thing?"
"No," the Doctor replied, shaking his head as he examined the device. "The trail has gone cold." He looked around as though the shops held the answers to the mysteries of the universe – or at least the mystery of where Mark went. "We have to find him before he does any damage. The wrong word in the wrong ear and the whole course of human history – pfff!"
"Pfff?"
"Gone." The Doctor snapped his fingers. "Not with a bang, but with a pfff!"
"What makes you think he's going to do any damage?"
"Amy. What would you do if you found yourself trapped in the past? In your own past?"
"I don't know." Amy thought for a moment. "I'd. . . I'd probably look for someone I knew. So I could tell them what's going to happen in the future."
"Exactly! The wrong word in the wrong ear. The first pebble of the avalanche! That's the danger with only being sent a short way into the past. If you've been sent back a hundred years, you won't know anyone, you won't know enough about the day-to-day events to make much of a difference, and even if you do make a difference, there's plenty of time for history to paper over the cracks."
"Whereas traveling back seventeen years," Alex mused, "you know people, you know all sorts of details and future events. Any alteration in the course of those events will likely have a bad effect upon the future."
"And your own personal timeline," the Doctor added.
"Then how do we find him?" Amy questioned. "We don't know where he's going to go, we don't even know who—" Amy stopped as she realized she knew the answer. "Rory!"
"Yes. Rory," the Doctor agreed.
"And he's probably wondering where we're at," Alex said, already leading the way back to the TARDIS.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
The Canary Wharf tower glinted in the morning sunshine. It looked odd, standing alone without its surrounding throng of towers. And out on the Greenwich peninsula, there was no Millennium Dome, just a derelict gas works. Ever since Mark had left his hotel, he had found his attention being drawn to the sights that no longer existed in the future; the tower block that would be demolished to make way for the Shard, the waste ground that would become the site of City Hall.
The most obvious differences from 2011 were the advertisements and those high-street shops which had changed their names or logos. But even the people looked different. Teenagers had their hair tousled like street-urchins or in center partings. Men wore denim jackets and had their jeans belted higher above their waists. Women had highlights and glossy lipstick. The more Mark looked, the more differences he could see. It was like the first day of arriving in a foreign country, finding everything new, searching for the familiar amongst the unfamiliar.
Apart from the hiss of a teenager's Walkman, the railway carriage was silent. It took a while for Mark to guess the reason why; nobody had a mobile phone. There were no laptops, no free newspapers. People just read magazines.
In addition to the eerie feeling of being a man out of his time, Mark's stomach fluttered with nerves at the prospect of the coming encounter. His apprehension grew as the train pulled into Blackheath station and he emerged to climb the hill to his parents' house.
Everything was just as he remembered it. The overgrown bushes that would be cropped back. The lawn that would be concreted over. His mother's Peugeot parked in the driveway.
Steeling himself, Mark strode up the driveway and pressed the doorbell.
A dog barked inside the house. After what seemed an age, a shape coalesced in the door's frosted glass. The door opened to reveal his mother. Looking younger than he'd seen her for years, her hair still dark brown, wearing her old, plastic-framed glasses.
"Hello, yes?" she said, smiling at him curiously. "Can I help you?"
His own mother didn't recognize him. She had no idea who he was.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
Amy and Alex stepped out of the TARDIS and onto the pavement outside Mark's block of flats. Nothing had changed. Rain splashed in the puddles and thunder rumbled in the distance. Alex tugged her jacket off, putting it over her head as she and Amy followed the Doctor to the entrance where the remnants of the Weeping Angel had been blown away in the wind. "Where is he?" the Doctor muttered impatiently. "I said one hour. Some people are so unreliable!"
"Look who's talking," Alex teased, skipping up beside him. She pulled her jacket down and back on as she stepped under the safety of the overhead awning.
"That's rude, Ally," the Doctor admonished, though he couldn't help but smile at her impish grin. He leaned closer to her and murmured in her ear, "Not mad at me then?"
Alex stared at him. "What for?"
"For . . . well, our date getting interrupted."
It had occurred to the Doctor shortly after a long make-out session with Alex that he had yet to take her out on a proper date. That was what human couples did, along with many other alien species. The Time Lords had mostly followed arranged marriages and the Doctor hadn't been skilled in romance back then – nor was he now, he'd admit – but he was determined to try, for Alex.
With Amy and Rory's help and advice, the Doctor had arranged reservations at an exclusive nightclub in London called Remel, a club Alex had previously mentioned in passing. This club wasn't like the ones where teenagers and twenty-something's gyrated on a dance-floor, inhaling only vodka shots and any number of illegal drugs. Remel boasted a five-star restaurant on the first floor, with the club up on the next floor. IDs were checked with the utmost scrutiny and a dress code had been established; jeans were allowed, but no thigh-length dresses or cleavage-spilling shirts. Anyone who got drunk and made a scene was immediately escorted out.
So, all in all, Remel sounded like the perfect place. They'd enjoy fine dining and then upstairs for some dancing, which they hadn't done since Amy and Rory's wedding months ago. Alex had been ecstatic at the news, giving him a long, lingering kiss on the lips before she rushed off to get ready. And when she showed up in that outfit, he'd been silent for a full minute, just gawking at her. He had distantly heard Rory remark that that was the longest he'd ever seen him quiet.
With the Ponds on the TARDIS, the Doctor and Alex set off for the nightclub. However, they'd barely even sat down at the restaurant when his wibble-detector, buried in the depths of his jacket pockets, began beeping. The Doctor had excused himself and rushed out to the side alleyway, hoping that it was nothing and just a fluke. But it wasn't. There were big amounts of wibbliness going off in the area and he needed to go and investigate it now. He really hated to drag Alex off from their date, especially since he was trying to do right by her and make her forget for a little while her mysterious pains and Amy's positive/negative pregnancy, but he had to do it. Alex hadn't said anything about it, leading him to the conclusion that she was silently fuming.
But now, Alex laughed. "Doctor!" She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, moving in closer to him. In her heels, she was almost at eye-level with him. "Why would I be mad? I could tell you didn't want to go off, that you'd rather stay at Remel with me. And if you had said that we would stay there and ignore it, I'd have told you that we needed to go and investigate, go help someone as it were."
She smiled at him, her eyes turning from honey to his own dark emerald green. "Doctor, you help people. We help people. If you stopped doing that just to make me happy, you wouldn't be the Doctor anymore." She lowered her hands long enough to straighten his red bowtie. "And the universe needs its Doctor."
As she put her hands back around his neck, the Doctor smiled down at her. "How'd I ever get so lucky?" he murmured.
Alex grinned cheekily, her two front teeth biting down on her lip in the way she knew drove him crazy. "I told you, remember? After the Dream Lord? Must've been a reward from the universe for all the good you've done."
"And like I said then, you might be on to something." And she was probably even more on target than she realized. Shortly after they had gotten together, the Doctor did some delving into the timelines. He didn't do it often, but as a Time Lord, he could see the timelines of people, their past, present, and possible futures.
Alex he could never get a clear fix on.
Her past was perfectly fine, but her present was constantly getting shaped. He could never see her future, just a blinding white light that made him look away. He supposed it had to do with her being a fixed point, which only made him wonder: was she a fixed point for him?
He didn't know. He tried not to dwell on it anyways. They'd find out eventually why she was a fixed point. Until then, he was going to enjoy every second he had with her. Because in truth, he didn't have that long until she left him.
He pushed those unpleasant thoughts to the back of his mind as he tried to concentrate on the here and now. He wrapped his arms around Alex's waist and pulled her closer to him. Alex tilted her head up while he tilted his down. Their lips met in a slow burn of a kiss.
They became so caught up in it, they completely forgot that they weren't alone. Amy stood by, her lips pursed as she rocked back and forth on her heels. This was a little . . . strange. She was so used to kissing Rory during adventures while the Doctor and Alex were left out. Now it was the other way around. She was quite happy for her friends, but this wasn't really the time to make-out . . . not to mention it was extremely uncomfortable to watch.
She cleared her throat a little. That didn't work. They were still going at it. Amy sighed and marched forward. Once she was beside them, she began aggressively tapping the Doctor on the shoulder.
After a few moments, the Doctor pulled away from Alex, resting his forehead against hers as he closed his eyes. "Yes, Pond?" he questioned, his annoyance at being interrupted quite apparent in his voice.
"Sorry to interrupt the moment, but what about Rory?"
Oh, yes, right. Rory was a factor. The Doctor pulled away from Alex before he could get completely enraptured by her again and moved to pace before the flats. "Ah, yes, right, Rory! He's still not here, is he?"
Alex leaned back against the brick wall. "Nope."
"We'll just have to wait," Amy sighed, kicking her heels. "Back inside the TARDIS?"
Alex shook her head. "No time." She pushed off the wall, a hand creeping up to hold the charm of her sonic necklace. She stepped back and aimed it at the door. The sonic buzzed, the topaz on top glowed bright, and every single doorbell in the building rang at once. A dozen bedroom windows lit up as their occupants were roused from their sleep.
The Doctor laughed delightedly. "Ally, you're brilliant!" He went over and kissed the top of her head while wrapping an arm around her waist.
"Doctor, Amy, Alex, it's you!" Rory's voice crackled through the intercom. "I'll be right down." A minute later, he appeared at the door, looking relieved and breathless. "You took your time!" he cried.
"I said we'd be one hour," the Doctor said, tapping his watch.
"Yeah, I know." Oh no, Alex thought, immediately realizing what had happened. "That was a week ago."
"Is that all?" The Doctor paused. "Sorry. Did you say a week?"
"I did."
"A whole week?"
"Seven days I've been stuck here, waiting for you to turn up."
"Oh. Must have forgotten to correct for temporal displacement. Still, could be worse."
"Worse?"
"Could've been a month. Or a year!"
"I thought you'd forgotten about me! Again!"
"Never," Amy and Alex said together. Amy gave her husband a peck on the cheek while Alex hugged him.
"So you've been here all this time?" Alex asked, pulling away just enough to see Rory's face.
"Yeah. Seems to be what I do most of the time, wait. Though I did pop back to Leadworth to pick up the post. Just bills, I'm afraid."
"But if you've been here for seven days, where have you been staying?" the Doctor asked.
"Mark's place. After all, I had his keys." Rory dangled the keys in his hand. "And Mrs. Levenson next door to keep me company."
Amy narrowed her eyes. "Mrs. Levenson?" she repeated, her voice tight.
"Old lady, neighbor, she's lovely, but . . . no," Rory hurriedly chattered. "She just made me cups of tea and chatted about Mark."
Alex giggled and straightened herself away from Rory. "What'd you find out about him?"
"Everything I could. He doesn't seem to have been one for keeping scrapbooks or photo albums, but I managed to find a copy of his CV and all the addresses of his friends and family." Rory presented the Doctor with a folded sheet of paper. "Not many names. Seems like he kept himself to himself."
Alex placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder for balance as she stood up on tiptoe to read the list along with him. Rory hadn't been exaggerating. There were less than ten names on it.
The Doctor waited until Alex was finished reading before handing the paper back to Rory. "Right. So, given all this, if Mark found himself in 1994. . ."
"Where do you think he'd go?" Alex finished.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
"Must be a bit of a surprise, me turning up like this," Mark said, taking in the living room. The television in the corner, the photos on the coffee-table, everything was just as he remembered, except for all the photos of him on the mantelpiece. There were so many. His parents must have put them out when he'd left for university and tidied them away whenever he returned.
Mark sipped his tea but didn't swallow. His throat felt so tight, he thought he might choke. He wanted to hug his mother and tell her everything that was going to happen over the next seventeen years, but looking at her sitting in the armchair opposite, her eyes twinkling in a way they hadn't done for years, a contented smile on her lips, he couldn't bear to break her heart.
"And your husband? Patrick, wasn't it? He's out at work?"
"Yes, I'm afraid he won't be back until late, council meeting. It's a pity you'll miss him."
"Yes, a pity. I'd hope to, well, say hello and stuff."
"Particularly with you coming all this way, from . . . where was it again?"
"Canada."
"Canada, yes. I didn't know we had relatives in Canada."
"Very distant. Second cousins of second cousins, that sort of thing."
"You must be on Patrick's Aunt Margaret's side. We don't know what happened to them."
"Yes, that's right, Aunt Margaret." There was an awkward pause. The family dog, a Labrador called Jess, padded in, her tail wagging furiously. She sniffed at Mark's legs before deciding to lick his hands.
"You're honored," Mark's mother observed. "She's not normally so friendly with strangers. You know, you don't sound like you come from Canada. I thought they sounded American."
"Not from the bit I'm from." Mark struggled to think of a Canadian city. "It's a small town, fifty miles out of . . . Toronto. My father was from England, I picked up the accent from him."
"He was?"
"He, um, died. Ten years ago now."
"I'm very sorry. And your mother?"
"She's still around. Still, you know, coping. She moved out of the house to a place by the sea. I think she finds it tough, without Dad." Mark scratched Jess behind the ears. She yawned appreciatively.
"And what about you, are you married?"
"I used to be. My wife, um, died in a road accident back in 2003."
"In 2003?"
"1993," Mark corrected himself hastily.
"Oh, you poor thing. It must be so hard for you. Any children?"
"No. No, no children."
There was another awkward pause. Jess lost interest in Mark and stretched out on the rug. "So, what is it you do for work?" Mark's mother finally asked.
"I'm a solicitor," Mark answered. Even as the words left his mouth, he regretted saying them.
"A solicitor? My son Mark's studying law at university."
"Is he?" Mark said, feigning surprise. "Oh."
Mark's mother stared at him over her glasses. "You know, you really do look a lot like him."
"Must be a family resemblance." Mark took a framed photo of his younger self form the mantelpiece. "Is this him?"
"Yes, that's him," Mark's mother smiled proudly.
"You're right, there is a similarity," Mark said, studying the photo. "Reminds me of myself at that age." Mark returned the photo to its place of honor. "So, is he doing well, at university?"
"We think so. We don't hear from him all that often, a phone call every couple of weeks, but you know what they're like at that age, away from home for the first time. It's like they forget that Mum and Dad exist."
"I'm sure that's not the case."
"But he'll be home in a few weeks, and then we'll have him for the whole summer." Mark's mother frowned. "You haven't touched your tea. Is it all right?"
"Yes, it's lovely," Mark assured her, rubbing the corners of his eyes to hold back his tears. He pretended to take another sip. "What's he like, your son?"
"Oh, just like his father. Works too hard, every hour God sends."
The phone chose that moment to ring. Mark's mother heaved herself out of her seat. "Sorry, if you'll excuse me." She bustled over to the hallway and picked up the receiver. "Hello. Yes? Mark!"
Mark flinched, fearing he had been found out. But his mother continued. "I was just talking about you." She waved to Mark in the living room. "A relative from Canada, over here looking up his family tree. Mr. . . . um, sorry, what did you say your name was again?"
"Harry," Mark replied, grabbing at the first name that came to mind. "Harold . . . Jones."
"Harold Jones," his mother repeated into the phone. "Looks a bit like you, funny that, isn't it? Anyway, enough of me rabbiting on, was there anything you wanted?" There was a pause and Mark's mother reached for a pen and pad. "Oh, I see. How much do you need this time?"
Mark watched her from the front room. She looked so happy, so full of optimism. Mark put down his cup of tea and rubbed another tear from his eyes.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
"But what does this have to do with Mark Whitaker?" Rory asked back aboard the TARDIS. "Why go after him?"
"The Weeping Angel that zapped him back to 1994 did so for a reason." The Doctor darted around the console, making adjustments to switches, levers, and what looked like a bus conductor's ticket dispenser. "It singled him out specifically. It was working to a plan."
"What plan?" Amy wondered.
"We won't know the answer to that until we find Mark Whitaker," Alex said from her place against the railing.
"Exactly," the Doctor affirmed, pointing at her. "Then we have to return him to 2011 before he changes history."
"But why's that so bad?" Rory questioned. "You're always saying that time can be rewritten."
The Doctor stopped his running around to fix Rory with a hard stare. "It can. But that doesn't mean that it should. I can rewrite time, yes, because I know what I'm doing. Whereas a human being, blundering about—"
"Yeah, but you're exaggerating a bit, aren't you? I mean, how much difference can one man make?"
"One man, Rory, can change the whole world. You should know that by now."
Rory remembered his days guarding the Pandorica. He had probably affected history quite a bit back then. "Oh," he realized. He nodded firmly. "Okay, we have to stop him."
"Quite."
Alex pushed off the railing and went to stand beside the Doctor. "But first we have to find him."
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
"So how long are you in the country for?" Mark's mother asked as he stepped out of the front door and onto the gravel driveway.
"Oh. About a week or so."
"Then it's back to Canada?"
"Yes. You, um, must come and visit." Mark had given his mother a fake address, hoping she wouldn't be too offended if she spent the next few years sending Christmas cards to a distant relative who never sent any back.
"That would be nice. I'm always on at Patrick to take me on holiday. This might be just the excuse I need."
"I remember. You never had a honeymoon," Mark said quietly.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Nothing." Mark cleared his throat. "You should go, you really should, before it's too late."
Mark's mother frowned. "What do you mean, 'too late'?"
Mark swallowed. The air seemed suddenly thin. "Nothing."
"No, you meant something. You wouldn't have said it otherwise. What did you mean?"
"I meant, well, my dad always promised to take my mum on holiday, but one month before his retirement, he had a heart attack. You know, it might be a family thing. You should get Dad to go in for a check-up."
"Dad?"
"I mean, Patrick. Because it's the sort of thing where they can cure it, if they catch it early enough."
Mark's mother considered this. His words had frightened her. "You don't know what he's like. Stubborn."
"My dad was the same. Please. Don't take no for an answer."
"I'll try my best," Mark's mother promised, giving Mark a wary look.
"Sorry. Anyway, I have to go." Mark put on a brave smile. "Lovely to meet you. And thanks for the tea." He shook her hand. As their fingers touched, Mark's fingers tingled, like he'd received a tiny electrical shock.
"Thank you for coming. Give my love to, er, Canada."
"Goodbye." Mark smiled and headed down the driveway. He heard his mother call after him, but he didn't dare look back. He couldn't let her see the tears dribbling down his cheeks.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
The TARDIS floor lurched and whirled like a bucking bronco. Amy clung to Rory for dear life, while Rory clung to one of the stair railings. Alex was hanging on, with both hands, to parts of the console. Meanwhile, the Doctor danced around said console, his eyes gleaming with excitement and madness. The companions had stopped trying to figure out how he managed to remain upright during times like this a long time ago. It was probably some Time Lord thing.
"I think," the Doctor said now, glancing up at the scanner before typing out a command on the console typewriter. "Yes. I think I've found him!"
"Found him? Where?" Rory called over the thrashing.
The Doctor pulled a lever and a map of Great Britain appeared on the scanner on the wall. It zoomed in on a point north of London. A glowing green dot slid upwards, surrounded by pulsing circles. "A source of wibbly time stuff – stop me if I'm getting too technical – is heading north-west."
"You think that's him?" Amy asked.
"A great big paradox just waiting to happen," the Doctor affirmed. "Who else do you think it might be?"
"He's heading north-west?" Alex cried. The TARDIS suddenly buckled, nearly causing her to fly backwards, but she tightened her grip on the console at the last second.
"Yeah, why?" the Doctor asked, looking over at her.
Alex didn't answer. Instead, she called over her shoulder, "Rory! Could you check that list for me please? I think I know where he's heading!"
Rory quickly retrieved the list from his pocket. "Uh, let's see." His eyes moved over the list quickly. "Oh, I think I've got it! According to his CV, in 1994, Mark Whitaker was studying at university in. . ." He frowned. "Warwick."
"I knew it!" Alex exclaimed. She turned to the Doctor. "He's going to contact his younger self!"
"I think you're right," the Doctor said gravely. He rushed over and examined the scanner. "Odd thing is though, he seems to be traveling at about a hundred miles an hour."
Alex rolled her eyes. "He's probably on a train, Doc."
The Doctor didn't seem to hear her. "Let's see. . . It wouldn't make sense for him to be on a plane, he'd never get a car to travel that fast – not without breaking several traffic laws and I don't think he'd be in that much of a hurry – so what else could he be on? You lot don't have hypersonic flight yet, and forget teleportation! Too many incidents involving missing limbs and some ending up where they're not supposed to be. So what other modes of transportation are there in 1994? Hmm. . ." Suddenly, he gasped. "A train!"
Alex did a face-palm. "I just said that!"
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
"Tea, coffee, sandwiches?"
"No thanks."
The rail steward gave Mark a polite smile, then rattled her trolley further along the carriage. "Tea, coffee, sandwiches?"
Mark gazed out of the window, watching the fields, streams, roads, and bridges rush past in a blur. Small villages and towns slid by in the distance and his reflection floated alongside the train in midair.
He checked his watch. Another hour or so and he'd be back at university. In his head, he ran over the words he wanted to say. He had so much to tell his younger self.
Mark rubbed his right hand. The tingling sensation seemed to be getting worse. It was probably just a strained muscle, but something about it made him feel uneasy. Vulnerable. Like he was being watched.
He glanced outside again. Trees rushed past and power lines roved up and down. And looking up, there was nothing but clear blue sky. . .
. . .and a wooden blue box spinning in midair. It hovered about thirty meters above the ground, whirling and flitting erratically, but always remaining parallel with the train.
It was following him.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
Back inside the TARDIS, the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and Alex stared at the scanner, showing the Inter City 125 zooming through the green British countryside. However, Amy, Rory, and Alex's gazes kept going over to the item the Doctor had thrust at Alex shortly before they started following the train. It was a bright red fire extinguisher. The Doctor hadn't given Alex a direct reason for why she needed a fire extinguisher, other than something about it being for 'this kind of emergency'.
Needless to say, this didn't reassure the companions any.
The Doctor seemed to be the only one not worried about the TARDIS suddenly bursting into flames. Instead, he adjusted the controls to bring the time machine closer to the train. But nothing happened. "Might be a spot of turbulence," he told them. "Time stuff won't let us get too close."
He dashed over to the exterior doors and shoved them open. A blustering wind burst into the control room with a roar. Balanced in the doorway, the Doctor whooped with delight like a mariner in a thunderstorm, the breeze whipping and ruffling his hair.
Alex handed the fire extinguisher off to Amy, who she noted looked rather alarmed at being given the device. While the Ponds stayed up on the platform, Alex fought her way over to the Doctor, gripping onto railings to keep from being blown backwards by the wind. After a few moments, she finally reached him. She gripped the doorway with one hand while the other went to clutch at the Doctor's tweed jacket. She squinted through the rushing air and looked down.
They were flying over the train. Trees and pylons hurtled past just a few feet beneath them. It looked like the scene in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where Harry and Ron flew the enchanted car over the Hogwarts Express.
"He's on board that train?" Amy shouted down over the bluster of the wind.
"No doubt about it!" the Doctor yelled back.
"And we're not the only ones that have found him!" Alex revealed. Her hair whipped around her face, making it tousled and tangled in the way the Doctor liked. She waved her hand in a beckoning manner. "Come look!"
Amy passed the fire extinguisher to Rory and hurried down as fast as the wind would allow her to go. Once she was by the door, she peered out. The wind made her eyes water and she squinted. She followed the Doctor and Alex's pointed fingers and stared down at the sight beneath her.
They were pointed towards the last carriage of the train. Six gray figures crouched on the roof, clinging to it with their bare hands, their wings unfolded. All of them were perfectly motionless, like statues.
"You have to admire that," Alex admitted. "It's a wonder they haven't fallen off."
"Weeping Angels are very strong," the Doctor informed her. "Hanging onto the top of a moving train? Ha! Nothing for them."
"Do you think we really have a chance at stopping him?" Amy asked.
Alex shrugged. It could really go either way. Having spent so much time with the Doctor, she knew the human race was unpredictable. Either they would do the right thing, or they'd do the wrong thing, thinking it was the right thing.
The Doctor opened his mouth to answer, probably something along these same lines, but then they heard a loud explicative from behind them, followed by Rory shouting, "DOCTOR!"
The three whirled around. A large fire had broken out on the console. Rory was backed up against the railing, fumbling with the fire extinguisher as he tried to release the pin.
While Alex and Amy looked on in shock and horror, the Doctor merely sighed. "Figured that might happen," he said, shaking his head. He patted the doorframe fondly. "For a spaceship, she really doesn't do much flying."
Amy and Alex turned to give him identical peeved expressions. "Really?!" they snapped before running up to the console to help Rory. After a moment, the Doctor slammed the doors shut and followed them.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
The moment of decision had arrived. Our Graham had summarized the three prospective dates' replies, and the girl had made her selection. The audience whooped and applauded as the Two She Could Have Chosen passed by, the divider slid back, the dates kissed, chose their holiday envelope, and the Blind Date theme began.
Watching the show, they'd played the usual game of deciding who they'd select for a date, with Rebecca and Sophie choosing the boys, Mark and Lucy choosing the girls, and Rajeev pointedly refusing to look up from his copy of New Scientist. Sophie always chose the boy who most resembled Mark, then paid close attention to Mark's selection to discover what he had liked about the girls.
"This is boring," Rebecca declared. She uncurled herself from her position on the battered sofa and strode in front of the screen. "We have to go out or we may actually die of old age."
"What do you suggest?" Lucy called from the kitchen, where she was tossing the remains of her pasta into the trash-can.
"I don't know. Go to the Saturday night disco at the union or something. We can't stay in watching telly all night. That's what our parents do."
"Well, I'm up for it," Lucy agreed.
"You're always up for it. What about you, Mark?"
"Don't know," Mark shrugged. "Should be getting back to work, really."
"Mark has an exam on Monday," Sophie informed her, threading her arm possessively through Mark's.
"Which is a whole two days away," Rebecca pointed out. "Look, it's a well-known scientific fact that if you don't take breaks from studying, your brain will explode. Isn't that right, Rajeev?"
Rajeev nodded sagely, not bothering to look up from his magazine. "Fact-o-matic."
"And if you're gonna be sitting in here watching telly, you might as well go out. Right?"
"You can go," Sophie suggested. "Me and Mark can just have a night in." She cuddled up to him, either not noticing or choosing to ignore the uncomfortable look that crossed Mark's face.
"I don't know," he said slowly. "I kind of fancy getting out of the house." He smirked conspiratorially at Rebecca, and Sophie felt a surge of jealousy run through her veins. Rebecca – or Bex, as she preferred to be called – could always twist Mark around her little finger. And he always laughed at Rebecca's jokes. He never laughed at any of the jokes she made. Why couldn't Rebecca get herself a new boyfriend, or get back together with Dennis Nice-But-Dim?
"Yes, but we can't really afford it," Sophie now reminded her boyfriend.
"Which is why I suggested the union," Rebecca interjected. "It may be totally lame, but it's cheaper than any of the clubs in Leamington." On the screen behind her, Michael Barrymore strutted about, advertising chocolate fingers.
"Okay." Mark dragged himself to his feet. "Union it is. Head off in about an hour? Bagsy the shower. Oh, and Bex, try not to use any hot water while I'm in there. Being suddenly frozen to death wasn't funny the first time, or the next five times."
"I don't know," Rebecca smirked. "For me, it gets funnier."
"Promise you won't do it."
"Okay, I promise. If it happens again, it will be a genuine accident."
"But I can't go!" Sophie protested. "Not dressed like this." She'd be a total laughingstock, going to a disco wearing a chunky jumper and jeans.
"You can always borrow something of Rebecca's. I'm sure she wouldn't mind." Grinning to himself, Mark clomped upstairs. Whoever had designed their house had had a thing about staircases and had tried to incorporate them instead of hallways wherever possible.
"He was just joking, you know," Rebecca said tactfully, as if it wasn't obvious that Sophie wouldn't be able to squeeze into any of Rebecca's clothes. Was Mark hinting that he'd find her more attractive if she lost weight? That she should be slim like Rebecca?
"You're welcome to any of my stuff," Lucy offered. "Probably not your style though."
No, Sophie thought, regarding her friend's army surplus trousers and Shakespeare Sister t-shirt. "It's alright, I'll cope. Half an hour then."
"Flatmate outing. Party time, excellent," Rebecca said excitedly. "You coming, Rajeev?"
"No, I'm good," Rajeev replied. "Not really my scene. Besides, I promised I'd phone my parents later, so that's my entire evening gone."
"Suit yourself. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to make myself gorgeous." Rebecca grinned. "This is going to be a night to remember."
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
Their old house, just as he remembered it. Mark had taken the bus from Coventry station to Leamington Spa, the same journey he'd made a dozen times before, and now here he was, standing outside the terraced house he'd shared with Rebecca, Lucy, and Rajeev in his second year at university. Seeing it made Mark feel. . . What did he feel? Excited, yes. Nostalgic, like discovering an old school photo. But with a tinge of sadness, at how much he had lost.
The front door opened, and Mark ducked out of sight. Three girls and a boy emerged. Mark's heart stopped. The first girl, an indomitable-looking, dark-haired Goth, was Lucy. Then there was Sophie, his ex-girlfriend, all curves, freckles, and a severely cut bob of auburn hair.
And then there was Rebecca. Oh God. She looked perfect. She had long blonde hair and wore a black-and-white top with an Inca design and black leggings. Her laughter echoed in the dusky air.
The boy was Mark's own younger self. Short hair, gelled into a parting, John Lennon-style glasses, sallow, red cheeks. Wearing his best Fred Perry shirt. He looked so young, so . . . innocent. Laughing with Rebecca without a care in the world.
Mark watched them go. He'd have to wait until his younger self was alone; he couldn't talk to him while the others were around. Keeping well back, but feeling highly conspicuous, Mark followed his 20-year-old self down the road.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
Amy, Alex, and Rory stood a few feet back from the TARDIS, watching the Doctor madly wave the fire extinguisher around the time machine's doorframe. The fire on the console had spread rather quickly and the Doctor had gotten burned several times as he hastily landed the ship. Luckily for them, they had landed just a little ways away from Mark's old university house.
Alex glanced down at Mark's past self and his friends. How they weren't noticing this spectacle was beyond her.
The Doctor coughed on the smoke, fruitlessly waving it away from his face as he tossed the fire extinguisher inside and slammed the door. "She'll be fine," he assured them as he walked over, smelling slightly of smoke. "After the last time, I made some modifications that would speed up the recovery time should this happen again."
"I thought the TARDIS was a spaceship," Rory remarked.
"It is. It just . . . doesn't do a lot of flying. Floating, yes. Flying, no."
"So you said," Alex sighed. She raked a hand through her hair and looked back at the TARDIS. Smoke continued to spew out of the door cracks. "How long until she's working again?"
"About an hour or two, tops."
"Well, in the meantime, what's the plan?" Amy asked. She turned and nodded down to where Mark was trailing his younger self to the bus stop. The old Mark then held back, keeping his face turned away from the group of students.
"We get to him before he gets to himself." The Doctor ducked behind a garden wall, pulling Alex down along with him. "Before his older self gets to his younger self."
"You make it sound so uncomplicated."
"And," Alex added, poking her head up over the wall, "most importantly, before they get to either of them." She pointed to the roof of the terraced house the young Mark had emerged from. It took a moment for Amy to realize what she was pointing at. Six stone Angels were perched high on the brickwork like gargoyles.
"But why are they after him, run that past me again?" Rory requested.
"Moths to a flame," the Doctor muttered. "If Mark succeeds in changing his own past, he'll create a paradox. Once you've altered your own timeline, the young you won't grow old to become the old you who did the altering. Which creates all kinds of peculiar and nasty side effects, like including the release of a vast amount of potential time energy."
"Which is what the Angels are after," Alex added, keeping her gaze locked on the Angels on the rooftop.
"Exactly. Look at them. They're hungry, desperate. Then somebody sounds a dinner gong."
"Um, Doctor?" Rory interrupted. He nodded down to the bus stop. The others turned to see young Mark and his three female friends clambering on the bus, followed by old Mark. Then, suddenly remembering, Amy and Alex whirled back to stare at the building. But the six Angels had vanished.
"Come on!" the Doctor yelled, snatching Alex's hand before hurdling over the wall and pelting towards the bus stop. Alex kept a tight grip on him as she struggled to keep up with his erratic movements. Amy and Rory sprinted after them, but they were too late. The bus pulled away and rumbled into the distance.
The Doctor spun on his heel, unintentionally yanking Alex around as he looked for inspiration. Alex yelped but made no move to remove her hand from his. At that moment, a car approached, and the Doctor released Alex's hand to go and dive out in front of it. Amy gave a quiet scream while Alex gave a loud shriek. IDIOT! she thought. She was definitely giving him a whack for that.
The car, thankfully, screeched to a halt moments from the Doctor. He walked to the driver's window, brandishing the wallet containing the psychic paper.
"Hello. I'm a policeman," he said, gesturing for Amy, Rory, and Alex to get in the backseat. Alex got in first, followed by the Ponds. The Doctor then slid into the passenger seat beside the driver, a startled-looking vicar. "Now, follow that bus!"
The vicar didn't even object, instead gunning the engine and going after the bus. Alex waited until they were moving before leaning forwards, snaking her arm around the passenger seat, and whacking the Doctor across the back of the head.
"OW!" the Doctor exclaimed. He clasped the back of his head and turned to shoot her a look. "What was that for?!"
"What you do think it was for, you bleeding idiot?!"
"Don't swear," the Doctor admonished, nodding to the vicar.
"I'll say some Hail Mary's later. And by the time I'm finished telling you off, I'll probably have to say my whole rosary five times, so thank you for that."
Amy and Rory exchanged a look. Rory reached into his pocket and pulled out his iPod. Amy smiled at him gratefully and put an ear-bud in. Rory put in the second bud and clicked the device on. The opening guitar strains of 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' immediately began pounding into their eardrums, dulling the sound of Alex's voice as she cursed and berated the Doctor. And from the sound of it, it would be a while before she stopped.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
A/N: Here's a fun fact for you guys: the TARDIS catching on fire is not in the book. As I was reading, it occurred to me what happened to the TARDIS in 'The Runaway Bride' when the Doctor flew it to rescue Donna. Since the TARDIS was basically flying here, it seemed odd that what happened when it did so in 'The Runaway Bride' didn't happen here. So . . . I changed it. I think it worked out pretty well. Got some comedy out of it. :)
And the Doctor and Alex were going to go on their first date! Damn! But perhaps we'll see them actually manage to go on a proper date without getting interrupted. . . :} And more flirting and fluff will be coming in the next chapter. :)
Review Replies:
NicoleR85 - Thank you! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)
Guest - Yes, I've returned! :D
ShadowTeir - Haha, I don't blame you there. I get the feeling that the book chapters won't be as popular with readers because they'll be wanting the Doctor and Alex instead of these other random characters. There are a few more book adventures in this story, but they involve a lot more Doctor and Alex. :) Oh, yeah, the interaction between Mark and Toby is pretty funny, if cringe-worthy on Toby's part. Haha, I loved the secretary comment too. Alex is so not putting up with that. :) I don't want to say too much about Demons Run in order to avoid spoiling things, so I'll just say that the idea of Alex being there is plausible. After all, if Amy is there, why not her? But we'll have to wait and see if you're on the right track or not. I definitely giggled in parts while writing the sex talk scene. It is funny, but it also has some seriousness to it too. It was difficult to write in the sense of my wanting to accurately portray the Doctor and Alex's emotions during the conversation, considering what leads up to the conversation as well as the current circumstances they are in at the time of the conversation. In regards to Lacey, we'll see her entering the workforce. She will be sort of involved with G-Locke, but that's much further along into the series and not necessarily in the way you're thinking. :} Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :)
bored411 - Glad you enjoyed the chapter! Hope you enjoyed this one! :)
whitedwarf - They definitely have some difficulties in the early stages of their relationship (like trying to go on their first date which gets interrupted by Weeping Angels). I think you could say we got some contention in this chapter with the Doctor jumping out in front of a car, completely disregarding his own safety (in Alex's eyes). There will be a little bit more contention in this adventure specifically, but I like the ways in which the Doctor and Alex deal with it. :) Lol, restrain yourself! I'm guilty with that too. Whenever I happen to watch an old movie or TV series with my parents, I have to look it up to see what will happen. I'm horribly impatient. :) The feedback definitely keeps encouraging me and keeps up the energy. I'm glad people are responding so well to this story so far, especially since I worry about it being a 'sophomore slump'. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :)
Thank you to everyone that reviewed, followed and/or favorited this story! Please review and see you tomorrow! :)