A/N: Alex's outfit for this chapter can be viewed on my Tumblr, under the name 'darksideofparis'.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
Alex walked down the TARDIS corridors on a mission. Apparently, Amy and Rory had yet to emerge from their bedroom even though she and the Doctor had been up for a little over an hour. Such tardiness was unacceptable with the Doctor, and he had been all ready and willing to charge into the couple's room and drag them out, but Alex had immediately volunteered to do it instead. No doubt she could be a bit more tactful and considerate than the Doctor.
Once reaching the Ponds' bedroom, she quickly rapped on the door. "Ponds! Up and at 'em!" She leaned against the wall beside the door and waited for a response.
It had been a week since her last attack in her sleep and so far, nothing else had happened. That night, after doing quite a bit of kissing, the Doctor, insistent that she relax, had read to her from the book she'd been reading, Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen. Alex hadn't objected because she knew he was worried about her. Frankly, so was she. That damn attack was making her nervous about sleeping. She already had a fear of water; she didn't need a fear of sleeping too.
After finishing her book, she and the Doctor had made their way back into the auditorium, where they finished up La Belle et la Bête, and then moved onto the first season of Sherlock. Alex had fallen asleep a quarter of the way through 'The Blind Banker' and had woken up back in her bed, the Doctor next to her. He had been wide awake, keeping a watchful eye on her as she slept.
In this past week, Alex and the rest of the TARDIS crew hadn't done anything of interest. The Doctor was terrified about getting into some trouble on a planet just when she got another attack and had thus kept their ventures out of the TARDIS few and fairly dull. There had been a long trek through some museums in Athens (which nearly bored Amy and Rory to tears, both of them having a severe aversion to museums), a quick venture into Antarctica (where Rory had been attacked by a penguin, much to the amusement of the others), and a trip to the future to go purchase new filing cabinets for the Doctor's study because 21st century cabinets would never compare to 23rd century ones, or so the Doctor claimed. Frankly, none of the companions saw any differences between the two.
To combat the severe boredom, the companions had taken matters into their own hands by extensively exploring the TARDIS. They'd discovered a room that had a bouncy floor quite like a bouncy house or a trampoline, the TARDIS garden (which was in severe need of management, since there were quite a few kudzu vines threatening to start growing over the back of the door), and even a karaoke bar where Amy and Rory tortured Alex with several awful attempts at ABBA songs.
And in between those escapades, the Ponds tried to help Alex feel better and get over her attack from the other night. Rory had spent quite a few hours in the library, pooling over medical books with the Doctor for some explanation as to Alex's symptoms. Amy's idea of helping was a bit more materialistic. She'd sat Alex down and set to work on her jagged, torn hails. The redhead filed at the nails until they were all smooth and perfectly curved at the top, then proceeded to paint them a nice shade of lilac and do elaborate gold and silver star-like designs on them.
Now, Alex examined them. She didn't usually paint her nails, due to an unfortunate habit of picking and biting at the polish when bored, but so far these nails had gone unscathed, and she was hoping to keep them that way. Amy would have her hide if she saw all her hard work ruined.
Speaking of Amy. . . Alex turned and rapped at the door again, a bit more forcefully than last time. "Amy! Rory!" she shouted. "Hurry up! Do you want the Doctor to barge in?"
"Come on in!" Amy called. "We're just trying to figure out a problem."
A problem? Alex cocked her head in confusion, but couldn't resist adding a cheeky, "Are you decent?"
She could practically feel Amy's exasperation seeping out the thin wooden door. "Oh, just get in here!" she snapped. Alex smirked and ducked into the room.
She looked around as she entered, trying to spot any potential problems that might have attracted the Ponds' attention. There was nothing wrong with the walls, covered in TARDIS blue wallpaper with purple and silver accents. The same went for the dressers, the bookcase, and Amy's vanity. In fact, Alex couldn't see anything that was cause for alarm at all . . . until she turned around and saw Amy and Rory standing at the foot of their bed.
Correction, standing where the foot of their bed used to be. Instead of the large four-poster oak bed Alex had seen last time she was in here, there was now a large metal bunk-bed pressed up against the wall. It was TARDIS blue with matching sheets and covers on both mattresses, along with two silver pillows on each bunk.
It was surprising to see the bunk-bed . . . but only because this was the first time Alex had seen it since the Doctor told her about his bed reversal. Not that Amy and Rory knew this.
The bed reversal had occurred shortly after the Doctor divulged the weird results of the scans he'd conducted on Amy to Alex. Since neither were sure what was wrong with Amy, Alex had agreed with the Doctor's decision to replace the Ponds' regular bed with something that would deter . . . intimate relations between the couple. It just didn't seem like a good idea to let Amy and Rory keep doing those activities when Amy's scans were going back and forth on whether or not she was pregnant. With Amy's condition up in the air, it was best to keep her away from serious physical activity if there really was something wrong with her; another reason why most of their trips lately had been of the boring variety.
Amy hadn't made it a secret that she wasn't happy about her new sleeping arrangements. The morning after the switch was made, she came to breakfast with a scowl on her face and kept fixing the Doctor with dark glares that he pretended not to notice. Alex was honestly surprised she hadn't complained before now.
Now, Alex relied on all her acting skills. She widened her eyes and allowed her eyebrows to raise and her mouth to fall slightly open. The perfect amount of surprise without overdoing it. "Oh," she said, tilting her head so as to seem like she was studying the bed. "That's . . . not your usual bed. What's it doing here?"
"Thank you!" Amy cried, throwing up her arms. "That thing has been here for weeks! We woke up one morning and Rory almost fell off the top."
"Frankly, I have to wonder how our beds were switched without us waking up," Rory admitted.
Alex gave them what she hoped passed for an exasperated sigh and went over to pat the wall. "Did you do this?" she asked the TARDIS. There came an affirmative sounding hum beneath her fingertips, followed by a fast hum that Alex wouldn't hesitate to call laughter. The TARDIS was amused at her acting antics. Her back to Amy and Rory, Alex gave the wall an impish smile. Another hum/laugh sounded.
"Well?" Amy asked expectantly. "What'd she say?"
Alex thought fast. "The TARDIS did switch the beds, but it wasn't her idea and she's very sorry." She and the Doctor had never actually discussed what they should say if and when the Ponds confronted them, but she figured this was the best lie. It was definitely something Amy would believe.
Sure enough, Amy's eyes narrowed, and she snorted. "I knew it! I knew it! I told Rory the Doctor had to be behind it!"
"Hardly 'told'," Rory said dryly. "More like yelled."
Amy ignored him. Instead, she gave Alex a don't-argue-with-me look. "Go out to the console room and smack your boyfriend for switching all of our beds!" she commanded.
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Okay, first off, the Doctor is not my boyfriend." She grimaced slightly at the word, which didn't fit the Doctor at all. She really had to come up with an official term for him. "And second, my bed wasn't switched."
Figures, Amy thought. "Well, if you can't smack him, I will." And with a determined look on her face, she marched out of the room.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
Unfortunately for Amy, she didn't get a chance to do any smacking. The second she appeared in the control room, the Doctor, most likely having been alerted to her anger by the TARDIS, launched into a jubilant re-telling of his adventure on a planet called Terra Alpha, where it was apparently a law to be happy twenty-four/seven. If you weren't, you were executed by something called a Kandy Man, which the Doctor described as a 'giant, robotic gingerbread man'. Fortunately, the Doctor had managed to escape and solve these problems.
It seemed the Doctor was in a nostalgic mood today because for the past two hours, he'd done nothing but talk about prior adventures. While Amy flittered in and out of the control room, Alex and Rory sat in the jump-seats, listening to the Doctor's gob with varying degrees of interest; Rory mostly bored and disinclined to believe the stories, and Alex interested. Currently though, she was disinterested since the story the Doctor was telling now was one she had lived.
". . .and then we discovered it wasn't the Robot King after all, it was the real one," the Doctor recounted as he walked around the console. "Fortunately, I was able to re-attach the head."
"Do you believe any of this stuff?" Rory asked Amy as she came down the stairs.
"I was there," Amy said vacantly as she headed across the platform over to the stairs that led to the underside of the console.
"As was I," Alex added. She shot a glare at the Doctor. "And I should know, because I distinctly remember getting arrested and locked up because apparently, wearing ripped jeans on Terados is illegal!"
"I said I was sorry!" the Doctor cried as he moved over to a section of the console where a small beeping alarm was going off. He peered down at two small flashing red lights. "Oh, it's the warning lights," he announced, tapping at them. "I'm getting rid of those. They never stop!" He then proceeded to kick the console which, while not the most practical thing to do, served to turn the lights off.
Alex was about to laugh at his antics until she caught sight of a whispering Amy and Rory on the stairs leading underneath the console. Her interest piqued, she watched as Amy glanced up at the Doctor before turning back to Rory.
Alex bit her lip. She knew exactly what they were discussing: the Doctor's future death.
To her credit, Alex had done a remarkable job at not thinking about the Doctor's future death for quite a while now. But sometimes at night, she dreamed of the Doctor getting gunned down on the shores of Lake Silencio, though these dreams weren't as horrifying as the one she'd had the night they defeated the Silence. The Doctor being mad at her for some small infraction she could handle. Being blamed for his death? No.
But again, to her credit, she hadn't thought or dwelled on the Doctor's impeding death. Alex had done her best to rationalize the whole event as best as she could. When he died, the Doctor was 200 years older. His death, from his point of view, probably took place long after she died. While not exactly a pleasant thought, it was certainly better than wondering if he died while she was still alive, leaving her all alone.
In the end though, Alex had told herself not to dwell on it because there wasn't anything she could do to prevent it, try as she might to come up with something. She just had to enjoy the time she had with the Doctor because when it came down to it, it was all she had.
But before she could really contemplate that final thought, there came a knocking at the TARDIS doors.
The four members of the TARDIS crew spun around to eye the door apprehensively. "What was that?" Amy demanded nervously as she and Rory walked backwards up the steps to the platform.
"The door," the Doctor replied, stating the obvious. He walked down to the door while Alex leapt up from the jumpseat and joined Amy and Rory at their new spot by the railing. "It knocked."
"Right. . ." Rory said slowly. "We are in deep space."
"Very, very deep," the Doctor affirmed.
Another series of knocking rang out.
"And somebody really wants to get in," Alex observed. She reached up and pulled her sonic necklace charm out from underneath the collar of her long-sleeved white shirt, paired with skinny jeans, flat black suede boots, and large silver hoop earrings. She gripped the TARDIS charm, ready to use it in case something malevolent was behind the door.
The Doctor reached out and slowly opened the door. His eyes widened when he saw a small white cube floating before him. "Oh, come here," he beamed, his voice almost breathless with awe. "Come here, you scrumptious little beauty!"
Amy and Rory turned to look at Alex, who had reddened slightly at the name. The Doctor had, in fact, called her that once when he was trying to get her out of the library and to the control room. But this time, the lucky recipient was an inanimate object.
The companions watched the Doctor reach out to grab the cube, only for it to fly right past him and into the TARDIS. It swung past Amy, Rory, and Alex, who all yelped and ducked as it went by, and then back over to the Doctor, hitting him right in the chest and knocking him to the floor.
"Doctor!" Alex called to him. She peered over the railing to see if he was okay.
Rory's attention, however, was focused on the glowing cube on the ground. "A box?" he said skeptically.
"Doctor, what is it?" Amy asked.
The Doctor grabbed the cube and held it carefully in both hands as he popped back up. "I've got mail!" he cried cheerfully. Within an instant, he had shut the door with his foot and was running up to the console, the cube cradled in his hands and held close to his chest as though it were his firstborn son or something.
Alex rushed over to him and eyed the object. "What is it, Doc?" It had to be something very important for the Doctor to be so ecstatic.
"Time Lord emergency messaging system," he explained as he began setting the coordinates with one hand. "In an emergency, we'd wrap up thoughts in psychic containers and send them through time and space." He turned to beam wildly at Alex. "Anyway, there's a living Time Lord still out there! And it's one of the good ones!"
Alex's expression froze. She knew she should be happy for the Doctor that another member of his race was still alive, but she couldn't help but worry that he might be getting his hopes up too soon. For all they knew, this message had been sent before Gallifrey was destroyed by some poor solider requesting the Doctor's help in battle. "You said there weren't any other Time Lords left," she gently reminded him, hoping that this might help him think a bit more realistically.
"There are no Time Lords left anywhere in the universe," the Doctor corrected. "But the universe isn't where we're going." He held the cube up to her eye-level so she could examine it. "See that snake?" he said as Amy and Rory came round to look at the cube too. Sure enough, there was a picture of an Ourobouros printed on the side of the box. "The mark of the Corsair. Fantastic bloke! He had that snake as a tattoo in every regeneration. Didn't feel like himself unless he had the tattoo. Or herself, a couple of times." He tossed the cube to Amy, then whirled around to the other side of the console. "Ooh, she was a bad girl!" he remarked as he threw down a lever.
All of a sudden, the TARDIS jolted forwards. Sparks flew off the console as the time machine barreled through the time vortex at a speed it probably wasn't meant to be going at. The companions were thrown onto the console. Alex grabbed at a lever she was pretty sure didn't actually work and clung for dear life. Amy and Rory did the same beside her.
"What is happening?!" Rory shouted over the roar of the TARDIS engines.
"We're leaving the universe!" the Doctor whooped, the only one of them seemingly unaffected by the TARDIS's more-than-usual chaotic flying.
"How can you leave the universe?!" Amy cried.
"With enormous difficulty! Right now, I'm burning up TARDIS rooms to give us some welly." He reached over and flicked a few switches and pressed a few buttons. "Goodbye swimming pool! Goodbye scullery! Sayonara, squash court seven!" He slammed another lever down, sending another burst of sparks upwards. Alex yelped as a spark landed dangerously close to her face. The TARDIS jolted again, this time backwards, and Alex was thrown back into a jumpseat. She closed her eyes and gripped the underside of the chair, praying that this ordeal would be over soon.
Several bumps and jostles later, it was. The TARDIS landed with a heavy thump, nearly causing everyone to fall to the floor. Once the time machine settled, Alex cautiously loosened her grip on the chair and opened her eyes.
The Doctor, seeing her new position, hurried over to her side. "Ally, are you alright?" he asked as he pulled her out of the jumpseat. He cradled her face, checking for any injuries.
Alex smiled broadly at him. "I'm fine, Doc." She placed her hands on top of his, her eyes turning from chocolate brown to his own dark green. "Really."
The Doctor matched her smile back. He was just about to lean in and kiss her when Amy's voice rang out. "Okay, okay," she breathed, brushing hair away from her face. "Where are we?"
The Doctor frowned slightly at Amy interrupting them again but answered her question anyway. "Outside the universe," he replied, his lips curving into a grin as he was reminded of their reason for being here. "Where we've never, ever been."
Right at that moment, all the lights in the TARDIS started to dim.
Rory frowned at the ceiling. "Is that meant to be happening?"
The Doctor scrambled away from Alex over to the console. He frantically worked a few controls, but nothing happened. "The power . . . it's draining. Everything's draining! But it can't . . . that's . . . that's impossible!"
Alex looked around worriedly as the room darkened completely. The only light now came from the cube which, in the chaos of the last few minutes, had fallen and wedged itself between two levers on the console. Alex reached out to grasp the railing, trying to feel the TARDIS's familiar humming. But there was nothing, nothing at all, not even a faint vibration. Oh God, it's like the Dream Lord all over again, she thought, remembering the reality where the TARDIS had been essentially dead. But this time, she wasn't under the influence of psychic pollen. This was real. Which is much, much scarier.
"What is that?" Rory asked.
"It's as if the Matrix, the soul of the TARDIS, has just vanished." The Doctor stared at the central column, the familiar green light no longer glowing in the glass structure.
Alex frowned and crossed over to him. "But where would it go?" she wondered. "Surely it couldn't just vanish!"
The Doctor merely shrugged. "No idea."
Well, isn't that reassuring, Alex snidely thought, but she managed to catch her tongue before she could actually say that.
"Well, where exactly are we then?" Amy asked as Alex snatched her turquoise trench-jacket from its place on the jumpseat and put it on.
The Doctor looked at her and beamed maniacally. "No idea!" he said cheerfully. He took hold of Alex's hand and tugged her along behind him as he bounded down the stairs. "Let's find out!"
Upon reaching the doors, the Doctor held out his hand to get the others to pause. He'd never been outside the universe before – no one had, to his knowledge – and he wasn't about to risk landing Alex – and Amy and Rory – in some horrible danger because he wasn't careful. Ever so carefully, he opened the door and peered out. Seeing no approaching armies or hideous pink blob monsters, he gripped Alex's hand and led her outside.
The outside of the universe didn't look like much to Alex. They were currently in what looked like a large quarry/junkyard. Piles of discarded trash, household objects, and futuristic looking items were scattered around for as far as the eye could see. Not to mention, but the place stunk. It reminded Alex of the Southern Bristol High School locker rooms she'd been forced to use back in ninth grade gym. Both places reeked of the overwhelming scent of sweat and B.O.
"So what kind of trouble's your friend in?" Amy asked as the group ventured into the junkyard.
"He was in a bind . . . a bit of a pickle," the Doctor said vaguely. "Sort of distressed."
Alex rolled her eyes. "You know it wouldn't kill you to say that you don't know, right, Doc?"
"I said I didn't know something not five minutes ago!"
"What is this place?" Rory questioned before Alex could come up with a reply. He stared disdainfully at a pile of rubbish. "The scrapyard at the end of the universe?"
"Outside of," Alex corrected, earning her an approving nod from the Doctor.
"How can we be outside the Universe? The Universe is . . . everything."
The Doctor stepped away from Alex to wrap an arm around Rory's shoulders. He led the man back towards the TARDIS, Alex following along at his heels. Amy stood a small distance away, peering inside an old washing machine with the help of an equally old spatula. "Imagine a great big soap bubble," the Doctor instructed, "with one of those tiny little bubbles on the outside."
"Okay. . ."
"But it's nothing like that." The Doctor patted him on the shoulder while Rory just rolled his eyes and Alex shook her head.
The Doctor ignored them, instead stepping over to the TARDIS to run a hand along the wooden door. Like Alex, he couldn't feel any humming or vibrations. "Completely drained!" he bemoaned. "Look at her!"
"Wait!" Amy called out from her place by the washing machine. "So, we're in a tiny bubble universe, sticking to the side of the bigger bubble universe?"
Still caught up in examining the TARDIS, the Doctor absently answered, "Yeah." A moment later though, he realized what Amy had said. "No! But if it helps, yes."
Alex rolled her eyes in a slightly exasperated, slightly fond manner. The Doctor barely gave straight answers on anything. But he wouldn't be the man she loved if he didn't. Stepping up to him, she ran a hand over the POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX sign. She bit her lip worriedly. It was so weird not feeling the TARDIS's presence. Alex had grown so used to it that to not feel it anymore. . . It was rather disconcerting. Not to mention alarming. "Do you think you can fix her?" she asked.
The Doctor shrugged, trying not to let her see how bothered he actually was. He forced himself to focus on the positive side of things. "This place is full of rift energy," he revealed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his side.
"Like the rift in Cardiff you told me about?"
"Not on as big a scale as that one, but similar. She'll probably refuel just by being here. Now, this place." Keeping his arm around her shoulders, the Doctor led Alex away from the TARDIS. He reached down and picked up a pebble, only to drop it a moment later. "What do we think, eh?"
"Gravity seems like it is on Earth," Alex deduced, nodding to the pebble on the ground. She bounced up and down a few times to test this further, then grinned when she was proven right.
The Doctor chuckled. "Lovely testing of your hypothesis, love." He surveyed the junkyard. "Air's breathable, but it smells like. . ."
"Armpits!" Amy blurted.
"Armpits."
"I was going to say it smelled like my ninth-grade gym locker room," Alex commented, "but that works too."
"What about all of this stuff?" Rory wondered. He looked around at all of the random items, then poked at what appeared to be a makeshift lantern hanging from a pole on a tent constructed out of several towels and blankets. "Where did this come from?"
"Well, there's a rift," the Doctor explained. "Now and then, stuff gets sucked through it. Not a bubble, a plughole! The Universe has a plughole and we've just fallen down it."
"Thief! Thief!" The group whirled around at the new voice coming from somewhere off in the distance. "You're my thief!"
At that moment, a woman came barreling towards them. She was wearing a tattered light blue Victorian style dress with brown lace-up boots. Her long black hair was piled up on top of her head, giving her an exotic, mysterious look. But what Alex mainly noticed about the woman was that as she was running, she had an arm outstretched, pointing straight at the Doctor.
"She's dangerous!" another voice cried out, this one belonging to an old woman who was chasing after the first one. Struggling along behind her was a man in an old Confederate Army uniform. "Guard yourselves!"
Probably good advice, but by that point the younger woman had already reached the Doctor. Alex jumped aside as the young woman practically pounced on the Doctor. "Look at you!" she cried, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Goodbye! No, not goodbye, what's the other one?" And before the Doctor could even try to come up with a reply, the woman pressed her lips to his.
"Doctor!" Alex shouted, though whether in jealousy, worry, or a combination of both, she didn't know. She darted forwards, about to drag the woman off the struggling Time Lord, but the old man in the Confederate Army uniform beat her to it.
"Watch out," he warned, a little too late, as he tried to pull the woman off. "Careful, keep back from her." Finally, with the combined efforts of the older man and the squirming Doctor, the woman was pulled away. She laughed crazily as she was yanked back, hardly bothered by this new development.
"Welcome, strangers," the old man greeted, though he didn't sound very welcoming. "Lovely. Sorry about the mad person."
The Doctor wiped his mouth and ran a hand through his disheveled hair. He eyed the woman warily as Alex hurried up to him. "Are you okay?" she murmured. She reached up to cradle his face, checking him for any injuries he might have gotten during the kiss-attack.
"Fine, love," the Doctor assured her. He gave her a brief smile before turning back to face the still-laughing woman. "Why am I a thief?" he demanded. "What have I stolen?"
"Me," the young woman replied. "You're going to steal me, you have stolen me, you are stealing me. Oh, tenses are difficult, aren't they?" Her head swiveled around to look at Alex. "You're very intelligent, Ally. Which one's right?"
Alex gawked at her. "How did you know that name?" she demanded. How could this woman know the Doctor's nickname for her? It was impossible, not to mention worrisome. Seeing Alex looking rather perturbed – not to mention feeling that way himself – the Doctor hastily tugged her behind him, putting himself between her and the mad woman.
"Oh, oh, we are sorry, my dove," the old woman apologized. "She's off her head." She stepped forward and shook the Doctor's hand, then Alex's. "They call me Auntie."
"And I'm Uncle," the old man said, shaking their hands as well. "I'm everybody's uncle. Just keep back from this one." He nodded his head at the young woman. "She bites!"
"Do I?" the young woman said, titling her head in consideration of this new fact. Then she grinned. "Excellent!" And with that, she lunged at the Doctor and bit his ear.
"Hey!" Alex cried as she sprinted over and, with the help of Uncle, dragged the crazy woman off the Time Lord.
"Ow! Ow!" the Doctor hollered, clutching his ear in pain. As though she were a doctor being paged, Alex rushed back over to him. She stood up on tiptoe, putting her hands on his shoulders for balance, and examined his ear. Fortunately, the bitey mad woman hadn't broken the skin. The worst he would have was a bruise. Ever so gently, Alex leaned in and lightly kissed the bridge of his ear.
The Doctor smirked at her. "Thanks, love," he murmured.
Alex gave him a soft smile. "Anytime, Doc."
So caught up in their little moment, neither of them noticed the bitey mad woman smiling broadly at them, almost . . . approving and pleased. "Biting's excellent," she commented to the startled Amy and Rory, unintentionally pulling the Doctor and Alex back into the present. "It's just like kissing, only there's a winner." She turned to Alex and winked at her. "As I'm sure Ally knows, right, Ally?"
Alex withered back from her. How this woman knew so much about her, she had no idea, but it was really starting to creep her out. It was kind of like when she and the Doctor first met Madame Marie back in Savannah, but eerier and without the previous reassurance of a helpful person.
As the Doctor tugged Alex back behind him, Uncle sighed. "So sorry. She's doolally."
"No, I'm not doolally," the young woman protested. "I'mmmmm . . . I'mmmmm . . . it's on the tip of my tongue!"
"Is the word you're looking for 'mental'?" Alex muttered. The Doctor shot her a you're-not-helping look and elbowed her just to make sure she got the point to be quiet.
Suddenly, the mad woman gasped. "Oh! Sorry, Ally, but I've just had a new idea about kissing! Come here, you!" She immediately scrambled towards the Doctor. The now-terrified Time Lord responded to this by snatching Alex's hand and running to hide behind Amy and Rory, Alex shielded behind him as an extra precaution. In front of him, Amy and Rory held their arms out in defensive positions, successfully keeping the crazy woman from getting any closer.
Auntie rushed to pull the young woman back. "No!" she cried. "Idris, no!"
"Oh, but now you're angry," the woman now identified as Idris said to the Doctor. She blinked. "No, you're not. You will be angry. The little boxes will make you angry."
"Sorry?" the Doctor frowned. Curiosity getting the better of him, he gently pushed past Amy and Rory to better face Idris. Alex followed along behind him, still clutching his hand. "The little what? Boxes?"
"How did you know about that?" Alex again questioned. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to figure this woman out.
But instead of giving her an answer, Idris started laughing. "Your chin is hilarious!" she cackled, reaching out to cup the Doctor's chin. Alex frowned and, with a wary look on her face, used her thumb and pointer finger to grab the sleeve on Idris' dress and move her hand away. Once it was far away from the Doctor, she let go, allowing Idris' hand to drop to her side.
Alex expected Idris to try grabbing the Doctor again since she seemed so fond of him, but the mad woman surprised her by instead turning to Rory. "It means the smell of dust after rain."
Rory frowned. "What does?"
"Petrichor."
"But I didn't ask!"
"Not yet," Idris smiled, "but you will."
Okay. . . This was getting really weird. Alex shot an anxious glance at the Doctor. She was pretty sure the woman didn't mean them actual harm, unless you counted her kissing-attacks on the Doctor as harm, but her haphazard spouting of random stuff was really creeping Alex out. She knew she shouldn't feel that way if Idris couldn't help it, which she suspected was the case, but all the same, it was making Alex uncomfortable.
"No, no, Idris," Auntie cautioned, seeing Alex's distressed expression. "I think you should have a rest."
"Rest," Idris mused, glancing briefly at Alex. To Alex's surprise, Idris sent her a brief apologetic look before turning and walking over to a nearby wheelbarrow. "Yes, yes. Good idea. I'll just see if there's an off switch." And just like that, her eyes closed and she toppled forward. Rory and the Doctor hastened to catch her before gently placing her in the wheelbarrow.
"Is that it?" Uncle asked. "She dead now? So sad."
Funny, you don't sound very sad, Alex thought, giving the man a critical look. She carefully appraised him. There was something off about him, him and Auntie both. Examining him, Alex noticed that his eyes looked quite younger than the rest of him and were slightly uneven.
She eyed Auntie. She couldn't see much of the woman's actual body due to it being hidden by several skirts and shawls, but she could see that one of Auntie's arms was a bit more muscular than the other.
That couldn't have happened naturally. Alex looked over at the Doctor. He was so hopeful about there being other Time Lords here, but Alex wasn't so sure. Not that she was about to tell him that. He might assume she was jealous about having another Time Lord around, someone he could easily fall in love with and spend more time with than her, a human. The last thing they needed to do here was start fighting. They needed to focus and figure out what was going on here, because something was going on here. Alex could feel it.
"No, she's still breathing," Rory reported.
Uncle flinched slightly, like he was unhappy about this. "Nephew," he called to someone standing on the sidelines, "take Idris somewhere she cannot bite people."
The Doctor turned to see who this new arrival was. "Oh, hello!" he greeted.
The companions turned to see who he was talking to and about jumped out of their skin. The new arrival, an alien, stood right about at the Doctor's height. It had a brown, almost light-bulb shaped head with a bunch of tentacles coming out from where a mouth would normally be. It was dressed in a dark-blue jumpsuit with black gloves. In its hand was a small sphere, which Alex could see was connected to a tube that ran up underneath the creature's tentacles.
"Doctor, what is that?!" Amy yelped.
"Oh, no, it's all right," the Doctor assured her. "It's an Ood. Ood's are good. Love an Ood! Hello, Ood! Can't you talk?" He nodded to the sphere in the Ood's hand which, upon further examination, he could see was cracked. "Oh, I see, it's damaged. May I?" Once the Ood nodded, the Doctor opened the top of the sphere. "Might just be on the wrong frequency."
"Nephew was broken when he came here," Auntie informed him. "Why, he was half dead. House repaired him. House repaired all of us."
Alex frowned at her. "Repaired?" she repeated. Could that vague term explain why one of Auntie's arms was bigger than the other and why Uncle's eyes looked younger than the rest of him?
But before she could try and ask, the Doctor recapped the top of the sphere. The object suddenly started glowing green, and the sound of voices began spilling out of it. The air was suddenly filled with the voices of men and women all calling for help.
A male voice sounded out above the others. "If you are receiving this message, please help me! Send a signal to the High Council of the Time Lords on Gallifrey! Help! I'm still alive! I don't know where I am. I'm on some rock-like planet—"
And suddenly, the message stopped. Nephew had shut the sphere off. Alex nervously studied the Doctor. Much to her alarm, he looked rather shaken and distressed. Alex couldn't help but feel the same. All those voices. . . Something bad happened here, she thought. I just know it did. She tentatively rested her hand on his shoulder, letting him know she was there.
"What was that?" Rory asked, breaking the silence. "Was that him?" He pointed at Nephew.
God, I wish it was, Alex thought.
The Doctor shook his head. "No, no." He felt horribly disturbed and fretful after hearing the Corsair's voice, along with all those other Time Lords and Ladies calling out for help. So many voices. . . There was no way so many people could be here! He would have sensed it by now and vice-versa. "It's . . . uh, picking up something else. But that's . . . that's not possible. That's . . . that's. . ."
He whirled around, inadvertently knocking Alex's hand off his shoulder, and gave a don't-mess-with-me look to Auntie and Uncle. "Who else is here?" he demanded. "Tell me. Show me. Show me!"
"Doctor," Alex hissed. She reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him back so he couldn't advance any further on Auntie and Uncle. Once he was by her side, she placed her hands on his shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. "You need to calm down."
The Doctor stared into her currently topaz-colored eyes for a moment before letting out a long breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. He felt his tense muscles relax at her touch. He closed his eyes, feeling weary all of a sudden. His head dropped down to rest against Alex's.
"Thanks, love," he murmured. He honestly had no idea how he'd ever managed to go for so long without Alex by his side. Now that she was with him and was his . . . girlfriend, as much as he hated that particular term, he couldn't imagine ever being without her again. He knew such an intense attachment would make it all the more harder for him when she was forced to leave, but at this moment in time, he truly didn't care. Now, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, silently thanking her once again for keeping the rage he hid deep within him under control.
They might have stayed like this for a while, lost in their little moment as they were notorious for doing, until someone cleared their throat. The two reluctantly turned away from each-other and looked around for the source of the interruption. They both glanced at Amy for a moment, to which the redhead shot them a baffled what-did-I-do look, before looking further and seeing Auntie eyeing them oddly. She was the source of the throat-clearing.
"Just what you see," she said now, still giving them a weird look, like she didn't understand love or something. She gestured to herself and Uncle. "Just the four of us, and the House. Nephew, will you take Idris somewhere safe where she can't hurt nobody?"
"The House?" the Doctor repeated.
"What's the House?" Alex asked.
"House is all around you, my sweets," Auntie grinned. She pointed to the ground. At the same time, Uncle started jumping up and down. "You are standing on him. This is the House. This world. Would you like to meet him?"
"Meet him?" Rory repeated, shocked that such a thing could be possible.
"We've love to," the Doctor and Alex answered together.
"This way," Uncle guided, gesturing for them to follow him down a path. "Come, please. Come."
As the TARDIS crew followed him, Amy jogged up so she was right next to the Doctor. "What's wrong?" she whispered. "What were those voices?"
"Time Lords," the Doctor revealed. He turned so that he was looking at Amy, Rory, and Alex all at once. "It's not just the Corsair. Somewhere close by, there are lots and lots of . . . Time Lords."
Alex frowned. While she really wanted another member of the Time Lords to be alive for the Doctor's sake, she just couldn't see any being here. She watched the Doctor continue to follow Auntie and Uncle, his stride determined. Suddenly, Idris' bizarre words replayed in her mind. The little boxes will make you angry.
She shuddered. For the Doctor's sake, she hoped that she and Idris were wrong.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
A/N: Lol, I loved writing Idris with Alex and the Doctor. Wonder why Idris gave Alex an apologetic look? :} We'll see a lot more bonding between the two in the next two chapters. :)
Review Replies:
TheBlueRiver - I'm so glad to hear that! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :)
NicoleR85 - I'm glad you liked the chapter! I just love writing moments between the Doctor and Alex when he's helping her. Alex is such a strong individual and doesn't really like accepting help from anyone, so the times when she lets the Doctor help her are so sweet and fluffy. :) Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :)
bored411 - I'm glad you liked the chapter! The attacks on Alex are definitely something to worry about and I can't wait to ultimately reveal what they're all about. }:} Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :)
whitedwarf - That makes sense. It's like the character is only relegated to a parent, like you see on kids' shows, where the parents are really only identified as that parents - with little to no characterization to make them anything else but parents. I don't really like kid-fics for that reason, as well as the fact that I personally don't really like kids, nor do I expect to have any children. Kids, to me, are a bit of a nuisance, lol. But I'm SO glad you like Daffy! Daffy will definitely be standing in Alex's corner when it comes to River. I can't wait to delve into her thoughts on the woman, since by the time we get to the Daffy we saw in 'Date Night Take Two', she will have heard a lot of varying stories/opinions about River, and it will be interesting to see what her own thoughts are. :) I definitely designed Daffy to not be coming along for a while intentionally. There's that option of children there for the Doctor and Alex but they still have a lot to go through in their relationship and personal lives before they get to that point. :)
ShadowTeir - I love that assessment - "fluffy and sweet with the right amount of edginess". That was the vibe I was trying to hit, something that wasn't too angsty but not too cotton-candy, cavity-inducing fluffy either. The Amy/Doctor bonding is a part of the minisodes, yes. :) Interesting observation about the lack of adrenaline spikes. I won't say whether or not that has something to do with the pain attacks Alex is experiencing, just that we'll have to wait and see. :} Glad you enjoyed the chapter and hope you enjoyed this one as well! :)
Thank you to everyone that reviewed, followed, and/or favorited this story. Please review and see you tomorrow! :)