A/N (1) For Annaliria, who inspired this fic with "Only for one moment, and that moment is gone". I wanted to make it bigger, so I ripped spacetime to create this monster. I hope you like this? Quick note, Amy was born in 2000ish, along with Rory and Mels, just because she cannot be a similar age to Rose. That's too weird ok.

Little Amelia Pond's life was irrevocably changed the day a sparking blue box crash landed in her front yard.

Praying to Santa about the crack in the wall as she had been, she assumed her prayers were answered, and so she took up her torch and made her way silently down the hall and out into her front yard.

Amelia approached the blue box with a healthy amount of caution, after all, it wasn't every day an unidentified flying object fell from the sky. A frustrated yell came from the smoking box, and Amelia froze like a deer in headlights.

A grappling hook sped past her head, and dug into the ground next to her. Silence fell, the sounds of the night stilling as if the creatures making them knew something special was happening. Amelia switched off her torch, holding her breath.

She jumped as a soaking wet woman fell out of the box, groaning when she hit the ground. She didn't seem to notice Amelia, instead she pulled herself up to her feet and yelled something odd at the blue box.

"Doctor? Doctor? Are you there?"

A raggedy looking man emerged from the box, and unlike the woman before him, he noticed Amelia almost instantaneously. He pulled himself from the wreckage, and tried in vain to stand up straighter, leaning on the woman's shoulder for support.

"Could I have an apple? All I can think about. Apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving? That's new. Never had cravings before." The woman finally noticed Amelia, and her expression softened instantly.

"'Ello."

"Are you both ok?" Amelia asked, concerned. The man stumbled a little as a burst of golden energy left his mouth. The woman took his hand gently, a concerned look on her face. He slumped against her, looking ready to pass out.

"We're fine, just had a little fall inta the library, 'ell of a climb back up. What are you doing out here at night sweetheart?" The woman replied, her accent pleasant, maybe south Londonish? Wherever it was from, it made Amelia's stomach feel warm, like she had been wrapped in the world's fluffiest blanket.

She squared her shoulders and stood as tall as she could. "I came out to check on the noise," Amelia declared. "Why are you soaking wet?"

"We were in the swimming pool," the man responded, although his voice was mostly muffled by the woman's shoulder. Amelia frowned and looked back at the woman.

"But you said you were in the library!" She accused.

The woman shrugged. "So was the swimming pool."

Amelia considered this. There were, of course, many other much better places for a swimming pool, but a library certainly wasn't the worst on the list, and she supposed it was a better place than a bedroom to keep a swimming pool. Imagine sleepwalking with that!

"Are you the police?" She narrowed her eyes at the strange pair. They didn't look like police, but who could know for certain, especially in England.

"Did you call for police?" The man questioned, wrenching his head up to look at her.

"Did you come to fix the crack in my wall?"

"A crack in your wall?" The woman inquired, trading a look with the man. His face scrunched up into a frown, then he cried out suddenly, doubling over onto the ground. Amelia and the woman both moved to help him.

"Are you alright Mister?"

His face took on a cheerful look, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Amelia knew that look. It was the look of a grown up who might be lying. "No no, I'm fine. This is perfectly norma-AH!"

Another breath of gold energy escaped from his lips and he gasped, dropping back. The woman pursed her lips, and put both of her hands over his chest. "Still got two hearts, good," she murmured. Amelia blinked, unsure if she had heard her correctly.

"Two hearts? Who are you?" She demanded.

"I don't know yet, I'm still cooking!" The man declared, a real smile on his face now. "Does it scare you?"

Amelia frowned. "No, you just look a bit weird. Why would you scare me?"

"I think 'e means the crack in your wall," the woman said, removing her hands from his chest.

Amelia worried her lip between her teeth, memories of the voices spilling from the crack terrifying in their vividity. "Yes," she admitted quietly. "The crack does scare me."

"Well then, no time to lose!" The man jumped up suddenly, his previous misery transforming into manic energy. "Right, I'm the Doctor, this is Rose. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions and please don't wander off."

He took off bounding towards her front door, only to smack directly into a big oak tree. He rubbed his nose, an irritated expression crossing his face. "Right. Early days. Steerings a bit off. Was it like this last time Rose?"

The woman, Rose, pursed her lips. "You didn't even make it out of the TARDIS doors last time, how would I know? Besides, that was two Christmases ago an'- Doctor, wait!"

The Doctor had taken off once again, and was already at the front door. Amelia and Rose started after him. Amelia subconsciously took hold of Rose's hand, finding comfort in her grip. "What's wrong with him?" Amelia asked.

"Nothings wrong with 'im sweetheart, he just does this sometimes," Rose reassured, although she didn't look at Amelia when she spoke.

"He's weird," Amelia said matter of factly. At that, Rose laughed.

"Quite right."

Truthfully, Rose was rather worried about the Doctor. Sure, this wasn't his first regeneration with her, and she had experienced losing her Doctor before, but the first time hadn't been nearly so bad.

For one thing, the TARDIS hadn't set itself on fire last time, nor had she crashed. Rose grimaced at the thought of their extensive library, destroyed by the flooding.

Did regeneration usually cause this level of destruction, or was this a once off? Was the TARDIS going to be able to repair herself? Would this Doctor still want her with him? So many questions for her no longer pinstriped Doctor, and no answers. He hadn't gone into a coma this time, and she worried about that. What had he said two years ago, about the neural synapses reconnecting? Wasn't that important?

She would ask him later. They had forever after all.

Amelia sat at her family dining table, swinging her legs beneath it. Rose had gone to the bathroom, leaving only her and the strange raggedy man in the kitchen. "If you're a Doctor, why does your box say police on it?" She asked him as he bit into an apple.

His whole face screwed up in obvious displeasure and Amelia flinched when the chunk of apple he had bitten flew out of his mouth across the room. He wiped his mouth with the back of his shirt cuff. "What," he said, venom lacing his tone. "Is that."

"An apple?" The Doctor curled his lip in disgust.

"Apples are rubbish. Bah. I hate apples." Amelia thought he looked like a cat about to hack up a hairball.

"You said you loved them!" She accused, but he only waved his hand at her.

"No, no, no, no. Yoghourt. I like Yoghourt! Yoghourt's my favourite, give me yoghourt!"

Amelia hopped up and opened the fridge, digging around until she found a pot of strawberry yoghurt. She passed it to him, and he tore off the lid, throwing it back in one quick gulp.

Then, much like the cat she was suspecting he secretly was, he hacked it right back up. "I hate yoghourt," he declared vehemently, tossing the container over his shoulder. "It's just stuff with bits in it."

"But you said it was your favourite?" Amelia was rather confused by the Doctor. She hoped Rose would be back soon. The Doctor wiped his teeth with his tongue.

"New mouth, new rules. It's like eating after cleaning your teeth, everything tastes wrong," the Doctor twitched, and made a sound of pain.

"What's wrong with you?"

The Doctor scowled. "Wrong with me? It's not my fault! Don't you people have any decent food?"

Amelia thought about it and hopped up, running across to the stove. She pulled out a pot and poured a can of beans into it, sticking it on the stove to heat. The Doctor picked up a towel behind her and began to dry off his hair, wandering around the room, glancing at pictures as he did.

"Doctor, are you really getting a little girl to cook for ya? I thought you were Mister anti-child labour."

Rose was back! Amelia grinned up at her. "I don't mind!" She said cheerily, slopping the beans into a bowl. The Doctor chucked the now damp towel at Rose with a grin.

"New taste buds. Have to take them for a test ride, besides, can't cook with this coordination. Ah, beans! Beans are good."

Rose and Amelia watched in amusement as he spat them out. "Evil. Beans are evil!" He announced, throwing the bowl over his shoulder. It shattered on the wooden floor, and before Rose could reprimand him, the Doctor shoved his chair out from beneath him, standing.

"AHA!" He cried, swanning past Amelia and Rose back into the kitchen. "I know exactly what I need! I need… I need… hmm."

He strode towards the fridge and began to pull out different things, not caring where they landed. Amelia peered over his shoulder curiously. "What are you looking for?"

Rose neatly stepped to the side, avoiding a loaf of bread thrown haphazardly over the Doctor's shoulder. She pursed her lips, looking rather vexed. "D'ya need any help or should we just keep dodgin' perfectly good food?"

The Doctor pulled open the freezer and when he turned to face Rose, his eyes were lit up with glee. "Fish fingers and custard. I need fish fingers and custard!"

Rose wrinkled her nose at the two of them. Down one end of the table, Amelia was eating mint flavoured ice cream from the tub, a huge ice cream scooper in hand, and in the seat next to Rose, the Doctor was dipping his fish fingers into the custard, looking just about as content as she'd ever seen him, well, at least with this face. She couldn't deny he was awfully pretty looking, even compared to his pinstriped self, and she was still totally head over heels for him.

"You're so dead to me Doctor," Rose said, hiding her grin behind a stern expression. "That food combination should be illegal." The Doctor looked up from his feast, his contentment transforming into mischief.

"Oh Rose Tyler, you mock me so. You haven't even tried it!"

"My aunty says I should always try things at least once before saying I don't like them," Amelia recited primly, and the Doctor nodded emphatically.

"See! Try it, just once!" He picked up a fish finger, dipped it in the custard, and began to move it towards Rose slowly. She sorely regretted sitting next to him, and tried to subtly shuffle away.

"Don't come near me wi' that thing— Amelia help!" Rose couldn't contain her laughter as she tried to jump out of her chair, but found the Doctor's arm wrapped solidly around her waist, preventing escape. Amelia was giggling, and Rose gave in, allowing the Doctor to feed her the fish finger.

"Oh that was… not good," she groaned. "Your taste buds musta gotten pretty screwed this body around if you enjoyed any part o' that." He released her waist and she ignored the way she missed his hands almost immediately. He moved back onto his own chair to stare down a still giggling Amelia.

"What's so funny hmm?" he asked her, waggling his eyebrow.

"You," she snorted, eating another scoop of ice cream. "You're funny."

The Doctor smiled broadly, and dipped another fish finger in the custard. "Am I? Funny's good. What's your name?"

"I'm Amelia Pond." The Doctor pushed his now empty plate away so he could lean his elbows onto the table.

"Oh, that's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond. Like a name in a fairy tale. Are we in Scotland Amelia?" the Doctor inquired. Amelia shook her head ruefully.

"No. We had to move to England, it's rubbish here."

"Tell me about it," Rose chuckled. She glanced at the staircase at the other end of the room, her brows furrowing. "Where are ya Mum and Dad? Are they upstairs? I'da thought we'dve woken 'em up by now with all the laughin'."

Amelia's expression became much more serious. "I don't have a Mum or a Dad, just an Aunt."

"So where's your Aunt?"

"She's away," Amelia replied.

"And she left you all alone?" Rose would be having a strong word with the woman about leaving an eight year old home by herself overnight.

"I'm not scared!" Amelia insisted, her eyes widening. "I'm really not!"

"Course, you're not. You're not scared of anything," the Doctor reassured her. "Box falls out of the sky, man and woman fall out of a box, man makes woman eat fish custard," Amelia giggled again. "-and look at you, just sitting there. So you know what I think?"

"What?" Amelia questioned.

The Doctor locked eyes with the little girl, his expression hardening.

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."

"Yikes. That's a big crack," Rose remarked.

The crack was about three feet long, stretching across Amelia's wall in a villainous looking W shape. A dull glow shone from it, bathing the trio in ambient light as the Doctor stared at it with narrowed eyes.

"You've had some cowboys in here." At Amelia and Roses confused expressions, he amended that statement. "Not actual cowboys, although that's strictly not out of the realm of possibility."

He turned back to the crack, ignorant of the looks Amelia and Rose traded. Rose looked around the little girls room curiously, taking in the photos on the walls, and the many, many stuffed animals strewn about the place. Her attention was stolen by a strange looking apple on Amelia's dresser drawers. She walked closer and examined it.

It was a pink lady apple, with a crude smiley face carved into it. Amelia picked it up and explained. "I used to hate apples, so my mum put funny faces on them."

She passed the apple to Rose with a cheeky smile. "It might make your boyfriend want to eat apples." Rose blinked, fighting a blush.

"He's err— he's not my uh— my boyfriend," Rose whispered, glancing at the Doctor, but he was too invested in sonicking the glowing crack to notice that they were in the room, let alone that a conversation was happening.

Amelia cocked her head, confused. "Your… husband?" She tried. Rose shook her head, a little mortified. "Your… fiancé?" Amelia tried again. Rose shook her head harder, the blush she had been fighting rising up to her cheeks victoriously.

"No! He's just my— my good friend."

"Are you sure?" Amelia pressed. Rose pocketed the apple, ignoring her question.

"She sounds good. Your Mum I mean," Rose began, but the Doctors excited whoop from the wall cut off any further conversation.

"Rose, Amelia, come take a look!" Rose and Amelia did as he said. He turned off the sonic, leaping to his feet. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's the thing." He locked eyes with Rose. "Where's the draught coming from?"

Amelia's eyes widened. "Oh," she said softly. How could that be possible? It wasn't possible, Amelia was sure, but the fact she was standing in her room with two strangers who had crawled out of a police box and demanded midnight snacks was strange enough in itself. She decided to give up on trying to make sense of anything.

"'ve got a feeling you're going to tell us Doctor," Rose said, humour lacing her tone.

"Wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff," the Doctor replied, running his sonic across the crack again. "You know what this crack is?"

"A crack?" Amelia guessed.

"It is," the Doctor confirmed. "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?" Amelia's brain felt fuzzy.

"Everywhere. In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world," the Doctor began to pace, walking on his toes. "Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together right here in the wall of your bedroom," he smacked his hands together, imitating the concept. "Sometimes, can you hear?

"A voice. Yes." Oh yes, Amelia heard voices. Terrifying voices, speaking in words she often didn't understand, but one phrase was in English, one phrase she recognised.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped," she said, in perfect time with the voice on the other side of the crack. Amelia jerked, taking a step back. "What does it mean?" she questioned, turning to Rose.

"Well, I'd say that means there's a prison on the other side of the crack," Rose deducted, her voice questioning.

The Doctor snapped his fingers. "Aha! And they've lost a prisoner! You know what that means?"

Amelia shook her head. How could she? She was very smart for a eight-year-old, but even her brain power had its limits.

"You need a better wall." Well duh. That was obvious. He continued. "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—"

"Or what Doctor?" Rose's cheery tone rang false. It sounded like when Aunt Sharon took her out for ice cream after her parents disappeared.

The Doctor mostly ignored Rose, and instead turned to look at Amelia directly. "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?"

Amelia nodded, very familiar with the concept. "Yes," she sought comfort, grabbing Rose's hand again as her stomach twisted uncomfortably.

"Everything is going to be fine."

The Doctor took her other hand and held it, his blipping screwdriver thing vibrating in an almost painful manner between their hands. The crack widened significantly, flooding the room with a sterile bright light. Rose's grip on her hand tightened.

"PRISONER ZERO HAS ESCAPED."

"Hello? Hello?" The Doctor called, leaning towards the crack. A humongous blue eye stared at them through it. Had that thing really been in her wall?

"What's that?" she asked, and the Doctor dropped her hand suddenly, just in time for a bolt of bright white energy to enter his body. The crack in her wall expanded dramatically before snapping shut with a crack that Amelia felt in her bones.

He doubled over, groaning in agony. Rose's arms flew out to catch him, but he waved his hand in the air. "No, no, I'm fine. You see? Told you it would close. Good as new."

"What's that thing? Was that Prisoner Zero?" Amelia hoped it was. If that was prisoner zero, it meant he was trapped, right?

The Doctor shattered that hope. "No. I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent us a little message." Rose picked up the psychic paper from the floor, where it had been flung by the burst of energy, and read aloud.

"Prisoner Zero 'as escaped. Well, that's not much help is it?" She passed the Doctor the paper. His eyes narrowed as he scanned the paper.

"But why tell us? Unless…"

"Unless what?" Amelia queried.

"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here," the Doctor was very quiet, but Amelia caught the note of concern in his voice.

"But 'e couldn't have. We'dve noticed," Rose protested, her eyes scanning the now crackless wall. "Right Doctor?"

The Doctor relaxed a little, but Amelia could still sense the steel in his posture. "Most likely. Well, crack solved. Come along Pond."

He was lying through his teeth.

The trio walked down the hallway, away from Amelia's bedroom. The Doctor squinted at the doorway in front of them, looking as if he were trying to blink away sleep.

"It's difficult. Brand new me. Nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing. In the corner of my eye–"

Rose's head exploded in utter agony. Her left hand flew to her temple as she screamed, her vision flaring white, and she stumbled about, trying to hold herself up. She felt arms encircle her, preventing her from tumbling ungracefully down the stairs. She gripped one of the arms so tightly she knew it would leave marks. "Doctor- the TARDIS- she-" Rose gasped. The pain she had experienced wasn't her own, but rather was being projected from the wailing TARDIS.

Her vision cleared, and his new face was right in front of hers. "What about the TARDIS?" he scanned her face, concern etched onto his own. Rose took his hand clumsily and pushed it to her forehead, encouraging him to connect telepathically. He slid into her thoughts hesitantly, but jerked out nearly instantaneously, yelping a string of Gallifreyan curse words.

He re-entered her mind, and she felt him move around, and in half a second the pain was muted. He pulled her back onto her feet. Amelia reattached to her hand like a little koala bear. "Are you ok?" she whispered.

"Yeah," Rose reassured. "Doctor, what's happening?" The Doctor strode down the stairs, his overcoat flowing behind him dramatically.

"We've got to get back in there. The engines are phasing. She's going to burn!" Rose understood immediately, and hurried to follow him. Amelia did not.

They came out the front door, and kept a steady pace towards the TARDIS. Amelia voiced her question. "It's just a box. How can a box have engines?"

The Doctor disappeared into the box, which was now somehow rightside up. Rose disentangled Amelia's fingers from her own gently. "It's not a box. It's a time machine."

Amelia gaped. "What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?" Her disbelief would have been adorable were it not for the current circumstances.

"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilised," the Doctor called from inside the machine. "Five minute hop into the future should do it. Rose, come here."

Rose did as he said.

"Can I come?"

The sentence "of course you can love" was just forming on Rose's tongue when the Doctor reappeared.

"Not safe in here. Not yet. Five minutes." He disappeared into the bowels of the TARDIS again.

Rose knelt down to Amelia's eye level. "Give us five minutes, 'nd we'll be right back, I promise sweetheart."

Amelia stuck her lip out in a pout. "People always say that."

"Am I people? Do I even look like people? Trust me. I'm the Doctor," the Doctor cried. Amelia surprised Rose, dragging her into a hug.

"See you in five minutes!" She declared. Rose retreated into the TARDIS, closing the door. The Doctor stood at the console, head down, focused on the levers in front of him.

"You still want me with you?" She asked. The Doctor looked up at her, grinning like a madman.

"Always Rose Tyler. Now, hold tight!" He cranked a lever, and the Tardis jerked as she threw herself into flight. "GERONIMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A/N
Yoghourt is not a fucking word anymore ISTG