Thea winced, quickly pulling her hand back from the console as a spark went off, jumping aside as another small fire started.
"A little help." the Doctor called.
Thea looked over to see, somehow, without her knowing, he had somehow fallen out the doors and was dangling over London by his hands.
The ride was rather bumping what with the Doctors natural terrible piloting and the simple fact that she herself had never actually piloted a TARDIS before (especially one build for six pilots) and the Doctor dancing around the console instead of actually piloting, wasn't helping.
"Please!" The Doctor added, glancing down at Big Ben nearby, "actually pilot her! Up, up, up!"
Thea raced around the console, trying to pull them up, but the controls didn't seem to be working, "come on," she muttered, "I'll even look though the manual."
"Thea, pull us up!"
"I'm trying!" she huffed, "please..." she pleaded with the TARDIS, grinning as the controls began working on their own, "thank you!" seemed the TARDIS already liked her.
She ran back to the doors, heaving as she helped pull the Doctor back inside, shutting the doors and both panting against the doors.
A moment later the Doctor burst out laughing.
"What?" She asked him.
"Great job," The Doctor patted her on the back, "thanks."
"My pleasure." She nodded.
The TARDIS gave a sudden jolt and the Doctor went sliding down the corridors as Thea landed on the captains chair. A splash reached the console room.
Thea gave a yelp of surprise as the legs of the chair suddenly gave out and she too followed the Doctor into the swimming pool.
~.~
The TARDIS crashed landed on her side in the back garden of a nice village house in the middle of the night. The doors popped open, releasing smoke and steam before a grappling hook was thrown out, catching on something and a moment later the Doctor popped his head out to see a little ginger girl in a red coat and wellies staring at them.
"Can I have an apple?" he asked her. "All I can think about, apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new, never had a craving before."
"Can I have a hand?"
The Doctor moved to straddle the TARDIS, his clothes torn and burnt from the regeneration and also soaking wet from falling into the swimming pool. He held out a hand to help Thea out, the girls hair dripping wet as she scrambled over the box and slumped down on the grass, able to feel the water in her shoes and socks and hating it.
"You good?" he asked her.
"Fine." she nodded, squeezing excess water from her hair, "good time to mention this body can't swim?"
"You can't?" he frowned at her. That did explain her scrambling to the edge of the pool and spluttering. He just assumed it was shock. He made a mental note to teach her how to swim, or at least get Sarah Jane to teach her. It wasn't like she was going to stay with him after this. She was just here right now because she felt bad making him regenerate alone. Once the TARDIS was ready she would be back at Bannerman Road. Why would she want to stay? She should hate him.
"No." she shook her head, pulling her phone out to see it completely dead from the water, "oh great. That's completely destroyed. This phone has survived Slitheen and the Trickster but not water." she sighed heavily and tossed it back inside the TARDIS. Good thing she remembered everyone's number off the top of her hearts.
The Doctor waved some of the smoke out of his face, glancing back in the TARDIS, "Whoa! Look at that!"
"Are you okay?" the girl eyed them.
Thea held up a thumb as the Doctor turned back to the girl, "just had a bit of a fall." he waved her off. "All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."
"You're soaking wet." the girl eyed them.
"We were in the swimming pool." Thea nodded, "thought I was going to drown." she muttered, "not a way I really want to regenerate you know."
"He said you were in the library."
"The swimming pool is in the library."
"Are you the police?"
"Why?" the Doctor asked her, "Did you call a policeman?"
"Did you come about the crack in my wall?"
"What crack?" the Doctor began only to fall to the ground with a twitch, "Argh!"
"Are you all right, mister?"
Thea moved to his side, "do you need tea? A nap? Perhaps a visit to the Zero Room?"
The Doctor just laughed at her, a wisp of regeneration escaped through his mouth, Thea battered it away into the air.
"Who are you?" the girl eyed them.
"I don't know yet." the Doctor replied, moving to his knees, "I'm still cooking." he looked at his hands as they glowed faintly, "Does it scare you?"
"No, it just looks a bit weird."
"No, no, no. The crack in your wall. Does it scare you?"
"Yes."
The Doctor jumped up, "Well then, no time to lose." He grinned, "I'm the Doctor. This is Thea. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off." he turned and walked off.
"Tree." Thea tried to call out in warning, but was too late…the Doctor had already walked into said tree, falling back on the ground.
"Are you all right?" the girl joined Thea looking down at him.
"Early days," he frowned, "Steering's a bit off."
"Maybe you have two left feet this time." Thea smirked.
~.~
"If you're a doctor, why does your box say Police?" the girl asked as she led them into her house, to the kitchen to fetch the Doctor his requested apple.
The Doctor took a bite of the apple only to spit it out again, "That's disgusting. What is that?"
"An apple." the girl said simply.
"Apple's rubbish. I hate apples."
"You did say you loved them." Thea reminded him, "said you were having a craving."
"No, no, no." he shook his head, "I like yoghurt. Yoghurt's my favourite. Give me yoghurt."
The girl sighed and turned to the fridge, handing him a small pot of yoghurt, which he poured straight into his mouth. Both girls grimacing in disgust before he spat the yoghurt back out.
"I hate yoghurt." he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "It's just stuff with bits in."
"You said it was your favourite." the girl accused.
"New mouth. New rules."
"It's like eating after cleaning your teeth." Thea supplied, "Everything tastes...wrong."
"Argh!" the Doctor suddenly twitched violently his arms spreading out as Thea quickly ducked to avoid a whacking as the Doctor ended up hitting himself on the head.
"What is it?" the girl asked, looking at Thea, "What's wrong with him?"
"Wrong with me?" the Doctor scoffed, "it's not my fault. Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish. Fry something."
"What?" Thea shook her head, almost laughing at the absurd idea, "I'm sorry, what?"
"What?" he looked at her, not sure what the problem seemed to be? He just wanted some bacon, he never had an issue with bacon before.
"You're asking a 7 year old to cook bacon for you?" she put her hands on her hips, "you want a 7 year old to use a hot stove?"
"Well, she's Scottish," he fumbled, "and...can you cook?" He eyed her.
He didn't think she would have ever been I'm a kitchen to cook her own meals. If her parents had been on the Council and didn't see her like she said, they would have had servants to do all of that in their house.
"Yes."
"Sarah Jane trusts you in the kitchen?" he asked in disbelieve.
"Sarah Jane set the kitchen on fire trying to make scrambled eggs." She deadpanned, "Multiple times. I'm the only one who is trusted to put an edible meal on the table."
"But you can cook, I mean, didn't you have servants for that?"
"It came naturally in this body." She turned and started cooking the bacon as the girl went to find them some towels to try and dry off, "its quite comforting."
It just seemed to be a natural talent with this regeneration, she could cook and it came naturally to her, like the recipes were already in her head. She really enjoyed cooking, it was even more fun with Clyde. She had always seen cooking as a chore that was left for the servants, but she was learning, and cooking was rather relaxing.
"I even cooked Christmas dinner this year." she informed him, "not that we got to eat it, but still!"
The Doctor smiled as she cooked the bacon as the girl returned with a towel each as he rubbed his hair dry.
"Sit," Thea instructed and the Doctor obeyed with a small smirk as she dropped a plate of bacon in front of him, "Ah, bacon!"
"Don't spit it on the plate," she warned him, taking a seat at the table opposite, drying her own hair with a towel.
The Doctors smile turned to into a grimaced as he chewed the bacon and turned and spat it back in the bin, "Bacon. That's bacon." he squinted at her suspiciously, "Are you trying to poison me?"
"No, I...i'd appreciate it if you had a little trust in me Doctor, as I do you." She sniffed, taking the rest of the bacon left on the plate and finishing it off herself. "Do you mind?" Thea asked the girl and she moved to raid the cupboards. The girl shaking her head as Thea starting cooking a can of beans. You either loved or hated beans. She hated them, Luke happened to love them. He didn't like broccoli but loved beans, sometimes he made less sense than she did.
"Ah, you see? Beans." he grinned, taking a spoonful and spat them into the sink, "Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans."
Thea sighed, as the beans went to waste, "bread and butter?" she suggested. You couldn't go wrong with something as simple as bread and butter.
"Bread and butter." the Doctor nodded as the girl moved to spread some butter over a slice of bread, "Now you're talking." he took one bite, spitting it back on the plate, running to the front door and throwing the plate out into the darkness, smashing and scaring a cat.
"And stay out!" he shouted, returning to the kitchen.
"That poor cat." Thea murmured.
"Oh, it probably had it coming."
"Not all cats are evil. It's the ones with the sickly sweet names you need to look out for."
"And you'd know that because...?" he looked at her, almost amused.
"Mr Snuffles from down the road tricked me and tried to destroy the town."
"What?"
She sighed heavily, "That was a long day."
She would never be allowed to leave that down. Her instincts were usually very good in knowing who to trust. She had helped what she thought was poor Mr Snuffles as he got his head stuck in a fence, turned out he had been watching her, saw she understood him and used that to try and use her to take over the town. What annoyed her most was that she didn't even see that coming.
And people wondered why she didn't like that many cats.
"We've got some carrots." the girl called, searching the fridge for a food the Doctor wouldn't spit out.
"Carrots?" He scoffed at her, "Are you insane?"
"Shouldn't you be trying to promote the kids to each healthy?" Thea asked, only for him to stick his tongue out at her. She shook her head, moving to the freezer, "what about…" she pulled out a carton of custard and pack of fish fingers, "fish fingers or custard?" she suggested.
The Doctor grinned at her.
~.~
Moments later the Time Lords sat opposite the girl, while Thea had meant to be offering two different selections of food, the Doctor had believed she meant together and so was dipping his fish fingers in a bowl of custard and enjoying it as Thea ate a few fish fingers in a sandwich while the girl ate vanilla ice cream from the tub.
Finishing the last of his finger, the Doctor lifted the bowl to his mouth, drinking the remaining custard, leaving a custard moustache over his mouth.
The girl laughed, "Funny."
"Am I?" The Doctor asked.
"Hilarious." Thea agreed.
"Good. Funny's good. What's your name?"
"Amelia Pond." She answered.
"Oh, that's a brilliant name." the Doctor grinned, "Amelia Pond. Like a name in a fairy tale."
"But this isn't Scotland?" Thea eyed the girl, she had a very strong Scottish accent but the area didn't smell Scottish. It smelt English, somewhere up north.
"No." Amelia grumbled, "We had to move to England. It's rubbish."
"So what about your mum and dad?" She asked, "all this noise, surely they would have woken up?"
Sarah Jane always knew what she was up all night, no matter how quiet she was, Sarah Jane always seemed to hear the door if she ever went outside during the night.
"I don't have a mum and dad." Amelia told them, "just an aunt."
"I don't even have an aunt." The Doctor replied.
"You're lucky."
"So where is your aunt?" Thea looked up as though the woman would be walking about now because of their noise.
"She's out."
"And left you all alone?" She shook her head. The girl was 7! Sarah Jane didn't even like leaving them alone this late. If she ever had too she always got Rani's parents to nip round of check on them. Or they just went to Clyde and Ranis for the night. Even if she was away for a few days she and Luke would stop over at one of the others house. It wasn't about trusting them home alone it was that maternal instinct where she worried no matter what. It had definitely been quite a shock to her the first time Sarah Jane had shouted at her for scaring her.
"I'm not scared."
"Course you're not." the Doctor nodded, "man and strange girl fall out of box, man eats fish custard. And look at you, just sitting there. So you know what I think?"
"What?"
"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."
~.~
Amelia led them to her room to the large crack in the middle of the back wall.
"I don't like it." Thea stated bluntly as she hung back at the doorway, rubbing her arm in discomfort. There was something about the crack that just made her not want to get too close.
"What's wrong?" the Doctor looked back at her.
"It's just..." she shook her head, "wrong."
He nodded slowly, "You've had some cowboys in here." he stepped closer to the crack, "Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."
"I used to hate apples," Amelia remarked as she stood at the doorway with Thea, "so my mum put faces on them." She stepped closer to the Doctor, handing over an apple with a smiling face on it.
He tossed it in the air, slipping it into his pocket, "She sounds good, your mum. I'll keep it for later,. This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing. Where's the draught coming from?" He flashed his sonic across the crack, "Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. You know what the crack is?"
"What?"
"It's a crack. But I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, because the crack isn't in the wall."
"Where is it then?"
"Everywhere. In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world." He ran his fingers along it, "Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together right here in the wall of your bedroom wall."
"Do you ever hear a voice?" Thea asked.
Amelia looked back at her, nodding, "yes."
"Prisoner Zero has escaped." she murmured.
"What?" the Doctor looked at her, able to hear the voice on the other side but not quite able to understand it. How could she hear it when she stood further away? He grabbed the glass on the bedside table, emptying the water and resting the glass against the wall, listening himself.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped." He repeated. "How did you hear that?"
She shrugged, tapping her head, "I keep my mind open."
She was very careful about keeping her mind open, you never knew what other telepathic beings were around and could pick into her mind if she was distracted, that and well…the silence of lack of Time Lords was constantly upsetting.
It had not been a nice feeling to wake up one day to complete silence in your mind and then to find out that the silence was because all your people were dead
"That's what I heard." Amelia agreed, "What does it mean?"
"It means that on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner." the Doctor remarked, "And you know what that means?"
"What?"
"You need a better wall. The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way. The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or..."
"What?"
"You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"
"Yes."
"Everything's going to be fine." he smiled reassuringly, taking her hand as the crack widened and a light shone through. "Hello?" He called, "Hello?"
A large eyeball suddenly appeared on the other side of the crack.
"What's that?" Amelia gasped.
Before either could respond a small bolt of light flew out the crack and into the Doctors pocket, knocking him back against the bed as the crack sealed itself.
"Well, at least there is no more scary crack." Thea remarked.
"Good as new." The Doctor smiled.
"What's that thing?" Amelia gasped, "Was that Prisoner Zero?"
"Prisoner Zero is clearly a prisoner." Thea pointed out, "hence it's called Prisoner Zero, nor would a prisoner alert us of its escape. It would want to hide."
"Oh, good point, kiddo," the Doctor snapped his fingers at her, "that must have Prisoner Zero's guard." the Doctor nodded, "Whatever it was, it sent me a message. Psychic paper. Takes a lovely little message." He pulled out the psychic paper with the same message, "Prisoner Zero has escaped. But why tell us?" he frowned.
Thea glanced back down the hall, her eyes shifting over the other doors, "unless he escaped this way."
"But he couldn't have." The Doctor shook his head, "we'd know. It's difficult. Brand new me. Nothing works yet. Thea is a bit distracted."
"I'm not distracted." she cut in.
"Are you or are you not worried about what Sarah Jane would say to know you just took off."
She furrowed her brows, "oh." Well, maybe she was a bit distracted about what they would say. She knew Luke was worried, he always worried about her, no matter what. It was so sweet. Others thought it was weird and clingy but she loved it. It just showed how much he cared.
"But there's something I'm missing. In the corner of my eye."
Thea glanced down the hallway, eying the doors as her gaze focused on the door in the corner of the hall, slowly headed towards it when she turned, gasping as the TARDIS cloister bells suddenly rang, startling her. She really was not used to the sounds of the TARDIS. She really would need to look in the manual to know what they all meant.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" The Doctor cried, grabbing Theas hand before she could fully break past the Perception Filter, and running down the stairs, "we've got to get back in there. The engines are phasing. It's going to burn!"
"But it's just a box." Amelia ran after them, back outside to the TARDIS, "How can a box have engines?"
"It's not a box. It's a time machine."
"What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?"
"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilised." The Doctor replied, throwing the rope back into the TARDIS, "a 5 minute hop into the future should be enough."
"How should I know?" Thea shrugged at he looked at her.
"Can I come?" Amelia asked, hopeful.
"Not safe in here." the Doctor replied, "Not yet."
"She gets to go."
5 minutes. Give me 5 minutes, I'll be right back."
"People always say that."
The Doctor moved to knee before her, "Am I people? Do I even look like people?"
"No." Thea stated.
"Exactly." he pointed at her, "Trust me." he winked at Amelia, "I'm the Doctor." he turned, jumping onto the edge of the TARDIS besides Thea, "what?" he asked, seeing she was just sat watching him.
"You're good with kids."
"Years of experience," He told her and with that he gave her a shove, sending her into the TARDIS with a cry, he laughed hearing a splash followed by a curse, "language," and followed down after her with a cry off; "Geronimo!"
A moment late the TARDIS dematerialised.
~.~
The TARDIS materialised the right way up this time. The Doctor threw the doors open and stumbled out, Thea right behind him, both covering their nose and mouths from the smoke.
Thea coughed as she leaned against the corner of the TARDIS inhaling the fresh air, only to frown, there was something off about the garden, she couldn't sense what was wrong, she just knew it was.
"Amelia!" the Doctor shouted, running straight to the doors of the house, "Amelia, I've worked out what it was! We know what we were missing!" he pulled his sonic out to unlock the door, "You've got to get out of there! Thea!" He looked back at her still by the TARDIS.
"Coming." she nodded, jumping slightly as the TARDIS doors slammed shut behind her, "rude," she muttered but ran up to the doors as the Doctor managed to get the sonic to unlock them.
"Amelia!" he called again as they ran inside and hurried up the stairs, "Amelia, are you alright? Are you there?" he moved to the door at the end of hall, where they noticed the Perception Filter on it and tried to get it unlocked, "prisoner Zero is here. Prisoner Zero is here?"
"Amelia?" Thea frowned, slowly heading down to the girls room. They weren't 5 minutes she knew that. It was now daytime. But how late were they? Not too long she hoped.
Oh, if they couldn't make a 5 minute hop how late would she end up seeing Luke again.
"Prisoner Zero is here!" the Doctor continued to shout as he focused in the door, "do you understand me? Prisoner zero is here." he looked back at a floorboard creaking, "Thea?" only to get whacked by something to his face, knocking him out.
"Doctor?" Thea poked her head out the empty room, seeing it was nothing like it had been and so were clearly very late and it was no longer the room of a little girl. "oh." she held her hands up seeing a young policewoman with a very short skirt.
~.~
When the Doctor came round the first thing he noticed was a young woman in a rather short police uniform, talking into her radio, describing him and Thea to her boss, requesting assistance to them breaking and entering.
And the second was that Thea was sat besides him, fully awake and staring at the woman, and the third was that they were handcuffed to the radiator behind them.
Great.
"You alright, kiddo?"
She shrugged, "I didn't get whacked in the face," she blinked at him, "did you just call me kiddo?"
"Yes, I did." He nodded.
She scrunched her face, "don't like it."
"Tough."
"That's not sticking."
"Too late."
"I'm telling Sarah Jane." she whined.
"Go ahead with that." he laughed as she stuck her tongue out at him.
Honestly she made even less sense the more he tried to understand her, one moment she acted as though she was a proper lady, all prim and grown up and the next minute she was whining like a child and sticking her tongue out.
"Oi!" The Police officer glared at them, "You two, sit still."
"Not like we can go anywhere." Thea grumbled, rattling the handcuffs.
Taken down by a human, how humiliating. A few months ago she had successfully taken down a Judoon Captain and now this human had gotten her chained to the radiator.
"Cricket bat." The Doctor groaned, rubbing his head with his free hand, "I'm getting cricket bat."
"You were breaking and entering." The police officer stated.
"Well, that's much better. Brand new me. Whack on the head, just what I needed."
"You already walked into that tree." Thea commented lightly.
"That hurt too."
"I tried to warn you."
"Do you want to shut up now?" The police officer cut in, "I've got back up on the way."
"Hang on, no, wait." The Doctor turned to the woman, "You're a policewoman."
"And you're breaking and entering. You see how this works?"
"But you were already here." Thea frowned, "we're a bit late so you couldn't have been expecting us."
"We're late?" the Doctor blinked.
"It was dark when we left and now it's light out." She rolled her eyes. She really hoped they weren't that late. She couldn't get a sense, she only stuck to the one time period. She wasn't used to needing to a get a sense of what year it was. She was sure she'd soon pick it back up.
"Oh. Right. Yes. I knew that."
"Where's Amelia?"
"Amelia Pond?" The officer stiffened.
"Yeah, Amelia." The Doctor nodded, "Little Scottish girl. Where is she? I promised her 5 minutes but the engines were phasing. I suppose I must have gone a bit far. Has something happened to her?"
"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time."
"How long?" The Doctor frowned.
"6 months." she informed them.
"No. No. No. No, I can't be 6 months late. I said 5 minutes. I promised. What happened to her?" he asked, "What happened to Amelia Pond?"
The woman turned, speaking into her radio, "Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up. These two know something about Amelia Pond."
"I need to speak to whoever lives in this house right now." The Doctor demanded.
"I live here."
"You're a police officer who lives in this house." Thea blinked in disbelief.
"Yes!" the woman insisted, "Have you got a problem with that?"
"Not a typical officer uniform." She squinted her eyes, "I think I've seen that in a..."
"How many rooms?" The Doctor asked suddenly, cutting Thea off from her suspicions.
"I'm sorry, what?" the woman blinked at the random question.
"On this floor. How many rooms on this floor? Count them for me now."
"Why?"
"Because it will change your life."
"5," She pointed as she counted them, "1, 2 ,3, 4, 5."
"6." Thea corrected, her gaze on the door at the end.
"6?"
She nodded behind the woman, "just look where you don't want too, the corner of your eye."
The woman slowly turned, her eyes widening as she saw the extra door, "That's...that is not possible." She breathed, "How's that possible?"
"There's a Perception Filter around the door," Thea explained, starting to try and chew on the cuffs seeing as the woman didn't look as though she would be releasing them anytime soon, alright, so it may have not been the wisest idea to allow herself to get cuffed to the radiator. But it was all a new experience. "Sensed it last time but then the cloister bells distracted me..." she huffed, Luke always said the littlest things distracted her, she tried to deny it but he was right, her gaze was always getting caught of something else and she usually went rambling on about utter nonsense.
"But that's a whole room." The woman whispered, "That's a whole room I've never even noticed."
"The filter stops you noticing." The Doctor told her, "Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding, and you need to uncuff me now."
"I don't have the key." The woman said, slowly walking towards the door, "I lost it."
"How can you have lost it? Stay away from that door!" He warned, "Do not touch that door! Listen to me, do not open that. Why does no-one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to?" He sighed as the woman stepped inside, "Again. My screwdriver, where is it?"
"There's nothing here." The woman replied.
"Whatever's there stopped you seeing the room. What makes you think you could see it? Now please, just get out."
"Silver, blue at the end?"
"My screwdriver, yeah."
"It's here."
"Must have rolled under the door."
"Yeah. Must have." The woman agreed, "And then it must have jumped up on the table."
"Get out of there!" The Doctor shouted, "Get out of there! Get out! Get out of there!"
"What is it?" Thea frowned at the woman's silence, there was something else.
"What are you doing?" The Doctor asked.
"There's nothing here, but..." the woman hesitated.
"Corner of your eye."
"What is it?"
"Something that doesn't want to be seen, obviously," Thea remarked.
"Don't look at it!" The Doctor warned her, "Do not look."
A moment later the woman screamed.
"Get out!" The Doctor shouted and the woman finally did, slamming the door and running over, with the sonic in her hand. The Doctor snatched it back as soon as she was close enough, "Give me that." he quickly looked the door before turning the sonic onto the cuffs, "Come on." he bashed it on the floor, "What's the bad alien done to you?"
"Don't think it was the alien." Thea countered, "That was you, keeping it in you pocket while regenerating and then falling into the swimming pool."
"Will that door hold it?" the woman asked, eye wide as she stared at the door.
"Oh, yes," Thea rolled her eyes, heavily sarcastic, "all interdimension multiforms are terrified of wood!"
"What's that?" The woman gasped as a light shone under the door, "What's it doing?"
"I don't know." The Doctor shook his head, "Getting dressed? Run. Just go. Your back up's coming. I'll be fine."
"There is no back up." The woman huffed.
The Doctor looked up, "I heard you on the radio. You called for back up."
"I was pretending. It's a pretend radio."
"You're a policewoman."
"I'm a kissogram!" She snapped, removing her hat and her red hair fell over her shoulders.
"I knew I'd seen that uniform in a fancy dress shop." Thea remarked.
The door burst open and a man in overalls stood there, holding the leash of a large dog.
"But it's just..." the woman stared.
"No, it isn't," the Doctor argued, "Look at the faces."
The man barked like a dog, while the dog itself just stared.
"What?" the woman shook her head, "I'm sorry, but what?"
"It's all one creature." The Doctor explained, "One creature disguised as two. Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, did you? Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?"
The creature snarled, revealing long needle-like teeth, advancing into the corridor.
"Stay!" Thea commanded and it did so, "good boy."
"The three of us, we're safe." The Doctor called to the alien, bashing the sonic again as it still refused to work, "Want to know why? She sent for back up."
"I didn't send for back-up!" The woman hissed.
"That was a clever lie to keep us alive." Thea muttered.
"Okay, yeah, no back up." the Doctor sighed, "And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had back up, you'd have to kill us."
"Attention, Prisoner Zero." A voice announced outside, "The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded."
"What's that?" The woman gasped.
Thea groaned, "back up."
"Okay, one more time." The Doctor nodded, "We do have back up and that's definitely why we're safe."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"Well, safe apart from, you know, incineration."
Prisoner Zero turned and walked into another room.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"Can you please get your sonic working." Thea mumbled.
"Almost got it." He mumbled, whacking the sonic again, finally getting the light to work and flashing it back on the cuffs. "Come on, work."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
Thea wasted no time as the Doctor undid the cuff on his wrist and slid the cuffs through the radiator, whacking the Doctors arm away as he tried to undo the cuffs on her wrist.
"Do it later." She exclaimed, "priorities Doctor," she jumped to her feet, running down the stairs as the other two followed.
The Doctor was quickly behind her, taking the woman's hand and pulling her with him, "Run! Run!"
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
The Doctor slammed the door shut behind them, using the sonic to lock it and turned to Thea to unlock the cuffs still on her wrist, "Kissogram?" He asked the woman.
"Yes, a kissogram." The woman rolled her eyes, "Work through it."
"Why a policewoman?" Thea shook her head.
"You broke into my house. It was this or a French maid. What's going on? Tell me. Tell me!"
"An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house." The Doctor replied, "Any questions?"
"Yes."
"Quite a few," Thea nodded, leaning against the side of the TARDIS as the Doctor got the key out to unlock the door.
"No, no, no, no!" The Doctor shouted, "Don't do that, not now!"
"Oh, but my phones in there." Thea complained.
"It's still rebuilding." The Doctor sighed.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
"Can they send a cheerier message?" Thea mumbled.
The woman looked back at the house, seeing the alien looking at them from an upstairs window, "Come on."
"No, wait, hang on." the Doctor frowned at the garden shed, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. The shed."
"We need to go." Thea argued, "big alien in the house."
"No, but the shed," he ran to it, "we destroyed that shed last time we were here. Smashed it to pieces."
"And its been 6 months."
"So there's a new one." The woman agreed, trying to ushering the Doctor out of the garden, "Let's go."
"Yeah, but the new one's got old. It's 10 years old at least." he licked the panelling, "12 years. I'm not 6 months late, we're 12 years late."
"12 years?" Thea exclaimed, "how could we...no, damaged console, of course we're late."
The woman glanced back to the house, "He's coming."
"You said 6 months." The Doctor looked at her accusingly, "Why did you say 6 months?"
"We've got to go."
"This matters. This is important. Why did you say 6 months?"
"Why did you say five minutes!" She snapped, sounding very angry, and very Scottish.
"What?" The Doctor blinked.
"Come on." the woman, Amelia, pulled them off through her garden.
"What?" the Doctor repeated.
"Actually I do see it now." Thea tilted her head as she looked at Amelia.
"Come on!"
"What?" the Doctor repeated again.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
~.~
They followed Amelia down the village lane.
"You're Amelia." the Doctor looked at her, finally finding other words to say other than 'what.'
"And you're late." Amelia argued.
"Amelia Pond. You're the little girl."
"I'm Amelia and you're late."
"It was an accident." Thea defended. "A one off."
She really hated how much that did frighten her. It was the biggest reason she didn't want to travel all the time. To only be a few days away and go home only to find out years had passed and everyone was older and moved on and...Sarah Jane was dead. She hated the very possible idea of that.
"What happened?" the Doctor asked.
"12 years." she snapped.
"You hit me with a cricket bat." he exclaimed, "Did you hit a little girl with a cricket bat?"
Thea snorted, "With this baby face. It has its uses. She just cuffed me to you."
"And you didn't try to fight back?"
"I wanted to know what it felt like."
"Why?"
"For when it happens in the future."
"Oh, and you're going to get handcuffed often now are you?"
She shrugged, "maybe I know someone with handcuffs." She defended.
"Do you?" he eyed her.
"12 years." Amelia cut in angrily.
"A cricket bat!" the Doctor cried.
"12 years and 4 psychiatrists."
"Four?"
"I kept biting them."
"I bite people too." Thea said, almost proud at that fact. She bit people and she used Clyde as a distraction and jumped on their backs and knocked them down. It was fun.
"Why would you bite them?" the Doctor looked at Amelia.
She stopped and looked at him, "They said you weren't real."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat."
They looked over to see the voice seemingly coming from the ice cream truck parked nearby.
"No, no, no, come on." Amy groaned, "What? We're being staked out by an ice-cream van."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
They ran over to the truck, "What's that?" the Doctor asked the vendor, "Why are you playing that?"
"It's supposed to be Claire De Lune." the man replied.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat."
Thea looked around to see a jogger fiddling with the MP3, and another woman frowning at her mobile.
"Doctor, what's happening?" Amelia demanded.
"Repeat, Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
Instead of answering the Doctor turned and ran to the nearest home, jumping over the low white fence and running through the garden.
"Hey!" Thea took off after him. Amelia following, tugging down her skirt.
~.~
"Hello!" the Doctor called as he and Thea ran in, seeing an old woman skimming through the channels on the TV, all of them showing the large eyeball from the crack in Amelia's wall, "Sorry to burst in. We're doing a special on television faults in this area."
"Also crimes." Thea added as Amelia ran in, tugging her skirt down again.
"Let's have a look." the Doctor snatched the remote from the woman, flicking through the channels himself.
"I was just about to phone." the woman smiled, "It's on every channel. Oh, hello, Amy dear. Are you a policewoman now?"
"Well, sometimes." Amy flushed.
"I thought you were a nurse."
"I can be a nurse."
"Or actually a nun?"
"I dabble."
"Amy, who are yours friends?" the woman looked at them.
"Who's Amy?" the Doctor glanced at her, "You were Amelia."
"Yeah?" she shrugged, "Now I'm Amy."
"Amelia Pond. That was a great name."
"Bit fairy tale."
"I know you, don't I?" the woman eyed them, "I've seen you somewhere before."
"Not me." the Doctor pulled a face, "Brand new face first time on. Thea has been around a while though."
"I'm from Ealing, ever been down there?" She asked the woman.
"No." the woman shook her head.
"Then we've never met." Thea smiled sweetly, turning to Amy, "now a kissogram? Clyde and Rani do a seriously good job at helping me understand humans, but what is a kissogram?"
"I go to parties and I kiss people." Amy shifted in embarrassment, "With outfits. It's a laugh."
"You were a little girl five minutes ago!" The Doctor exclaimed.
"You're worse than my aunt." Amy muttered.
"I'm the Doctor. I'm worse than everybody's aunt," he remarked, turning to the old woman, "And that is not how I'm introducing myself." he turned and sonicked the radio, hearing the same message on all channels, in all languages.
"So it's everywhere, in every language." Thea frowned, "They're broadcasting to the whole world. That's never a good thing."
The Doctor ran to the window, opening it and looking up at the sky.
"What's up there?" Amy asked, "What are you looking for?"
"Okay." The Doctor nodded slowly, "Planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core? They're going to need a...?" he snapped his fingers at Thea.
She blinked, "40 percent fission blast?" she guessed.
"Correctomundo!" he cheered, only to grimace as Thea shook her head at the word, "oh, I'm never saying that again."
"They'll have to power up first though, won't they?" She questioned.
"Yes, good point, kiddo." he nodded as a young man entered the room, staring at the Doctor and Thea, "So assuming a medium sized starship, that's 20 minutes. What do you think, 20 minutes?" he turned to the young man, standing on his toes to measure himself up to the man, "Yeah, 20 minutes. We've got 20 minutes."
"20 minutes to what?" Amy demanded.
"Are you the Doctor?" the man stared, "and…Thea?" he frowned at the young girl.
"It is, isn't it?" the old woman cheered, "He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor. All those cartoons you did when you were little. The Raggedy Doctor. It's him."
Amy cleared her throat, embarrassed, "Shut up."
"Cartoons?" the Doctor eyed Amy.
"Gran, it's him, isn't it?" the man grinned, "It's really him...and her."
Amy focused on the Doctor, "20 minutes to what?"
"The human residence will be incinerated."
"The human residence." the Doctor sighed, "They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet. Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship, and it's going to incinerate the planet. 20 minutes to the end of the world."
"Typical Saturday afternoon." Thea shrugged.
~.~
"What is this place?" the Doctor wondered as they walked through the village green, "Where are we?"
"Leadworth." Amy answered.
"Is this it?" Thea turned on the spot, looking around the area.
"Yes."
"Is there an airport?" the Doctor answered.
"No."
"A nuclear power station?"
"No."
"Even a little one?"
"No."
"Nearest city?"
"Gloucester. Half an hour by car."
"We don't have half an hour."
"Do we have a car?" Thea shook her head.
"No." Amy replied.
"Well, that's good." the Doctor huffed, "Fantastic, that is 20 minutes to save the world and I've got a post office. And its shut."
"This is worse than Sunday afternoons when everywhere is shut." Thea grumbled. "Is there a skate park nearby?"
"There's a park." Amy said.
"You skate?" the Doctor looked at Thea.
"Clyde skates," she corrected, "we just hang out there to get out the house."
"Ah," he nodded only to notice something a short distance away, "What is that?" he pointed to the small area of water at the edge of the grass.
"It's a duck pond." Amy shook her head.
"Why aren't there any ducks?"
"I don't know. There's never any ducks."
"Then how do you know it's a duck pond?" Thea countered.
"It just is." Amy huffed, "Is it important, the duck pond?"
"I don't know." the Doctor winced, clutch his chest from the sudden pain, "Why would I know?" he fell back on the grass, "This is too soon. I'm not ready, I'm not done yet."
Thea knelt before him, "do you need tea?"
"I'm fine." he waved off her concern.
"Doesn't look like it to me. I say we grab a cup of tea from cafe," she glanced back at Amy, "there is a cafe isn't there?"
"I don't need tea."
"And last time you went into a coma as the Sycorax used blood control and guess what woke you up."
"It was a cup of tea." he muttered. "how'd you even know about that?"
"Tea has excellent healthy property." Thea informed Amy.
"If that important?" she rolled her eyes, only for the sky to darken, "What's happening? Why's it going dark?" she squinted seeing the sun turn greyish, before going normal again, "So what's wrong with the sun?"
"Nothing." the Doctor remarked, "You're looking at it through a forcefield. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere. Now they're getting ready to boil the planet. Oh, and here they come." he looked around as Thea helped heave him to his feet, seeing the humans stopping and taking photos of the sun, "The human race. The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone."
"This isn't real, is it?" Amy looked at them, eyes wide.
"Oh not one of these again." Thea sighed, "Come on, the proof is right there!" she gestured to the sky.
"This is some kind of big wind up, isn't it?" Amy demanded.
"Why would I wind you up?" the Doctor shook his head at her.
She eyed him, "You told me you had a time machine."
"And you believed me."
"Then I grew up."
"Oh, you never want to do that." the Doctor moaned. "no. Hang on. Shut up. I missed it. I saw it and I missed it. What did I see? I saw. What did I see? I saw, I saw, I saw..."
"Saw what?" Thea pressed.
"Look," he spun her to look at the humans all on their phones, taking photos of the sun, apart from one. A young man in blue scrubs, taking a photo of the disguised Prisoner Zero.
"Oh." she blinked.
"There you go!" he cheered, "20 minutes. I can do it. 20 minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help us."
"No." Amy decided.
"I'm sorry?" the Doctor blinked at her.
"No!" she grabbed the Doctor by his tie and began pull him off to a nearby parked car.
"Amy, no, no, what are you doing?" the Doctor struggled.
Amy slammed the car door on the tie, trapping it there, taking the keys from the owner and locked it.
"Are you out of your mind?"
"Being in this town for 12 years will probably do that to you." Thea remarked, "I feel like I'm already losing my mind. My parents would be disappointed to know I wasn't inspired," she tilted her head in wonder. "I've always wondered if I went mad, think I did you know. There is a fine line between madness and genius."
"Who are you?" Amy demanded, looking between them.
"You know who we are." the Doctor replied.
"No, really. Who are you?"
"Is now really the time?" Thea rolled her eyes, "can you wait until after the world is safe? Priorities, people. Get them in order."
"Look at the sky." the Doctor nodded, "End of the world, 20 minutes."
"Well, better talk quickly, then." Amy told them.
"Amy, I am going to need my car back." the owner cut in gently.
"Yes, in a bit. Now go and have coffee."
"Right..." he nodded, walking off, "yes."
The Doctor reached into his pocket, tossing the apple Amelia had given him, "catch."
Amy frowned, seeing it was the same apple, with the smiley face, still as fresh as 5 minutes ago.
"I'm the Doctor. That's Thea. We're time travellers."
"Earth defence!" Thea called.
"Everything we told you 12 years ago is true we're real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let me go right now, everything you've ever known is over."
"I don't believe you." Amy said after a moment.
"Just 20 minutes." the Doctor repeated, "Just believe us for 20 minutes. Look at it. Fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you know it's the same one. Amy, believe for 20 minutes."
After a moment of silence, Amy unlocked the car door, "What do we do?"
"Stop that nurse." he said, running over a low chain fence and snatched the mobile out of the hands of the young man in scrubs as Thea and Amy ran after him.
"The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog." the Doctor eyed the man, "Why?"
"Amy." the man sighed in relief at seeing her.
"Hi!" she smiled, "Oh, this is Rory, he's a friend."
"Boyfriend."
"Kind of boyfriend."
"Amy..."
"How can he be kind of boyfriend?" Thea tilted her head, "you're either together or soon will be together. I can be quite the little cupid you know. My friends Clyde and Rani...sorry," she shook her head, "not the time."
"Man and dog." the Doctor cut in, "Why?"
"Oh my God, it's him." Rory gaped, looking between them, "its them!"
"Just answer his question, please." Amy was close to pleading.
"It's him, though, er, them. The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor and Thea."
"Yeah, he...they came back."
"But they were a story." Rory shook his head, "they was a game."
"Man and dog." Thea cut in, "we have 20 minutes, so get talking before the human residence is incinerated. Ah, man, now that voice is in my head. That's going to be stuck in there until another ridiculous song replaces it."
"Better than listening to the Scissor Sisters." the Doctor muttered.
"Oh good point. But then again, I don't want Hamster dance in my head, Oh." she pulled a face, "now that's in my head." the Doctor clapped a hand over her mouth as she started to hum the tune and get the annoying song in everyone else's head.
"Let's not start singing. You can do karaoke later."
Rory blinked, pointing at the girl, not quite sure what to make to the girl from his girlfriends stories, and the fact that she just rambled out about the Earth being incinerated right to an old chaotic song, "Is she alright?"
"Just answer them." Amy sighed. Honestly she wasn't sure herself if the girl was alright in the head. It wasn't like she knocked her out with a cricket bat. Actually, the girl seemed excited to get chained with handcuffs.
So maybe she was a bit barny.
"Sorry." Rory shook his head, "Because he can't be there. Because he's..."
"In a hospital, in a coma." the Doctor spoke with him.
"Yeah." he nodded.
"Knew it. Multiform, you see? Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a life feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind."
"Like that." Thea nodded and the Doctor spun to see the man and dog standing a short distance away, "Prisoner Zero." the man barked and she barked right back.
"What?" Rory gaped, "There's a Prisoner Zero too?"
"Yes." Amy sighed.
An electrical hum sounded as a large spaceship descended, a large eye, the one from the telly and crack, searching for something.
"See," the Doctor called handing the phone back to Rory, "that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." he held his sonic above his head wincing at the chaos going on around them.
Streetlights smashed, the car alarms went off as sirens blared. A poor woman screamed as her mobility scooter zoomed off. A group of firemen ran off after their truck as it rolled down the hill.
"I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" the Doctor grinned over at Prisoner Zero.
Thea grinned, laughing in delight, as the Doctor pointed the sonic at a red telephone box making it explode...only to be too much for the ready broken sonic, as it sparked, the Doctor dropping it from the shock, "No, no! No, don't do that!"
"Look," Rory pointed to the sky as the ship slowly turned away, "It's going."
"No, come back. He's here!" the Doctor cried, "Come back! He's here. Prisoner Zero is here. Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is..."
"Escaping down the drain." Thea pursed her lips, seeing the man and dog turn to mist and sneak away down the drain. She ran over, peering down, "should we follow?"
"Absolutely not." the Doctor argued, "Sarah Jane taught you better than that."
"Actually Sarah Jane had led us into the sewers following an alien life signs."
"What do we do now?" Amy asked.
"It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open. No TARDIS, no screwdriver, 17 minutes. Come on, think. Think!"
"So that thing," Amy began, "that hid in my house for 12 years?"
"Multiforms can live for millennia." Thea explained, "a decade is nothing, except very boring in your house in this village."
"So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute!"
"Oh, humans always blaming me." she moaned.
"They're looking for him, but they followed us." the Doctor told her, "They saw me through the crack, got a fix, they're only late because we are."
"What are they on about?" Rory asked Amy quietly.
"Nurse boy, give me your phone." the Doctor snapped his fingers at him.
"How can they be real? They were never real."
"Phone. Now. Give me."
"His name is Rory and if you say please he might actually hand it over." Thea remarked.
"You're very confusing, did you know that?" the Doctor asked her.
One moment she was the sweetest little thing and the next she was demanding someone to answer her.
"Yeah, I'm sweet, polite, adorable and will happily push you down the stairs if you annoy me or hurt my friends." she smiled sweetly.
"You what?" he looked at her sharply, forgetting the phone for a moment as Rory set it in his hands. "You've never done that, though have you?"
"The boy tripped." she shrugged innocently, "the fact he called Luke a freak was karma."
He closed his eyes, exasperated, "Thea..."
"He's alive!" she huffed, not seeing the big deal about it, "only broke his arm...no big deal, everyone always makes a big deal out of things."
"You don't push people down the stairs."
"He insulted Luke!" Thea shouted, her face reddening in anger.
Rory eyed her, shaking his head, not wanting to know what kind of trouble she could cause, "They were just a game. We were kids. You made me dress up as him."
He had always been the one to play Doctor, sometimes they brought their friend Mels into the game and she was always trying to get Amy to talk about Thea, but clearly Amy was far more interested in the Doctor.
The Doctor looked through the photos on Rorys phone, "These photos, they're are all coma patients?"
"Yeah." he nodded.
"No, they're all the multiform. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."
"He had a dog, though." Amy frowned, "There's a dog in a coma?"
"Well, the coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog. Laptop!" he suddenly snapped his fingers, "Your friend, what was his name? Not him, the good-looking one."
"Thanks." Rory scoffed.
"Jeff." Amy answered.
"Oh, thanks."
"He had a laptop in his bag." the Doctor continued, "A laptop. Big bag, big laptop. I need Jeff's laptop. You two, get to the hospital. Get everyone out of that ward. Clear the whole floor. Thea with me." he tossed her Rorys phone, "phone us when you're done."
And with that, he pulled Thea off, leaving the young couple to their own task.
~.~
The Time Lords ran back into Jeff's grans house, straight into the mans room to see him sat on his bed with his laptop.
"Hello." the Doctor greeted cheerily, "Laptop. Give me."
"No, no, no, no, wait." Jeff tried to hold it back as the fought over the laptop.
"It's fine. Give it here."
"Hang on!"
Thea moved between them, searching the laptop herself, "thank you very much." she sat down at the end of his bed, her eyes widening at the screen on the laptop as she turned a very vibrant shade of red and handed the laptop to the Doctor, "with your gran downstairs," she tutted.
"Blimey." the Doctors eyes widened, covering Theas eyes with one hand despite she had already seen it, "Get a girlfriend, Jeff."
The door opened and Jeff's gran entered.
"Gran!" Jeff cried.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"The sun's gone wibbly," the Doctor explained, his hands flying over the keyboard, "so right now, somewhere out there, there's going to be a big old video conference call. 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." Jeff's gran smiled.
"I'll get you his number. But watch him, he's a devil." he warned.
"You can't just hack in on a call like that." Jeff exclaimed. They'd go to jail for that! He would go to jail for using his laptop!
"Can't I?" the Doctor countered, holding the psychic paper to the webcam as the screen split to show everyone on the call.
"Is that psychic paper?" Thea gasped, snatching it from his hands, ignoring his shout of 'oi!' and she looked at it, she frowned seeing it was blank, "I've told Sarah Jane how much easier journalism would be with this instead of all her fake IDs."
"Give it back." he held his hand out.
"Right, sorry." She handed it back.
"Who are you?" one of the men demanded, "this is a secure call, what are you doing here?"
The Doctor waved, "Hello. Yeah, I know you should switch me off, but before you do, watch this."
"It's here too, I'm getting it."
"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."
"Of course you did." Thea sighed.
"Oh, yeah, like you're an early bird," he poked her side getting her to laugh.
"Nah, I'm up all night with K9 and Mr Smith. Oh!" she whacked his arm in her excitement, starting to laugh, "tell them why electrons have mass."
"Ah, an oldie but a goodie." he nodded, typing away, "And a personal favourite of mine, faster than light travel with two diagrams and a joke."
"Hilarious!" Thea laughed, "gotta send that to Luke," she patted her pocket only for her face to fall as she remembered where her phone was, "its in the TARDIS, water damaged."
The Doctor patted her arm, knowing how much she was worried about them lot worrying about her. Maybe he had been selfish to let her come with him especially after what just happened. She should be with them, getting Mr Smith to create a cover story to what happened.
"Look at your screens." he told the people on the call, "Whoever I am, I'm a genius. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas, pay attention." he pulled out Rorys phone handing the laptop to Thea as he typed away.
"Sir, what are you doing?" another man called.
"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 works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, radar dish, whatever you've got. Any questions?"
"Who was your lady friend?" Patrick Moore smirked, seeing Jeff's gran.
"Patrick, behave."
"What does this virus do?" a man asked.
"It's a reset command," Thea told them, "just that."
"It resets counters." the Doctor added, "It gets in the wifi 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." there was silence and he looked back at Jeff, "Jeff, you're my best man."
"You what?" he blinked.
The closed the laptop slightly to not be overheard, "Listen to me. In 10 minutes, you're going to be a legend. In 10 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's the day you save the world."
"Why me?"
"Its your bedroom." Thea said simply, handing the laptop back to him, "and your laptop."
"Now go, go, go." the Doctor ushered Thea up and pulled her from the room.
Only for her to poke her head back through the doorway, "and delete you're Internet history when you're done!"
"Thea!"
"I'm coming!" she shouted, running back after the Doctor.
~.~
"We need a car." the Doctor said, looking around the area for one they could borrow.
"What about that?" Thea pointed to the firetruck.
"Brilliant!"
The Doctor had driven the firetruck up to the hospital when Amy had rung, warning that Prisoner Zero was there with them, in another disguise. They'd heard Amy and Rory running before being told they were in the coma ward. The Doctor had put the sirens on and extended the ladder crashing through the window and they both climbed up to see Prisoner Zero now disguised as a woman with two children.
"Right! Hello." the Doctor grinned, "Am I late?"
"Still three minutes to go." Thea replied, glancing at the clock.
"So still time."
"Time for what, Time Lords?" Prisoner Zero sneered.
"How do you know what we are?" Thea frowned at that.
She had tried very hard to blend in as an ordinary human, tried very hard that all the bad aliens they stopped didn't know who she was. It was bad enough one time Autons had sensed what she was and honestly thought she was the Doctor and tried to harm her because of what he had done to the Nestene Conscious. She was still a bit mad about that.
"The legends of the Doctor are known."
"Take the disguise off." the Doctor ordered, "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."
"I did not open the crack."
"So who did?" Thea wondered, rubbing her arms. She really didn't like the idea of not know that crack, it scared her. It just made her uncomfortable and she'd rather not see it again.
"The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from?" Zero smirked, "You don't, do you?" the woman's voice changed to speak as one of the little girls, "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know. Doesn't know. Doesn't know!" And switched back to the woman's, "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."
"The Pandorica?" Thea caught onto that. The Pandorica was a fairytale.
But the Doctor was focused on the clock on the wall and it clicked and changed, "And we're off! Look at that. Look at that!" he cheered, pointing to the clock that now read 0:00, "Yeah, I know, just a clock. Whatever. But do you know what's happening right now? In one little bedroom, my team are 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?" he snapped his fingers at Thea.
"Zero!" she answered.
"Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd probably take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute? The source, by the way, is right here." he caught Rorys phone as Thea tossed it to him.
"I think they've found us." Thea remarked, seeing a bright light outside, far too bright to be human made.
"The Atraxi are limited." Zero stated, "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." the Doctor chuckled, "I mean, this is my favourite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here. Ooh, and being uploaded about now. And the final score is, no TARDIS, no screwdriver, 2 minutes to spare. Who da man?" he threw his arms wide as they all just stared at him, "Oh, I'm never saying that again."
"Please don't." Thea agreed eagerly. This was much worse than Sarah Jane trying to understand teenage slang.
"Fine."
"Then I shall take a new form." Zero threatened.
"Oh, stop it." the Doctor waved them off, "You know you can't. It takes months to form that kind of psychic link."
"And I've had years." Zero smirked, starting to glow...and Amy collapsed to the ground behind them.
"No!" the Doctor rushed to her side, "Amy? You've got to hold on. Amy? Don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please."
"Doctor?" Rory looked up at Zero.
He turned to see Zero looked like him, "Well, that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?"
"It's you." Thea whispered to him.
"Me?" he looked at her. She nodded, "Is that what I look like?"
"You don't know?" Rory shook his head. How could someone not know what they looked like?
"Busy day." he stood, "Why me, though? You're linked with her. Why are you copying me?"
Little Amelia Pond stepped out from behind the other Doctor, her hand in his, "I'm not. 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 you because she can hear you." Thea murmured.
The Doctor crouched besides Amy, "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, but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Amy, dream about what you saw."
"No!" Zero cried as it began to glow once more, "No. No!" it turned into a large eel-like creature.
"Well done, Prisoner Zero." the Doctor clapped, "A perfect impersonation of yourself."
"Prisoner Zero is located." the Atraxi called, "Prisoner Zero is restrained."
"Silence, Doctor." Zero hissed, "Silence will fall." with that it faded away.
Thea rubbed her arms not liking the sound of that as the Doctor ran to the window, watching the Atraxi ship leave before dialling on the phone.
"The sun." Rory gasped, "it's back to normal, right? That's, that's good, yeah? That means it's over." he felt Amy wake up, "Amy. Are you okay? Are you with us?"
"What happened?" she groaned.
"He did it." Rory smiled, "they did it."
He got the sense that like him, Thea seemed to be overlooked at lot with the Doctor most of the talking, but that wasn't fair, she had helped just as much as he had.
"No, I didn't." the Doctor shook his head.
"What are you doing?" Rory frowned, seeing him on the phone.
"Tracking the signal back. Sorry in advance."
"About what?"
"Phone calls to space are expensive." Thea offered a sheepish smile, "I, um, you can send me the bill."
The Doctor held up a finger as he got contact on the ship, "Oi, I didn't say you could go! Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level 5 planet, and you were going to burn it? What? Did you think no-one was watching? You lot, back here, now." he hung up, "Okay, now I've done it." he turned and strolled out the room.
"Best not leave them waiting then." Thea followed after him.
"Did he just bring them back?" Rory gaped as he and Amy chased after them, "Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?"
"Where are you going?" Amy asked.
"The roof." the Doctor answered, "No, hang on." he veered to the side and into the changing rooms, starting to rummage around.
"What's in here?" Amy glanced around as he started to toss clothes aside.
"I'm saving the world, I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show."
"Shouldn't we deal with the Atraxi first." Thea called, "before they get here and see were not there and just go again."
"I've got time." he waved her off.
"Well, yeah, but…"
"You just summoned aliens back to Earth." Rory shook his head, agreeing with Thea that now didn't seem the best time for an outfit change, "Actual aliens, deadly aliens, aliens of death, and now you're taking your clothes off." he sighed as the Doctor began to remove his clothes, "Amy, he's taking his clothes off."
"Turn your back if it embarrasses you." the Doctor called.
"You have an entire wardrobe in the TARDIS and your stealing clothes from hospital patients." Thea could only shake her head as she headed outside to wait in the corridor, seeing no more point in trying to argue.
"Are you stealing clothes now?" Rory agreed with the girl, "those clothes belong to people, you know." he turned his back only to see Amy still watching him change, "Are you not going to turn your back?"
"No." Amy smirked.
~.~
They stepped out onto the hospital roof, the Doctor now dressed in a pink button up shirt, brown trousers with braces and a selection of ties around his neck. The Doctor dumped a few jackets on poor Rory, needing to decide on a tie first, but the Atraxi ship had arrived so he finished getting dressed on the way up.
"So this was a good idea, was it?" Amy shifted as the giant eye looked down at them, "they were leaving."
"Leaving is good." the Doctor agreed, "Never coming back is better. Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now."
The eye shone a light over the Doctor, scanning him, "You are not of this world."
"No, but Thea and I both put a lot of work into it." he looked at his selection of ties, "Oh, hmm, I don't know. What do you think?" he held one up to Thea.
She pulled a face, "I don't really like any of them." she admitted, "not the pink one."
"No?"
"Pink bow tie and pink shirt. Too much pink."
"What's wrong with pink?"
"It clashes with my hair."
"You wore a pink bridesmaid dress." He pointed out.
She shrugged, "It was mum's wedding."
"Is this world important?" the Atraxi asked.
"Important?" the Doctor scoffed, "What's that mean, important? 6 billion people live here. Is that important?"
"Better question," Thea stepped to the Doctors side, "is this planet a threat to the Atraxi?" she crossed her arms, "is it?"
Another light shone, bringing up a projection of the planet, showing Earths history, showing how little threat the humanrace was.
"...No." it finally decided.
"Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?" the Doctor asked them, throwing away a few of his ties.
"No."
"Okay. One more. Just one. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many." the projection showed the various aliens that had threatened Earth, Daleks, Cybermen, Racnoss, Sycorax and Sontarans, "And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?"
The projection showed all of the Doctors previous faces as the Doctor turned to Rory to select a tweed jacket, asking through the projection as it showed his last face, "Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically...run."
The Atraxi ship flew away.
"So that was so...that was amazing!" Thea laughed, watching the ship leave. One day she wished she could be as amazing as that. To be able to make an entire fleet leave at the very mention of your name. That was a dream come true.
"I do try." he chuckled, only to jerk, feeling something burning, pulling out his TARDIS key to see it glowing. He grinned at her, taking her hand and pulling her back down the stairs of the hospital and through the village back to Amy's house. They slowed as they entered the back garden to see the TARDIS as blue as ever, completely rebuilt.
"Okay, what have you got for me this time?" the Doctor breathed, sliding his key into the lock and stepping inside the newly redecorated console room.
The room was lit with orange and yellow lights, very bright compared to the previous look that had been very dark. The captains chair had been replaced with a jumpseat and stairs led off down the different corridors. No more y-beams this time round and a glass floor.
"Look at you." the Doctor smiled brightly, "Oh, you sexy thing! Look at you."
"Very pretty." Thea smiled, running a hand along the edge of the console only to gasp, "my phone!" she beamed in delight seeing her phone as good as new left on the console, "oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
"And that's how you know the TARDIS loves you." the Doctor smiled.
"Gotta make some calls, before I get yelled at."
He gestured down the many corridors, "there should be a room for you somewhere."
"Thank you!" she ran off down the corridors.
~.~
The Doctor stepped out the TARDIS back into Amy's garden to see the woman rushing over in her nightie and slippers.
"Sorry about running off earlier." he smiled, "Brand new TARDIS. Bit exciting. Just had a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in, Thea had made many phone calls, its all good. She's staying for a bit." his smile widened at that, before settling on a trip to the moon he had asked if she wanted to go back to Earling, probably not the best thing to say, she automatically thought that meant he didn't want her with him, which was not true, he just thought she would want to stay with Sarah Jane. He assumed she had only asked to stay to ensure he would be alright from regenerating. But, no, she actually wanted to stay. She was still inside the TARDIS, getting used to the new console now. Maybe he would give her lessons later.
The doors opened and Thea poked her head out, "hurry up, I want to brag to Clyde I get to go to other planets."
"It's you." Amy breathed, "You came back."
"Course I came back." the Doctor replied, "I always come back."
"And you kept the clothes." Amy eyed the Doctor.
"Well, I just saved the world." he defended, "The whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge. Yeah, shoot me. I kept the clothes."
"Including the bow tie." she flicked it.
"Yeah, it's cool." he straightened it, "Bow ties are cool."
"No, they're not!" Thea argued.
"Better than those arm warmers of yours."
"These are really comfy, though, and warm." She quickly gotten changed during their quick trip to the moon, nothing beat fresh clothes.
"Are you from another planet?" Amy asked, eying them cautiously.
"Yeah." the Doctor nodded.
"I didn't think it was that obvious." Thea mumbled, "but then again if its only taken you this long."
"Okay." Amy breathed.
"So what do you think?" the Doctor smiled.
"Of what?"
"Other planets!" Thea cheered.
"Want to check some out?" the Doctor asked her.
"What does that mean?" Amy frowned.
"It means. Well, it means come with me." his smile widened, "with us."
"Where?"
"Wherever you like."
"Different planets!" Thea added. She just really wanted to see the cultures of other species, and bragging rights to Clyde.
"All that stuff that happened." Amy began, "The hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero."
"Oh, don't worry, that's just the beginning." the Doctor assured her, "There's loads more."
"Yeah, but those things, those amazing things, all that stuff." she suddenly glared at him, "That was 2 years ago."
"Oh!" the Doctors eyes widened, "Oops."
"When we go back to Bannerman Road, I'm driving." Thea hissed. There was no way she'd let him drive and risk ending up standing over the gravestones. She would not live after that.
"Right," the Doctor nodded slowly, "so that's..."
"14 years!" Amy snapped.
"14 years since fish custard. Amy Pond, the girl who waited, you've waited long enough."
"When I was a kid, you said there was a swimming pool and a library, and the swimming pool was in the library."
"Oh it was." Thea nodded, "completely destroyed my phone, but the TARDIS gave me a brand new one, all contracts already added. Brilliant! I love her."
"Not sure where it's got to now." the Doctor frowned, "It'll turn up. So...coming?"
"No!"
"You wanted to come 14 years ago." he reminded her.
"I grew up."
"Liar!" Thea laughed, "no one outgrown adventures!"
The Doctor grinned, snapping his fingers and the door opened, the warm orange glow lighting up the room.
The Doctor and Thea shared equally excited looks as they followed Amy inside, "Well? Anything you want to say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all."
"I'm in my nightie." Amy breathed.
"Oh, don't worry. Plenty of clothes in the wardrobe. And possibly a swimming pool..." he looked at her, "So, all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will...where do you want to start?"
Amy smirked, making her way over to him, "You are so sure that I'm coming."
"Yeah, I am."
"Why?"
"Cause you're the Scottish girl in the English village, and I know how that feels."
"Oh, do you?"
"All these years living here, most of your life, and you've still got that accent. Yeah, you're coming."
"Can you get me back for tomorrow morning?"
"It's a time machine. I can get you back 5 minutes ago."
"Why?" Thea looked over at her from where she was eying the parts of the console, "what's tomorrow?"
"Nothing." she said quickly, "Nothing. Just you know, stuff."
"All right, then," the Doctor shrugged, "back in time for stuff." a sonic extended from a small slot in the console, "Oh! A new one! Lovely. Thanks, dear." he patted the box fondly. Though he couldn't help but notice the old girl had given Thea a new phone before giving him a new sonic. It was clear she was the new favourite, or maybe the TARDIS had taken on a new motherly mode. Could the TARDIS do that?
"Why me?" Amy shook her head.
"Why not?"
"No, seriously. You are asking me to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question."
"I don't know. Fun. Do I have to have a reason?"
"People always have a reason."
"Do I look like people?"
"Yes."
He sighed, "Been knocking around on my own for a while. My choice, but I've started talking to myself all the time. It's giving me earache, even Thea noticed, decided to tag along for a bit and I think she has bets with her friends about some history knowledge."
"I do." she nodded, "and bragging rights."
"You're lonely," Amy eyed him, "that's it? Just that?"
"Just that. Promise." he swore, moving the monitor to him, frowning, seeing a line like the crack from Amy's bedroom wall on it.
"Okay."
Thea peeked round to see what he was looking at, shivering a moment from the sight of it. That crack really did disturb her.
The Doctor switched the monitor off, "So, are you okay, then?" he asked Amy, "Because this place, sometimes it can make people feel a bit, you know..."
"It can probably make you lose your mind." Thea supplied.
"I'm fine." Amy swallowed, "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 you were just like a madman with a kid with a box."
"Amy Pond, there's something you'd better understand about me, because it's important, and one day your life may depend on it. I am definitely a madman with a box. Ha ha! Yeah." she laughed with him, "Goodbye Leadworth, hello everything!" he pulled down a lever, setting the TARDIS in motion as they grabbed onto the console.