Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The TARDIS careened wildly through the skies over London. Gazelle stood at the console, trying her best to bring the stricken box under control while the Doctor rushed about the wrecked console room with a fire extinguisher, tackling the fires started by his explosive regeneration. Suddenly, the TARDIS gave a tremendous lurch, causing Gazelle to lose her footing and fall onto the jump seat. When she picked herself up, she saw that there was no sign of the Doctor. "Theta?" she called out. "Where are ya?"

"I'm out here, Remii." the Doctor answered telepathically, and Gazelle's eyes fell on the doors, which had been shaken open by the rough flight.

She approached them to find the Doctor hanging onto the floor by his hands, his sonic screwdriver clamped in-between his teeth. "Gimme ya hand, I'll pull ya back in." Gazelle instructed, and the Doctor did so. But before Gazelle could pull him back inside, she heard a bell chiming and looked up to see where the sound was coming from. "You are kidding." she groaned.

The Doctor turned his head to see that they were on a collision course with the Westminster clock tower. "Pull her up, quick!" he urged his wife telepathically. Seeing that she had no time to get back to the console, Gazelle plucked the sonic screwdriver from the Doctor's mouth and aimed it at a lever on the console. The TARDIS pulled up just in time, narrowly missing the top of the tower and the Doctor was only just able to avoid a painful encounter with the tower's spire.

Safely out of danger for now, Gazelle pulled her husband back inside the TARDIS. The Doctor slammed the doors shut behind him and say against them with a heavy groan. "You alright, Theta?" Gazelle asked him, crouching down in front of him.

"I am now." the Doctor replied, giving his wife a flirty look. But before Gazelle could respond, the TARDIS lurched again and span out of control, jumping time tracks in the process.

~8~

In the bedroom of a modest house in a quiet Gloucestershire village in the spring of 1996, a little ginger-haired girl sat at the bottom of her bed praying. "Dear Santa, thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you, but honest, it is an emergency. There's a crack in my wall." She cracked an eye open to look at the wall on her left. The wall had a glowing, W-shaped crack imbedded in it. The girl then returned to her prayers. "Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack, but I know it's not, because at night there's voices, so please, please, could ye send someone to fix it? Or a policeman. Or a..."

Suddenly, a strange wheezing and groaning noise came from outside, followed by a loud crash. The girl rushed to the window and pulled the curtain aside to look outside. The garden shed had been smashed to splinters and in it's place was a large blue phone box lying on it's side. The girl's eyes fell on a sign above the box's doors which proclaimed it to be police.

"Thank you, Santa." the girl smiled, then she threw on a red cardigan and wellies, grabbed a torch and went outside to investigate.

By the light of her torch, the girl approached the overturned blue box. The doors suddenly opened and a grabbling hook came flying out of the box, latching itself to a wheelbarrow. The girl watched as a pair of hands appeared at the edge of the box followed the head of a soaking wet man. "Can I have an apple?" he asked. "All I can think about, apples. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new, never had cravings before."

"Oi! Never mind about apples and cravings, shift yourself!" a woman's voice called up from inside the box.

"Oh, sorry, love." the man replied, and pulled himself up to straddle the edge of the box. With his full body on view, the girl could see that he was wearing a tattered blue dress shirt, a brown tie, brown pinstripe trousers that had clearly seen better days, and cream converse high tops. Both the shirt and trousers didn't quite fit him properly, like they were meant for someone taller and thinner.

With the man out of the way, another person climbed out of the box; a beautiful caramel-haired woman in an ox blood leather jacket and jeans that were the same shade of blue as the box. Unlike the man, the woman was dry and her clothes were in much better condition, though she seemed to be experiencing discomfort with her left shoulder. "Oh, what a mess." she groaned. "We're gonna need a new desktop now."

"Are ye both alright?" the girl asked them both.

"Yeah, just had a fall." the woman replied, both she and the man putting their legs over the side and sitting on the edge of the box. "I ended up in the library. Bookcase broke my fall."

"Lucky you. I landed in the pool." the man snorted.

"At least you landed in something soft." the woman retorted.

"Are you both police?" the girl asked them.

"Why? Did you call the police?" the man asked back.

"Did ye come about the crack in my wall?" the girl tried.

"What cra...?" the man began, but suddenly gave out a yell of pain and fell to his knees on the ground. Like lightening, the woman jumped down to check on him.

"Are you all right, mister?" the girl asked him.

"No, I'm fine, it's ok." the man waved her off. "This is all perfectly norm..." He opened his mouth and a wisp of golden-orange energy wafted out into the air, much to the bemusement of the little girl.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I don't know yet. I'm still cooking." the man replied, looking at his hands, which were glowing too. "Better put it to use." he shrugged and put his hands on the woman's left shoulder. "Better?" he asked her as the glow passed through her clothes and into her skin.

"Yeah, much better." she replied, flexing her shoulder and no longer looking like she was in pain.

The man turned back to the girl. "Does it scare you?" he asked.

"No, it just looks a bit weird." the girl replied.

"No, he means the crack on your wall." the woman elaborated. "Does that scare you?"

"Yes." she replied.

The man promptly jumped to his feet. "Well then, no time to lose." he said hurriedly. "I'm the Doctor and this gorgeous girl is my wife, Gazelle. Do everything we tell you, don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off." He strode away with purpose only to smack headfirst into a tree and fall flat on his back.

Gazelle and the girl came over to him. "You alright?" the girl asked him.

"Early days." the Doctor replied. "Steering's a bit off." He then looked at Gazelle. "Did you know you're just as beautiful upside down as you are the right side up?" he asked goofily.

Gazelle blushed bright crimson. "C'mon, dear." she said as she helped the Doctor to his feet. "Let's get ya sorted out before you knock yourself out."

~8~

The girl led the Time Lords into the kitchen of her house. "If you're a doctor, why does your box say 'police'?" she asked the Doctor, offering him an apple.

The Doctor didn't answer and instead took a bite out of the apple. He chewed on it for a second, then promptly spat it out again. "That's disgusting." he grimaced. "What is that?"

"An apple." the girl replied.

"Apples are rubbish. I hate apples."

"Just a moment ago you told her you loved 'em." Gazelle reminded him.

"No, no," he shook his head, "I love you." he pointed at her. "You and bananas. Bananas are good. Gimme a banana." he ordered the girl.

"Give me a banana, please." Gazelle chided him lightly.

"We don't have any bananas." the girl told them.

"What?!" the Doctor stared, looking absolutely scandalised at that. "What house doesn't have bananas. Bananas are good! I'll have a yoghurt instead, then. Yoghurt's my favourite. Gimme yoghurt."

"Give me yoghurt, please." Gazelle chided again as the girl ran to the fridge and produced a yoghurt.

The Doctor ripped the pot open and and gulped it down before promptly spitting it out in the sink. "I hate yoghurt." he said. "It's just stuff with bits in."

"You said it was your favourite." the girl reminded.

"New mouth, new rules." the Doctor shrugged, wiping the remnants of the yoghurt off his mouth. "It's like eating after cleaning ya teeth, everything tastes wro-argh!" he groaned, having a momentary spasm.

"What is it? What's wrong with you?" the girl asked worriedly.

"Wrong with me?" the Doctor said, suddenly sounding grouchy. "It's not my fault. Why can't ya gimme decent food? You're Scottish, fry something." he ordered.

Gazelle promptly kicked him in the shin. "Oi, leave her alone!" she scolded. "It's not her fault you held your regeneration off for too long."

"Yeah, sorry, love." the Doctor mumbled sheepishly.

"Tell ya what, I'll knock up some bacon, is that alright?" Gazelle asked.

"Ooh, bacon. I love bacon!" the Doctor grinned.

~8~

The Doctor dried himself off with a towel provided to him by the little girl, while Gazelle fried some bacon rashers on the hob. "Ah! Bacon!" the Doctor grinned as the plate of bacon was placed on the table in front of him. He took a fork-full and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed on it for a few seconds then spat it out in disgust. "That's bacon?" he grimaced.

"Ah well, waste not, want not." Gazelle shrugged, pulling the plate over to her and eating the rashers herself.

The girl turned the hob on again and cooked some baked beans while the Doctor looked on. "Ah, you see, beans." he said. When the beans were ready, he took a forkful of them and promptly spat it out in the sink. "Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans." he groaned.

~8~

Next, the girl tried a plate of bread and butter. "Bread and butter, now you're talking." the Doctor said. He took a bite, then grabbed the plate, went over to the back door and tossed the plate away. "And stay out!" he growled and returned to the kitchen.

Gazelle was beginning to grow weary of her husband's antics. "Dear, will you make your mind up already?" she grumbled. "We can't keep wasting food."

The girl looked in the fridge. "We've got carrots." she suggested.

"Carrots? Are you insane?" the Doctor stared. "No, wait, hang on." He went over to the fridge and started rifling through it. "I know what I need... I need... I need... Fish fingers and custard." He produced a box of fish fingers and a carton of custard.

The girl looked to Gazelle in bewilderment, who could only shrug. It seemed that this new incarnation of the Doctor was even more eccentric than the previous one.

~8~

The Doctor was soon happily tucking into his bizarre combo while the girl treated herself to a bowl of ice cream and Gazelle finished up the bacon. When he'd finished with the fish fingers, the Doctor lifted the bowl of custard up and drank the contents, leaving him with a custard moustache. "Funny." the girl tittered.

"Am I?" the Doctor asked, wiping the custard away. "Good. Funny's good."

"What's your name?" Gazelle asked the girl, deciding that it would be prudent to at least know the name of the girl they'd just literally dropped in on.

"Amelia Pond." she replied.

" Oh, that's a brilliant name." the Doctor grinned. "Amelia Pond, like a name in a fairy tale. Are we in Scotland, Amelia?"

"No. We had to move to England. It's rubbish." Amelia complained.

"Oh, I don't know. Most our best friends are English." Gazelle shrugged. Then a thought occurred to her, "Are your parents upstairs, Amelia? I'd have thought we'd have woken 'em up by now."

"I don't have any parents." Amelia sighed. "Just an aunt."

"That's more than we have now." the Doctor said sagely. Seeing his mother again at the Naismith mansion had reminded him of how much he'd taken his family for granted before the Time War. Now they were all gone again. Still, he had his wife, who he absolutely adored. "So, your aunt, where is she?" he asked Amelia, getting back on topic.

"She's out."

"What? She just left you home alone?!" Gazelle stared, appalled that someone would do that to a child who looked no older than seven.

"I'm not scared." Amelia said bravely.

"Course you're not." the Doctor chuckled, "You're not scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, man and woman fall out of box, man eats fish custard, woman eats bacon, and look at you; just sitting there. So you know what I think?"

"What?" the girl asked.

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall." the Doctor replied knowingly.

~8~

Once they'd finished their impromptu late night feast, Amelia took the Time Lords to her bedroom, where the crack stood prominently in the wall. "You've had some cowboys in here." the Doctor remarked as he moved closer to the crack to examine it. "Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."

Gazelle stood in the doorway, holding Amelia's hand. "I used to hate apples, so my mum put faces in them." Amelia said to her, showing her an apple with a smiley face carved into it.

"Lovely." Gazelle smiled. She'd done a similar thing with her son when he was young, make faces with his food. "Mind if I keep this?" she asked. "I fancy an apple myself." Amelia nodded and Gazelle slipped the apple into her pocket.

The Doctor meanwhile finished his examination of the crack. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it." he observed. "So here's the thing; where's the draught coming from?" He scanned the crack with his sonic screwdriver as Gazelle joined him. "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey." he muttered as they checked the readings on the screwdriver's holographic display. "You know what this crack is?" he asked Amelia.

"What?"

"It's a crack." the Doctor said rather obviously, running his fingers along the crack.

Gazelle rolled her eyes at her husband's vagueness. "What he means is, if you knocked this wall down, the crack would still be there as the crack's not in the wall itself." she explained to Amelia.

"Where is it, then?" Amelia asked uneasily.

"Everywhere. In everything." the Doctor answered mysteriously. "It's a split in the skin in the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together... right here in the wall of this bedroom." He pressed his ear against the wall. "Sometimes, can you hear..."

"Voices?" Amelia cut in. "Yes."

Gazelle picked up two pieces of paper from the deck and rolled them into cones. She handed one to the Doctor who put one end against the wall and the other against his ear, while Gazelle did the same with the other sheet. Through the cones, they could hear a deep booming voice say, "Prisoner Zero has escaped."

"Prisoner Zero?" the Doctor frowned.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped. That's what I heard." Amelia confirmed. "What does it mean?"

"Prisoner Zero has escaped." the voice repeated.

The Time Lords moved away from the wall. "It means that, on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner." the Doctor said. "D'ya know what that means?"

"What?" asked Amelia.

"It means we need to plug this crack right now." Gazelle told her. This crack was essentially a wormhole, like the one that had brought the 200 bus to San Helios, and if this crack led to a prison with an escapee, then it needed to be sealed immediately.

Both Time Lords moved the desk out of the way. "The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way." the Doctor said. "The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or..."

"What?" Amelia asked.

"Amelia, you know when adults tell ya everything's gonna be fine and you just know they're lying to make ya feel better?" Gazelle asked.

"Yes." Amelia answered wearily.

"Well, this isn't like that." Gazelle smiled encouragingly. "Everything's gonna be fine, especially with my brilliant husband on the case."

The Doctor grinned smugly at his wife's faith and aimed his sonic screwdriver at the crack. "Ok, here we go." he said and switched the screwdriver on. The crack widened, revealing a dark prison cell on the other side.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped." the voice announced from somewhere in the cell.

The Doctor stepped closer to the crack. "Hello?" he called out, "Hello?"

Suddenly, a giant eyeball appeared in the crack and peered at the trio. "What's that?" Amelia asked, holding on tightly to Gazelle's hand.

A small ball of light flew out from the crack, zoomed past the Doctor and shot into one of Gazelle's jacket pockets, causing her to double over against the bed. The crack slammed shut, leaving an unblemished wall with not trace of a crack ever being there. "There." the Doctor grinned proudly as she recovered. "You see, told you it would close. Good as new."

"What was that thing?" Amelia asked. "Was that Prisoner Zero?"

"No, I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard." the Doctor replied. "That was an Atraxi. Level 20 civilisation. Efficient, if a bit stupid."

"Well, they've sent me a message." Gazelle said, reaching into the pocket the light had gone into and producing her psychic paper, which was glowing blue inside. "Psychic paper, takes messages amongst other things." she explained to Amelia and flipped the paper open, showing the message to the Doctor.

"'Prisoner Zero has escaped.'" he read out. "But why tell us? Unless..."

"Unless what?" Amelia asked uneasily.

The Doctor looked around the room. "Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here." he pondered. "But he couldn't have. We'd know." He went out into the hallway, Gazelle and Amelia following him. "It's difficult." the Doctor said, looking around the hallway with a confused look on his face. "Brand new me, nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing... in the corner..." He turned slowly, trying to focus on something. "Of my eye." Suddenly, the TARDIS' cloister bell started to toll. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor cried and he took off downstairs like a hurricane, Gazelle hot on his heels and a confused Amelia bringing up the rear.

~8~

The Time Lords raced outside. "We've gotta get back in there!" the Doctor fussed as they hurried over to the overturned TARDIS. "The engines're phasing, she's going to burn!"

"Then what're we waiting for?" Gazelle said. And with that, she rather athletically climbed up the box and disappeared inside.

"But it's just a box. How can a box have engines?" a confused Amelia asked the Doctor.

"She's not a box." the Doctor replied. "She's a time machine."

"What, a real one?" Amelia asked in disbelief, "You've got a real time machine?"

"Not for much longer if we can't get her stabilised." the Doctor replied, freeing the grabbling hook and gathering up the rope. "Five minute hop in the future should do it." He looped the rope through the box's door handles.

"Can I come?" Amelia asked.

"Not safe in here, not yet." the Doctor told her. His regeneration had wrecked havoc with the console room, rendering it unsafe for a child to be in. "Five minutes. Give us five minutes, we'll be right back." He hopped onto the edge of the box and prepared to jump inside.

"People always say that." Amelia sighed bitterly.

The Doctor jumped back down and looked into Amelia's face. "Am I people?" he asked. "Do I even look like people? Trust me, I'm the Doctor."
Amelia smiled at that.

"Hurry, Doctor, I need ya!" Gazelle's voice called from inside the TARDIS.

"Yeah, just coming, love." the Doctor answered and climbed back onto the box, then he gave Amelia one last look. "Geronimo!" he whooped as he jumped into the TARDIS. Amelia heard a splash come from somewhere inside the box before the doors shut and it disappeared right before her eyes, accompanied by the wheezing and groaning sound that she'd heard earlier.

Amelia ran back into the house, rushed upstairs to her bedroom, hastily threw on some clothes, packed her suitcase and ran back downstairs to wait for the Time Lords' return.

~8~

The TARDIS materialised back in the garden the right way up and the Doctor raced out. "Amelia!" he yelled, seeing that the girl was nowhere to be seen. "We worked out what it was. We know what we were missing! You've gotta get out of there!" He sprinted over to the door of the house.

Gazelle stepped out of the TARDIS, having finished programming in a new desktop. She immediately realised that something was wrong; it was broad daylight now, but it had been the middle of the night when they'd left. "Uh, dear..." she began, but the Doctor wasn't listening; he was too busy struggling to unlock the door with his sonic screwdriver. Being exposed to radiation, regeneration energy and then being dunked in a pool twice had taken it's toll on the screwdriver and it took him several tries to get the door open.

Finally he succeeded and dashed into the house, Gazelle following him. "Amelia?" he called as he ran upstairs. "Amelia, are you alright? Are you there?" He stopped outside a door at the top of the stairs and soniced the lock. "Prisoner Zero is here! Do you understand me? Prisoner Zero is..." He heard a thump from somewhere behind him and turned to see Gazelle drop to the floor unconscious, then he saw a cricket bat come flying towards him and everything went black.

~8~

When the Time Lords came to, they found themselves sitting in front of a radiator down the hall from the door. Leaning against the banister in front of them was a young police woman in a uniform with a rather short skirt, who was talking into her radio. "White male, mid-20's, breaking and entering. White female, early-20's, also breaking and entering. Send me some backup, I've got 'em restrained." Then she saw that her captives were awake. "Oi, you two! Sit still!" she barked.

"Cricket bat." the Doctor groaned. "I'm getting cricket bat."

"You were both breaking and entering." the police woman said simply.

The Doctor tried to stand to see if Gazelle was alright, but found that his left hand was handcuffed to the radiator, while Gazelle's right hand was too. "Well, that's much better." the Doctor said as he sat back down again. "Brand new me, whack on the head. Just what I needed."

"Speak for yourself." Gazelle muttered, using her uncuffed left hand to rub the lump on the back of her head.

"Do you two wanna shut up now?" the police woman said fiercely. "I've got back up on the way."

"Hang on, no, wait... you're a police woman." the Doctor rambled.

"And you're breaking and entering." the police woman retorted. "You see how this works?"

"Sorry, bit of a misunderstanding." Gazelle said, trying to smooth things out. "But where's Amelia Pond?"

The police woman stiffened slightly. "Amelia Pond?"

"Yeah, Amelia. Little Scottish girl." the Doctor replied, nursing his sore forehead. "Where is she? I promised her five minutes but the engines were phasing. I suppose we must have gone a bit far. Has something happened to her?"

"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time." the police woman replied matter-of-factually.

"How long?" the Doctor asked worriedly.

"Six months." the police woman told him.

"Six months?!" Gazelle spluttered.

"No, no, no! We can't be six months late." the Doctor snorted in disbelief. "I said five minutes. I promised."

The police woman just turned away and reached for her radio.
"What happened to Amelia?" Gazelle asked her frantically. "Tell us, please, what happened to her?"

The police woman didn't answer her and instead spoke into her radio again, "Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up, these two know something about Amelia Pond." Then she turned back to her captives.

"We need to speak to whoever lives in this house now." the Doctor said urgently.

"I live here." the police woman answered sharply.

"But you're the police!" the Doctor blustered.

"Even coppers have to live somewhere, dear." Gazelle told him.

"Oh, yeah, right." the Doctor muttered sheepishly, then returned to the problem at hand. "How many rooms?" he asked the police woman.

"I'm sorry, what?" she snorted.

"On this floor. How many rooms on this floor? Count for me now."

"Why?"

"Because it will change your life." the Doctor replied.

The police woman rolled her eyes but complied nonetheless. "Five." she said and listed off each door lining the hallway. "One, two, three, four, five."

"Six." the Time Lords said together.

"Six?" the police woman scoffed,

"Look." the Doctor instructed,

"Look where?"

"Exactly where you don't want to look. Where you never wanna look, the corner of your eyes. Look behind you."

The police woman slowly turned and her eyes widened when she saw the door the Doctor had been trying to open. "That's... that is not possible." she spluttered. "How's that possible?"

"That door has what's known as a perception filter around it." Gazelle explained. "It manipulates ya brainwaves and stops ya noticing it. I've got one in my watch."

"But that's a whole room." the police woman said in shock. "That's a whole room I've never even noticed."

"Yeah, that's what the filter's for." Gazelle told her. "Someone or something put it there to hide and it's still there. Now, please, you need to uncuff us now!"

"I don't have the keys. I lost them." the police woman waved her off, moving towards the door.

"How can you have lost them?!" the Doctor burst out. "Stay away from that door!" he warned the woman, who ignored him and continued to walk towards the door as if she was magnetically attached to it. "Do not touch that door!" the Doctor hollered as the police woman put her hand on the doorknob.

"Please, just listen!" Gazelle implored. "Don't open that..."
But the police woman opened the door and she slowly entered the hidden room.

"Why does no one ever listen to us?!" the Doctor grumbled. "Do I just have a face that nobody listen to? Again..."

"Screwdriver." Gazelle urged him.

The Doctor rummaged through his trouser pockets to try and find his sonic screwdriver. Having no luck, he suddenly remembered that he'd been holding it in his hand when he'd been knocked out. "My screwdriver, where is it?" he called out to the woman. "Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?"

"There's nothing in here." she called back.

"Whatever put that perception filter on the door could've put one inside the room too." Gazelle called. "Now for God's sake get outta there!"

"Silver, blue at the end?" the woman called.

"My screwdriver, yeah." the Doctor called back.

"It's here."

"Ah, must've rolled under the door."

"Yeah. Must have." the woman answered back. "And then it must've jumped up on the table."

The Doctor and Gazelle shared a look of horror at this news, both realising what this meant. "Get out!" they yelled together. "Get out of there!"

But the woman still wouldn't listen. The Time Lords could see her shadow circling the room as if she was looking for something. "What is it?" the Doctor called. "What're you doing?"

There's nothing here..." the woman began, "but..."

"Corner of your eye." the Doctor called back.

"What is it?"

"No, don't!" Gazelle hissed, realising that the woman was trying to look at whatever was in room with her. "Don't try to look at it! If it knows you can see it, it'll kill you. Don't look at it!"

Then they both heard the woman scream. "GET OUT!" they yelled together, their patience exhausted.

The police woman came hurrying out of the hidden room with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver in her hand. She ran back down the hallway to join the Doctor and Gazelle.
"Gimme that!" the Doctor said, snatching the sonic screwdriver from her. The screwdriver was covered in a sticky, translucent goo. The Doctor used it to lock the door to the hidden room and tried to undo his restraints, but it just stuttered and blinked feebly. "Oh, what's the bad alien done to you?" the Doctor moaned, realising that the goo had exacerbated the wear on the screwdriver. "You have got to get yourself a new one." he said to Gazelle.

"Yeah, I think I will." Gazelle agreed. The business at the Naismith mansion had caused her to reconsider her choice to go sonic screwdriver-free after she'd given her previous one to the Metacrisis Doctor.

"Will that door hold it?" the police woman panted.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, course!" the Doctor retorted sarcastically as he fiddled with his malfunctioning sonic screwdriver. "It's an inter-dimensional multi-form from outer space, they're all terrified of wood!"

"Ya know, maybe one day you'll regenerate into someone who isn't rude to everyone they meet." Gazelle said dryly, then used her free hand to pull a handkerchief out of her pocket. "Try this." she told the Doctor, who used the hankie to wipe the goo off his screwdriver.

Suddenly, a bright yellow light shone around the edges of the door. "What's that? What's it doing?" the woman asked.

"I don't know, getting dressed?" the Doctor grumbled, too busy trying to get his sonic screwdriver working to be bothered. "Run. Just go. Your back-up's coming, we'll be fine."

"There is no back-up." the woman told him.

The Doctor looked up to her surprise. "We heard you on the radio, you called for back-up."

"I was pretending." the woman told him. "It was a pretend radio."

"You're a police woman!"

"No, I think that's just a costume." Gazelle realised.

"She's right, I'm a kissogram." the woman said and removed her hat, letting her long copper hair fall free. At that moment, the door to the hidden room burst open to reveal a man in blue overalls holding the lead to a large Rottweiler. "But it's just..." the ginger-haired woman began.

"No, it isn't." the Doctor countered. "Look at the faces."

The women looked and saw that the man was growling and snarling while the dog was making no movement at all. "What?" the woman spluttered. "I'm sorry, but what?"

"It's all one creature." the Doctor explained. "One creature disguised as two." The man and dog turned in unison, proving his point. "Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, didn't you?" he goaded the man. "Mind you, where did you get that pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How'd you fix that?"

The man just growled at them and opened his mouth to reveal sharp pointed teeth then began to advance towards them.

"Stay boy!" the Doctor commanded, and the man halted his advance. "Apparently we're safe," the Doctor continued, "her and us, we're safe. Wanna know why? She sent for for back-up."

"I didn't send for back-up." the woman reminded.

"We know. He's trying to bluff it." Gazelle told her. This woman seemed rather slow on the uptake and rather careless too, if her wandering into the hidden room was anything to go by.

"Ok, yeah. No back up." the Doctor said to the man. "And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had back up, then you'd have to kill us."

Then, the booming voice of the Atraxi sounded from outside, "Attention, Prisoner Zero. The Human residence is surrounded. Attention, Prisoner Zero. The Human residence is surrounded."

"What's that?" the woman asked.

"Back up." Gazelle replied.

"Ok, one more time. We do have back up and that's definitely why we're safe." the Doctor said to the man.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the Human residence or the Human residence will be incinerated." the Atraxi announced.

"Well, safe apart from, ya know, incineration." the Doctor said flatly.
Prisoner Zero just turned and walked into one of the rooms while the Doctor resumed his struggles with the sonic screwdriver. "Work, work , work, c'mon!" he grunted, whacking it on the floor. Finally, the screwdriver buzzed into life and the Doctor used it to unlock his wife's handcuffs and then he unlocked his own. "Run!" he urged as they both leapt to their feet. Gazelle grabbed the woman by the arm and the trio legged it downstairs, then out of the house.

"How'd you know I wasn't a police woman?" the woman asked Gazelle as the Doctor locked the door with his sonic screwdriver.

"Your skirt's too short." Gazelle replied flatly.

"Wouldn't mind seeing you in one like that, Remii." the Doctor remarked telepathically as he finished with the door.

Gazelle blushed bright red at that. "Never gonna happen." she retorted telepathically. This incarnation, despite having legs that went on for days, wasn't a dress or skirt person. She didn't mind wearing shorts when visiting tropical climates, but the rest of the time she preferred jeans for day-to-day wear, while jumpsuits or trouser suits sufficed on formal occasions.

"Why'd you pretend to be a police woman?" the Doctor asked the woman.

"You broke into my house!" she retorted. "It was this or a French maid. What's going on?" she demanded as the Time Lords led her towards the TARDIS. "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 rambled. "Any questions?"

"Yes." the woman said through gritted teeth.

"Me too." the Doctor shrugged and went to unlock the TARDIS, but his key wouldn't turn. "No, no, don't do that, not now!" he groaned. "She's still rebuilding, not letting us in!"

"Yeah, needs another half-hour." Gazelle said.

The woman looked back at the house to see Prisoner Zero looking down at them from an upstairs window. "Come on!" she urged, grabbing both Time Lords by their arms and starting to drag them away.

"No, wait, hang on, wait, wait, wait. The shed." the Doctor waved her off, running up to the garden shed. "We destroyed that shed last time we were here, smashed it to pieces."

"So there's a new one." the woman waved him off. "Let's go."

"Yeah, but it's weathered." Gazelle said, realising what the Doctor had. "It looks at least a few years old."

The Doctor sniffed the woodwork, ran his finger along it, then licked that finger. "12 years." he realised. "We're not six months late, we're 12 years late." he said as he rounded on the woman.

"He's coming." she blustered, trying to change the subject.

"You said six months." Gazelle said reasonably. "Why'd ya tell us that?"

"We've got to go."

"This matters." the Doctor persisted. "Why did you say six months?"

"Why did you say five minutes?!" the woman snapped, her accent slipping from an English one to a Scottish one.

"What?" the Doctor blinked as the penny dropped.

"Amelia." Gazelle breathed, realising that this woman was in fact an adult Amelia Pond.

"Come on." Amelia urged.

"What?" the Doctor repeated, still stunned at the revelation.

"Come on!" Amelia repeated as she grabbed the stunned Time Lords by the arms and led them away.

~8~

The trio walked down the road towards a village green. "You're Amelia." the Doctor blustered.

"You're late." Amelia said bitterly.

"Amelia Pond, you're the little girl!"

"I'm Amelia, and you're late!" Amelia fumed.

"We're sorry, Amelia, we truly are." Gazelle tried to reason. "We did aim for five minutes, but I guess the TARDIS was more damaged than we thought."

"12 years." Amelia continued to fume.

"You hit us with a cricket bat!" the Doctor accused.

"12 years." Amelia grunted.

"A cricket bat!" the Doctor huffed. "You hit my wife with a cricket bat!" he said crossly, not happy about that at all.

"12 years and four psychiatrists."

"Why four?" Gazelle asked.

"I kept biting them."

"Why?" the Doctor asked obviously.

"They said you weren't real." Amelia grunted.

Suddenly, they heard the booming voice of the Atraxi coming out of the speakers of a nearby ice cream van, "Prisoner Zero will vacate the Human residence or the Human residence will be incinerated."

Amelia stopped in her tracks. "No, no, no, come on... What? We're being staked out by an ice cream van?!" she groaned.

The Doctor headed over to the van. "What's that?" he aske., "Why're you playing that?"

"It's supposed to be Clare de Lune." the baffled ice cream man replied.

The Doctor picked up the radio and listened to the Atraxi's threat being repeated over and over again, while Gazelle noticed a jogger looking at their MP3 in confusion and realised that she was getting the message too. "What's happening?" a confused Amelia asked them.

"It's the Atraxi." Gazelle replied. "They can om-com."

The Doctor took her hand and they sprinted towards a nearby house, a confused Amelia following. They entered the house to find an elderly woman flipping through TV channels. On every channel was the Atraxi eyeball, their threat being repeated. "Hello!" the Doctor greeted. "Sorry to burst in, we're doing a special on television faults in this area." He glanced at Amelia's costume. "Also crimes. Let's have a look." He took the remote and flipped through channels.

"I was just about to phone. It's on every channel." the woman remarked, then she noticed Amelia. "Oh, hello, Amy dear. Are you a policewoman now?"

"Well, sometimes." Amelia shrugged uncomfortably.

"I thought you were a nurse."

"I can be a nurse."

"Or, actually, a nun."

"I dabble." Amelia squirmed.

The woman then decided to spare her from further embarrassment. "Amy, who are your friends?"

"Who's Amy?" Gazelle questioned. "I thought your name was Amelia."

"Yeah, now I'm Amy." the ginger shrugged.

"Amelia Pond. That was a great name." the Doctor bemoaned.

"Bit fairy-tale." Amy muttered, looking away.

"I know you two, don't I?" the woman asked the Time Lords. "I've seen you both somewhere before."

"Not me. Brand new face." the Doctor replied, pulling some funny faces. "First time on."

"Don't do that." Gazelle snorted, and turned to Amy. "And what does a kissogram do?" She'd learned a lot about Humans during her travels with the Doctor and spending time with Human companions but there were still some things that she didn't know, with kissograms being one of them.

"I go to parties and I kiss people." Amy shifted uncomfortably. "With outfits. It's a laugh."

"You were a little girl five minutes ago." the Doctor chastised.

"You're worse then my aunt!" Amy rolled her eyes.

"I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt." the Doctor retorted. "And that is not how I'm introducing myself." He picked up a radio and soniced it. The Atraxi's threat played over it in French, German and several other languages. "Ok, so it's everywhere, in every language." the Doctor thought out loud and turned to Gazelle. "You were right; they can om-com. They're broadcasting to the whole world."

Both Time Lords went to the window and the Doctor opened it and peered up to the sky. "What's up there?" Amy asked. "What're you looking for?" All she saw on the way over here was a clear blue sky.

The Doctor pulled his head back inside. "Ok, planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core..." he rambled. "They're going to need a 40% fission blast."
A young man entered the house carrying a laptop bag and the Doctor walked over to him, still rambling. "But they'll have to power up first, won't they? So assuming a medium-size starship, that's 20 minutes." He stood on tiptoes, measuring his new height compared to the young man then turned to Gazelle. "What d'you think, 20 minutes?" he asked her.

"Yeah, I'd say 20," Gazelle nodded, "25 if we're lucky."

"20 minutes to what?" Amy asked.

The man eyed the Doctor closely. "Are you the Doctor?" he asked.

"He is, isn't he?" the elderly woman laughed. "He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor. And she's his Gorgeous Gazelle. All those cartoons you did when you were little." she said to Amy. "The Raggedy Doctor and Gorgeous Gazelle, it's them!"

"I know." Amy muttered.

"Cartoons?" a bemused Doctor said, flopping down on the settee.

"Gran, it's them, isn't it?" the young man asked. "It's really them!" He turned to Amy. "You were right about Gazelle; she is gorgeous!" He looked at the stunning Time Lady in a leering way.

"Jeff, shut up!" Amy hissed, then turned to the Time Lords. "20 minutes to what?" she asked them.

"The Human residence." the Doctor replied. "They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet. Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship and it's gonna incinerate the planet. 20 minutes to the end of the world."

"Unless they can find their escaped prisoner first." Gazelle added. "Do you think they can?" she asked her husband.

"I doubt it." the Doctor replied. The Atraxi are efficient but stupid. We're gonna have to give 'em a hand."

~8~

The Doctor, Gazelle and Amy walked out onto the village green. "Where is this place?" the Doctor asked. "Where are we?"

"Leadworth." Amy replied.

"Where's the rest of it?" the Doctor questioned, looking around at the rather dull-looking village.

"This is it."

"Is there an airport?"

"No."

"A nuclear power station?"

"No."

"Even a little one?"

"No."

"What's the nearest city?" Gazelle tried.

"Gloucester, half-an-hour by car." Amy replied.

"We don't have half-an-hour." the Doctor scowled. "Do we have a car?"

"No."

"Well, that's good!" the Doctor grunted sarcastically. "That's fantastic, that is. 20 minutes to save the world and we've got a post office. And it's shut. What is that?" He pointed at something up ahead.

"It's a duck pond." Amy replied as the Doctor rushed ahead to examine the pond.

"Why aren't they any ducks?" he asked.

"I don't know. There's never any ducks."

"Then how'd you know it's a duck pond?"

"It just is." Amy grumbled. "Is it important, the duck pond?"

"I don't know." the Doctor burst out. "Why would I know?" He suddenly gave a grown of pain and dropped to his knees.

Like lightning, Gazelle was by his side. "You alright?" she fussed. "You're not having a neuron implosion, are you?"

"No, no, I'll be alright, love." the Doctor reassured her. "Just finishing settling in."

Suddenly, the sky darkened and they all looked up. "What's happening?" Amy asked. "Why's it getting dark?" It was 11:00 in the morning, nowhere near sundown. The sky then returned to normal, but the sun appeared to be a burning shade. "What's wrong with the sun?" Amy asked.

"No." the Doctor replied as Gazelle helped him to stand again. "You're looking at it through a forcefield. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere, now they're getting ready to boil the planet." Then he saw everyone on the green aiming their phone cameras at the sky. "Oh, and here they come, the Human race." he scowled. "The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone."

"This isn't real, isn't it?" Amy blustered. "This is some kind of big wind-up."

"I only wish it was." Gazelle said grimly.

"Why would we wind you up?" the Doctor asked Amy.

"You told me you had a time machine." she said.

"And you believed me."

"Then I grew up." Amy replied.

"Oh, you never wanna do that." the Doctor said, then suddenly smacked his forehead. "No, hang on, shut up, wait! I missed it." He smacked himself on the forehead again. "I saw it and I missed it!"

He went to smack himself again but Gazelle stopped him. "Cut that out," she told him, "and just spit it out already."

"What did I see?" he muttered, turning to face the green. "I saw... what did I see?" He scanned the people on the green closely with his superior Time Lord vision, Gazelle doing the same. Their eyes fell on a young man in surgical scrubs who had his camera phone out like everyone else, but he wasn't aiming his at the sun, he was aiming it at a man and his dog; Prisoner Zero. The Doctor turned to Amy. "20 minutes, I can do it." he said confidently. "20 minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye or stay and help us."

"No." Amy said sharply.

"I'm sorry?" the Doctor blinked.

"NO!" Amy bellowed and grabbed the Doctor by his tie then dragged him over to a car that had just parked nearby.

"Amy, no, no, what're you doing?!" the Doctor protested as Amy slammed his tie into the car's door, snatched the key fob from the surprised car owner and locked the car.

"Amy, have you gone barmy?" Gazelle asked she ran over to intervene.

"Who are you? Both of you!" Amy demanded.

"You know who we are." the Doctor said reasonably.

"No, really. Who are you two?" Amy persisted, snatching the key fob away from Gazelle's reach when she tried to grab them.

"Look at the sky." the Doctor said, trying to get Amy to look at the bigger picture. "End of the world, 20 minutes."

"Better talk quickly, then." Amy snarled, still not getting any perspective. "Who put you up to this? Was it Mels? I'm gonna kill her next I see her!"

"Who's Mels?" the Doctor furrowed a brow in confusion.

"Amy, I'm going to need my car back." the car owner reasoned.

"Yes, in a bit." Amy snapped "Now go and get coffee."

"Right, yes." the driver said and walked away.

"We don't have time for this." Gazelle muttered and reached into her pocket for the apple with the smiley face on it. "Here, catch!" She tossed the apple to Amy, who caught it. "Does that ring any bells, Amy?"

"I'm the Doctor, she's Gazelle and we're time travellers." the Doctor implored Amy. Everything we told you 12 years ago is true. We're real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if I don't stop it, everything you've ever known is over."

"I don't believe you." Amy scowled.

"Just give us 20 minutes." Gazelle said. "That's all we ask; just 20 minutes. Look at the apple. It's as fresh at it was the day you gave it me. And you know it's the same one."

Amy looked at the apple, and then at the Doctor. "Amy, believe for 20 minutes." he said gently.

Amy took a breath, then unlocked the car. "What do we do?" she asked.

"Stop that nurse!" the Doctor said, grabbing Gazelle's hand and they took off across the green, Amy hot on their heels. When they reached the nurse, the Doctor snatched his phone off him. "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and his dog. Why?" he asked hurriedly.

"Amy?" the nurse blinked as Amy reached them.

"Hi!" Amy greeted, then turned to the Time Lords. "This is Rory, he's a... friend.

"Boyfriend." Rory corrected.

"Kind of boyfriend." Amy persisted.

"Amy!" Rory scolded.

"Man and dog, why?" the Doctor interrupted sharply. Now was not the time for Human domestics.

"Oh, my God, it's them!" Rory blinked as he looked at the shabbily dressed man and the beautiful woman.

"Just answer his question, please." a rather embarrassed Amy said.

"It's them, though. The Raggedy Doctor and Gorgeous Gazelle." Rory blustered.

"Yeah, they came back." Amy said simply.

"But... they were a story." Rory continued to bluster. "They were a game."

The Doctor lost patience and grabbed Rory by his lapels. "Man and dog, why?" he demanded. "Tell me now."

"Doctor!" Gazelle scolded, pulling the Doctor's hands off Rory.

"Thanks." Rory nodded, then turned back to the Doctor. "Because he can't be there." he said. "Because he's..."

"In a hospital, in a coma." Rory and the Doctor said in unison.

"Yeah." Rory mumbled.

"Knew it." the Doctor grinned. "Multi-form, you see. Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed, a psychic link with a dormant mind." He heard a snarling from behind and turned to face Prisoner Zero, who was standing a few feet away. "Prisoner Zero." the Doctor said calmly, walking towards him.

"What, there's a Prisoner Zero too?" Rory blustered.

"Yes." Amy rolled her eyes.

Gazelle meanwhile was looking at the sky with her binoculars. "Here comes the cavalry." she said, and everyone followed her gaze to see a blue snowflake-shaped spaceship with a giant eyeball in the centre descend from the sky and hover nearby, the eyeball swivelling back and forth as if it was looking for something.

"See, that ship up there is scanning for non-terrestrial technology." the Doctor told Prisoner Zero calmly, taking his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. "And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." he finished smugly, holding the screwdriver above his head. He switched the screwdriver on and chaos erupted in the area. Streetlights blew out, car alarms blared and a nearby fire engine began to drive itself, the hapless firemen chasing it. Amy and Rory could only watch the mayhem in bemusement while Prisoner Zero snarled angrily.
"I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" the Doctor gloated.

"Uh, dear, ya might wanna be careful." Gazelle advised, remembering the difficulty the Doctor had had with the screwdriver earlier, but the Doctor didn't listen. He aimed the screwdriver at a phone box which blew in a shower of sparks.

Unfortunately, this proved to be a bridge too far for the damaged screwdriver and it promptly exploded too, causing the Doctor to drop it. "No, no, no, don't do that!" he growled, bending down to pick it up.

"You alright?" Gazelle asked him, hoping he hadn't hurt his hand.

"Yeah, but look at this!" the Doctor groaned, showing her the screwdriver, which was now little more more than a charred and mangled lump of metal, almost completely unrecognisable as a sonic screwdriver.

"Look, it's going." Rory said, and the Time Lords turned to see the Atraxi ship flying away.

"No, come back, he's here!" the Doctor shouted after it, "Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is here!" But of course, it was no use and the ship was soon out of sight.

"And I thought the Judoon were thick." Gazelle sighed, perplexed as to how the Atraxi had failed to notice the mayhem the Doctor's sonic screwdriver had caused with an eyeball that big.

Seeing that he was in the clear, Prisoner Zero grinned smugly and evaporated into a mist that disappeared down a drain. "Doctor!" Amy called, having seen this. "The drain. It just sorta melted and disappeared the drain."

"Well, of course it did." the Doctor grumbled, still annoyed at the loss of his beloved sonic screwdriver.

"What do we do now?" Amy asked.

"It's hiding in Human form." the Doctor replied. "We need to drive it into the open."

"And fast." Gazelle added, checking her watch. "We've got 17 minutes to think of something."

"No TARDIS, no screwdriver, 17 minutes. Come on, think. Think!" the Doctor muttered to himself, pacing back and forth and racking his brain to think of a plan B.

So, that thing, that hid in my house for 12 years?" Amy questioned, somewhat disturbed at the thought that an alien fugitive had been right under her nose all those years.

"Multi-forms can live for millennia." the Doctor replied. "12 years is a pit stop."

"So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do?" Amy asked accusingly. "The same minute?"

"The Atraxi are after it but are following us to find it." Gazelle replied. "They saw us through the crack and got a fix. They're only late because we are."

"What're you all on about?" Rory stared.

"Oh, sorry, long story." Gazelle said. "Could we see ya phone, please, Rory?"

"How can they be real?" Rory moaned. "They were never real."

"Rory, please." Gazelle persisted. "The whole Earth's in danger if we can't find Prisoner Zero in time."

So Rory handed her his phone. "They were just a game." he moaned to Amy. "We were kids. You made me dress up as him and you used to dress up as her."

Gazelle flickered through the photos on the phone and showed them to the Doctor. Most of them showed random people standing around the village. "Are these all coma patients?" she asked Rory.

"Yeah." Rory nodded.

"No, they're all multi-form." the Doctor corrected. "Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."

"Hmm, bit like the Gelth hi-jacking those corpses." Gazelle noted.

"He had a dog, though." Amy pointed out. "There's a dog in a coma?"

"I don't think so." Gazelle replied. "Does that man own a dog?" she asked Rory.

"Yeah, he has a photo of it by his bed." Rory confirmed.

"Ah, so the man dreams about walking his dog and so Prisoner Zero gets a dog." Gazelle surmised.

The Doctor suddenly had a brainwave. "Laptop!" he exclaimed and pointed at Amy. "Your friend, what was name? Not him." He jerked a thumb at Rory. "The other one, the granny's boy."

"Jeff." Amy confirmed.

"He had a laptop in his bag, a laptop." the Doctor said. "Big bag, big laptop. I need Jeff's laptop. You two, get to the hospital." he ordered Amy and Rory. "Get everyone out, clear the whole floor. Phone Gazelle when ya done."

"And be careful." Gazelle warned the two Humans. "We don't know why Prisoner Zero was imprisoned in the first place, but somehow I don't think it was for parking violations."

"We will." Amy nodded, and the Time Lords took off running across the green hand-in-hand. "Your car, come on." Amy said to Rory and dragged him away to where his Mini was parked.

"But how can they be real?" Rory blustered as they got in the car. "How can the Doctor be real?"

~8~

"So what's the plan, Theta?" Gazelle asked the Doctor as they ran towards the house they'd gone into earlier.
The Doctor telepathically relayed his plan to her.
"Good idea." Gazelle nodded.

~8~

Jeff was lounging on his bed with his laptop when the Doctor suddenly burst in. "Hello!" he said hurriedly. "Laptop, give me!" He crossed the room and began to wrestle Jeff's laptop out of his grip.

"No, no, no, no, wait, hang on!" Jeff protested, trying to hang on but the Doctor was physically stronger.

"It's fine, give it here." the Doctor said as he wrestled the laptop away and sat down at the bottom of the bed. "Blimey!" he exclaimed as he saw what was on the screen. "Get a girlfriend, Jeff."

Jeff looked to Gazelle, who had just entered the room.

"Don't even think about it!" the Doctor growled. "She's my wife!"

"Gran!" Jeff called to his grandmother, who appeared in the doorway behind the Time Lady.

"What's he doing?" Jeff's grandmother asked Gazelle as they watched the Doctor typing rapidly on the laptop.

"The sun's gone funny, so right now, all of the world's experts are meeting to discuss the situation and my husband's the biggest expert of all." Gazelle replied.

"I am, aren't I?" the Doctor said smugly. "And here they are. All the big boys: NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo space centre, Patrick Moore..."

"Ooh, I like Patrick Moore." Jeff's grandmother said dreamily.

"I'll introduce you later." Gazelle said as the Doctor moved to the desk with the laptop and she joined him.

"You can't just hack in on a call like that." Jeff pointed out.

"Can't I?" the Doctor raised a brow as Gazelle flashed her psychic paper at the webcam, which introduced the Doctor as U.N.I.T's scientific advisor and herself as his wife and assistant.

"Who are you?" one of the experts demanded. "This is a secure call. What're you doing?"

"Hello. I know, you should switch me off." the Doctor said. "But before you do, watch this." He began typing at lightning speed.

"It's here too, I'm getting it." one of the experts said.

"Fermat's theorem." the Doctor explained to the Humans. "The proof, and I mean the real one, never seen before. Poor old Fermat." he mused. "Got killed in a duel before he could write it down. My fault, I slept in."

"Hmm, what an adventurous life you've had, dear." Gazelle remarked, resting her hand on his shoulder. "Let me try one." She learned over and began typing. "Here's a good one," she said to the experts, "why electrons have mass."

The Doctor then took over again. "And a personal favourite of ours, faster than light travel with two diagrams and a joke. Look at your screens. Whoever we are, we're geniuses. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas pay attention." Gazelle passed him Rory's phone and he began typing something very fast into the phone.

"Ma'am, what's he doing?" the first expert asked Gazelle.

"He's writing a virus." Gazelle explained. "It's fast, clever and alive. Now, he's sending it to all your computers. We need you all to spread it everywhere; emails, text, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, radar... even semaphore or smoke signals if ya have to. Are there any questions?"

"Who's your other lady friend?" Patrick Moore asked, looking at Jeff's grandmother.

"I'll introduce you two later, Patrick." Gazelle replied. "But for now, let's concentrate on the big issue, shall we?"

"What does this virus do?" the second expert asked.

"It's a reset command, that's all." the Doctor replied. "It resets counters, it gets in the Wi-Fi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default to zero at exactly the same time. But, yeah, I could be lying, why should you trust me? We'll let our best man explain."

There was silence.

"He means, you, Jeff." Gazelle said. "You're our best man."

"Your what?" Jeff spluttered.

The Doctor closed the laptop partway and turned to Jeff. "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."

Gazelle smiled fondly at her husband's speech. It seemed this new incarnation of the Doctor had retained his predecessor's talent for inspirational speeches.

"Why me?" Jeff asked.

"It's your bedroom." the Doctor shrugged. "Now go, go, go." He and Gazelle then got up to leave the room.

Jeff opened the laptop again. "Ok, you guys, let's do this." he said as he began typing.

The Doctor poked his head back in through the door. "Oh, and delete your internet history." he advised.

"C'mon, dear." Gazelle's voice called from the hall, and her hand appeared to pull the Doctor away by his tie.

"How much time we got?" the Doctor asked as they left the house.

Gazelle checked her watch. "10 minutes." she replied. "We're gonna need a car if we're to get to the hospital in time." she pointed out.

"Oh, we can do better than a car." the Doctor smirked, pointing to the fire engine from earlier, which had come to rest nearby. Both Time Lords hurried over to it, then the Doctor jumped into the driver's seat and Gazelle sat in one of the front passenger seats. "All present and correct, love." the Doctor said as they strapped themselves in.

"F.A.B, let's go." Gazelle acknowledged, and they set off.

~8~

Amy and Rory had arrived at the Royal Leadworth Hospital and Rory was talking to the nurses while Amy was on her mobile. Rory re-joined her. "Something's happened up there, we can't get through." he told her.

"Yes, but what's happened?" Amy asked, redialling in frustration.

"I don't know." Rory replied. "No one knows. Phone them."

"I'm phoning 'em." Amy waved him off, holding the phone to her ear. "Doctor? Gazelle? We're at the hospital, but we can't get through. Oh!"

"What did they say?" Rory asked.

"Look in the mirror." Amy replied and checked her reflection. "Ha-ha! Uniform!" she realised, tying her hair back. "Are you two on ye way? You're gonna need a car."

~8~

"Oh, we've gone one better than a car." Gazelle said into the phone. "See ya in a bit and be careful." She hung up and the Doctor switched the fire engine's sirens on. Gazelle shook her head fondly at him. It seemed that this incarnation of the Doctor was a bit of a man-child. "Ya know, all this reminds me of when we first met Martha." she remarked. "Think about it; alien fugitive, the aliens looking for said fugitive, your sonic screwdriver wrecked and now we're even going to a hospital. Heck, this is even the same year all that happened." She'd noticed a heavily vandalised 'Vote Saxon' poster by the side of the road and so realised that this must be 2008; the same year they'd met Martha.

"Ooh, didn't think of it like that." the Doctor replied. "Suppose it is. At least you won't get ya blood drained by a plasmavore this time."

~8~

At the hospital, Amy and Rory stepped out of the lift onto the floor where the coma ward was located. The corridor was in a state of disarray; with stretchers and tables overturned, scrubs lying everywhere and surgical utensils scattered about. Standing in the middle of the corridor was a woman holding hands with two little girls. "Officer." she called.

"What happened?" Amy asked as they approached.

"There was a man. A man with a dog. I think Dr Ramsden's dead, and the nurses." the woman said.

Amy phoned the Time Lords. "Are you in?" Gazelle asked.

"Yep." Amy answered. "But so is Prisoner Zero."

"Get outta there!" Gazelle warned.

Rory looked at the woman as she continued speaking and noticed that her mouth wasn't moving, but one of the girls' mouths was, yet the voice was that of the woman's. Then he remembered that this very woman was one of the coma patients.
"He was so angry." the woman's voice continued. "He just kept shouting. And that dog, the size of the dog, I swear it was rabid."
Amy and Rory backed away, realising that this was Prisoner Zero.
"Oh, I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I?" Prisoner Zero said, realising their mistake. "I'm always doing that. So many mouths." The woman opened her mouth to reveal sharp pointed teeth.
Rory recoiled in horror, while Amy swallowed grimly.

"Amy?" Gazelle's voice said over the phone. "What's happening?"

Amy didn't answer; she and Rory legged it down the corridor into an empty ward. Amy slammed the doors shut and Rory shoved a discarded broom between the handles to brace them shut, then they both backed into the centre of the ward. "We're in the coma ward." Amy said into the phone. "But it's here, it's getting in."

"Which window is it?" Gazelle asked.

"What, sorry?"

"Which window?"

"First floor on the left, fourth from the end." Amy replied, not sure what was so important about that.

At that moment, the doors burst open to reveal Prisoner Zero. "Oh, dear. Little Amelia Pond." it sneered. "I've watched you grow up. 12 years, and you never even knew I was there. Little Amelia Pond, waiting for her magic Doctor to return, but not this time, Amelia." And it bared it's teeth menacingly.

Then, Amy's mobile beeped and she looked at it to see the message 'Duck!' displayed on screen. Then she heard the distinctive wail of an emergency services' siren and she and Rory hit the deck just as the ladder of the Time Lords' fire engine burst through the window.

Outside, the Doctor and Gazelle disembarked from the fire engine and made their way round to the back. "Right, I'll go first." Gazelle said, and began to climb the ladder. The Doctor wasn't happy about his wife rushing headfirst into potential danger but brightened up when he realised that he'd be climbing up right behind her, and she was wearing very figure-flattering jeans.

They were soon up the ladder and had joined Amy and Rory. "Right!" the Doctor grinned. "Hello! Are we late?"

"No, still got three minutes." Gazelle said, looking at a clock on the wall. "Plenty of time."

"Time for what, Time Lords?" Prisoner Zero sneered.

"Take that disguise off." the Doctor ordered. "They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies."

"The Atraxi will kill me this time." Prisoner Zero retorted.

"Well, ya should've thought of that before you escaped." Gazelle replied sternly. "If ya can't do the time, don't do the crime."

But Prisoner Zero had no intention of giving up. "If I am to die, let there be fire."

"Ok. You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time." the Doctor pointed out. "Do it again, just leave."

"I did not open the crack." Prisoner Zero said.

"Somebody did." the Doctor countered.

"The cracks in the skin of the universe." Prisoner Zero said. "Don't you know where they came from? Neither of you don't, do you?" It switched to a sing-song little girl's voice. "The Doctor and Gazelle in the TARDIS don't know. Don't know, don't know!" It switched back to the woman's voice. "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."

Both Time Lords frowned at this, but before they could ask any questions, there came a clicking sound, drawing the Doctor's attention to to the wall clock. "And we're off!" he said cheerfully. "Look at that." He pointed to the clock, which now read 0:00. "Yeah, I know, Just a clock, whatever. But d'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? Tell 'em, love." he said to Gazelle.

"They're spreading the word all over the planet, quantum fast." Gazelle said calmly to Prisoner Zero. "The word is out, and that word is... zero."

And sure enough, all over the world, every digital device, be it clocks, computers, tellies, information screens or electronic billboards, were flashing up with the word 'Zero'.

"Now me..." the Doctor continued, "if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able to track a simple old computer virus to it's source in, what, under a minute?" He produced Rory's mobile from his pocket. "The source, by the way, is right here." A searchlight shone through the window. "Oh! And I think they just found us!"

"The Atraxi are limited." Prisoner Zero scowled. "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 smirked. "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. Oh, and being uploaded..." He pressed the phone's send button. "Right now. And the final score is; no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare. Who da man?" he crowed, throwing his arms out.
Gazelle facepalmed, while Amy furrowed a brow and Rory looked at the Doctor as if he'd gone loony.
"Oh, I'm never saying that again! Fine." the Doctor said sheepishly.

But Prisoner Zero wasn't ready to admit defeat just yet. "Then I shall take a new form."

"Oh, just pack it in already." Gazelle rolled her eyes. "You know you can't. It takes months to form a psychic link."

"And I've had years." Prisoner Zero gloated and began to glow.

Amy's eyes suddenly rolled into her head and she fell unconscious, Rory managing to catch her before she hit the floor. "No! Amy!" the Doctor cried, he and Gazelle rushing over.

"Let her go!" Gazelle demanded to Prisoner Zero, who was glowing all over.

The Doctor knelt down beside the unconscious ginger. "You've got to hold on, Amy. Don't sleep. Please." he urged, putting his hands on Amy's face.

"Look." Rory said, pointing to Prisoner Zero, who had now taken the Doctor's form.

"Well, that's rubbish." the Doctor snorted. "Who's that supposed to be?"

"That's you." Gazelle told him.

"Me?" the Doctor blinked. "Is that what I look like?"

"You don't know?" Rory frowned, baffled as to why the Doctor had apparently never seen his own face

"Busy day." the Doctor waved him off and stood to face his doppelgänger. "Why me, though? You're linked with her. Why're you copying me?"

"I'm not." Prisoner Zero said in 7-year old Amelia's voice, and a facsimile of her walked out from behind the facsimile of the Doctor. "Poor Amy Child. Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've been."

"No, she's dreaming about me because she can hear me." the Doctor said and turned back to the unconscious Amy. "Amy, don't just hear me, listen." he instructed gently. "Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see? Remember you went inside, we tried to stop you, but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Amy, dream about what you saw."

"No!" Prisoner Zero screeched as it glowed. "No!" It transformed into a slimy eel-like creature with needle-like teeth.

"Well done, Prisoner Zero." the Doctor smirked. "A perfect impersonation of yourself."

The Atraxi searchlight locked onto Prisoner Zero. "Prisoner Zero is located." the Atraxi announced, and a forcefield appeared around Zero. "Prisoner Zero is restrained."

"Silence, Time Lords." Prisoner Zero spat as it began to be beamed aboard the Atraxi ship outside, "Silence will fall." It disappeared completely and the Atraxi ship flew away.

"The sun, it's back to normal, yeah?" Rory asked Gazelle, but before she could answer, Amy awoke, much to his relief. "Amy, are you ok? Are you with us?" he fussed.

"What happened?" Amy groaned as she sat up.

"He did it. The Doctor did it." Rory told her, relieved that she alright.

"No, I didn't." the Doctor said as he fiddled with the phone.

"What's he doing?" Rory asked Gazelle.

"He's tracking the signal." Gazelle replied. "And we're sorry in advance."

"What for?" Rory asked.

"The bill." the Doctor said, and held the phone up to his ear. "Oi, we didn't say you could go!" he said sternly into it. "Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully-established level 5 planet, and you were gonna burn it! What, did ya think no one was watching? You lot, back here, now!" He hung up and tossed the phone back to Rory. "Ok, now I've done it." He took Gazelle's hand and they strode purposefully out of the room.

"Uh, did he just bring them back?" Rory blinked as Amy stood up and followed the Time Lords. "Did he just just save the world from aliens, and then bring all the aliens back again?" Rory blustered as he brought up the rear.

"Where're you going?" Amy asked as they walked through the hospital corridors.

"The roof." the Doctor replied, then stopped in his tracks. "No, hang on." He spun round and walked into a male changing room.

"What's in here?" Amy asked as she followed the Time Lords into the room.

"I'm saving the world." the Doctor replied, sifting through clothes. "I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy." Seeing Prisoner Zero's doppelgänger of him had made him realise how much his previous incarnation's clothes didn't suit him. "Time to put on a show."

"He's just summoned aliens back to Earth." Rory complained as he joined them. "Actual aliens, deadly aliens, aliens of death... and now you're taking your clothes off." he squirmed as the Doctor pulled his shirt off. "Amy, he's taking his clothes off."

"Wait outside if it embarrasses you." the Doctor said casually, pulling his shoes off.

Rory turned and made for the door. "Are you stealing clothes, now?" he moaned. "Those clothes belong to people, you know." He paused when he saw that Amy hadn't budged. "Are you not gonna wait outside?" he asked her.

"Nope." Amy smirked as she watched the Doctor begin to undo his trousers.

"Oh, yes, you are." Gazelle said firmly, taking Amy's arm and escorted her outside. "C'mon, give my husband some privacy."

Rory nodded his thanks to the Time Lady before she shut the door and turned to see that the Doctor stripped down to his underwear. "Like what you see?" he asked her playfully.

"Oh, yes, definitely." Gazelle grinned. This incarnation of the Doctor had a thin, fit frame with a nice bit of muscle tone. The Doctor felt better at his wife's approval. A nagging worry at the back of his mind was that she wouldn't like him as much as his previous incarnation, but it seemed that her love for him was as strong as ever, which was good news for him as he absolutely adored her.

~8~

A few minutes later, the quartet stepped out onto the roof. The Doctor was now dressed in a pinkish-red dress shirt, navy blue trousers with red braces, black boots, a gold wristwatch and a number of ties were draped around his neck. Gazelle was carrying a tweed blazer he'd earmarked, while Amy and Rory trailed behind. "So this was a good idea, was it?" Amy asked him. "They were leaving!"

"Leaving's all well and good, but never coming back is even better." Gazelle told her. In the years since the Sycorax invasion, she and the Doctor had come round to Harriet Jones' view that simply leaving wasn't good enough. They had to make sure that the Atraxi would never threaten Earth again.

"Come on, then!" the Doctor said flippantly as he strode over to where the Atraxi ship was waiting. "The Doctor will see you now!"

The eyeball disconnected from the ship and scanned the Doctor. "You are not of this world." the Atraxi stated.

"No, and neither is my wife." the Doctor replied, nodding to Gazelle, and the eyeball scanned her too. "But we've put a lot of work into this planet." He tried on a tie. "What d'you think?" he asked his wife.

"No." Gazelle shook her head.

"Is this world important?" the Atraxi important.

"Important?" the Doctor stared. "What's that mean, important?" He tossed the tie over his shoulder and Rory caught it. "6 billion people live here, is that important? Here's a better question: is this world a threat to the Atraxi?" He discarded another tie which Amy caught. "Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?"

The Atraxi projected a hologram of Earth with scenes from the planet's history. "No." they stated after a moment.

"Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?"

"Ok, one more. Just one. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here." the Doctor said, and the Atraxi hologram showed some of the many lifeforms the Doctor had encountered in his many travels through the centuries. First were the Cybermen, followed by the Daleks, the Empress of the Racnoss, the Sycorax leader, a Sontaran, a Vashta Nerada in a spacesuit, a Sea Devil, a Reaper and a Krynoid among many others. "Oh, there have been so many." the Doctor said. "And what you've got to ask is... what happened to them?" The hologram then showed the Doctor's previous incarnations. While this was playing, the Doctor stepped over to Gazelle, who helped him to put the tweed jacket on and he finished off his new outfit with a red bowtie.

When the Atraxi hologram reached the Doctor's eighth incarnation, it then made a detour to show Gazelle's previous incarnations. First was a stately-looking dark-haired woman with grey eyes, then a graceful auburn-haired woman with blue eyes and a lovely young blonde woman with big green eyes. Next came her fourth incarnation, standing side-by-side with the Doctor's ninth incarnation, and finally came another image of Gazelle IV, this time holding hands with the Doctor's tenth incarnation.

The two present incarnations of the Time Lords took this as their cue and they strode purposefully hand-in-hand through the hologram together. "Hello. I'm the Doctor and she's my wife, Gazelle. Basically... run!" the Doctor said simply.

"And take this message with you;" Gazelle added, "Planet Earth is under our protection."

The Atraxi took the hint and the eyeball went back inside the ship, which then flew away very quickly. Amy laughed, while Rory let out a sigh of relief. The Doctor and Gazelle both suddenly felt something warm in their pockets and they took out their TARDIS keys to find them glowing. Both Time Lords grinned at each other widely, realising that the box had finished repairing herself. "Is that it?" Amy asked, still looking at the retreating Atraxi ship. "Is that them gone for good? Who were they?" She turned round to see that both Time Lords had disappeared.

~8~

The Doctor and Gazelle ran hand-in-hand out of the hospital and ran back to Amy's house as fast as their legs would let them. When they arrived, they saw that the exterior of the TARDIS had had a facelift; now being a more vibrant shade of blue and boasting a St. John's Ambulance sticker on the door. "Ok, what did ya chose this time?" the Doctor asked Gazelle eagerly. She'd chosen the desktop theme again. Her previous incarnation had chosen the coral theme, but it seemed that this incarnation had other preferences, if her comment during the flight to the Naismith mansion had been anything to go by.

"Just you take a look." Gazelle smiled, gesturing to the door with a glint in her eye.

The Doctor opened the door, steeled himself and stepped inside to see that the console room now had the Pickwoad theme. This gave the TARDIS a a sleeker, more mechanical-looking console room with silver-grey walls, aqua lighting, a new, hexagonal console with two monitors instead of one, Galifreyean text on top of the time rotor, two smaller auxiliary consoles built into the railings with seats at either end of them, and a raised walkway around the perimeter of the room which featured the widescreen telly and settee that had both previously resided in the lounge, while a pair of staircases led down to a lower level that gave access to the rest of the ship.

"Look at you." the Doctor beamed as he took in the new look. "Look at you!"

"I was thinking about what Wilfred said, about how the TARDIS could be cleaner." Gazelle said as she joined him. "D'ya like it?"

"I love it." the Doctor grinned. "Though not as much as I love you, you sexy thing!" he purred flirtatiously.

Gazelle blushed bright crimson at that, then she grabbed the Doctor by his lapels and kissed him long and lovingly, savouring the feel of his new lips while the Doctor savoured the way Gazelle felt in his new arms.

~8~

Amy and Rory arrived at the house just in time to see the TARDIS dematerialise. Amy closed her eyes sadly, remembering when she was little, how she'd waited all night and they'd never returned.

~8~

Amy awoke in bed one night to hear the sound of the TARDIS materialising. She leapt out of bed and looked out of the window to see the blue box standing in the garden. She quickly threw on her dressing gown and a pair of trainers then dashed outside.

The Doctor and Gazelle were standing outside the TARDIS with their arms wrapped around each other when Amy stepped out of the house. "Sorry about running off earlier." the Doctor said. "Brand new Tardis. Bit exciting. Just had a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in. She's ready for the big stuff now."

"It's you." Amy breathed. "You came back."

"Course we come back. We always come back. Something wrong with that?"

"And you kept the clothes." Amy remarked, noticing that the Doctor was wearing exact same clothes he'd stolen from the hospital, while Gazelle was wearing the same leather jacket, jeans and converse that she always seemed to wear, though she'd swapped her purple top for a navy-blue t-shirt with an image of Thunderbird 1 on it.

"Well, he has just saved the Earth for the umpteenth time." Gazelle replied. "I think he's entitled to keep the clothes."

"Including the bow tie." Amy raised a brow.

"Yeah, it's cool. Bow ties are cool." the Doctor defended.

"On other people they aren't, but on you they are." Gazelle said, giving his bowtie a playful tweak and he responded by giving her a peck on the cheek.

"Are you two from another planet?" Amy asked them suspiciously.

"Yes, we are." Gazelle replied. "That's alright, isn't it?" she asked Amy, not wanting to disturb the Human.

"Yeah." Amy replied, thinking Gazelle was joking.

"So what d'ya think?" the Doctor asked.

"Of what?" Amy questioned.

"Other planets. Wanna check some out?"

"What does that mean?"

"It means come with us." Gazelle told her. "Travel with us as our companion."

"Travel with you where?"

"Anywhere you like."

"All that stuff that happened." Amy murmured. "The hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero..."

"Oh, don't worry, that's just the beginning. There's loads more." the Doctor said smugly.

"Yeah, but those things, those amazing things, all that stuff..." Amy trailed off as the Doctor nodded cockily. "That was two years ago!" Amy snapped angrily.

Both Time Lords' faces fell. "Oh, I'm sorry, Amy." Gazelle sighed. "I did try to get back in five minutes, only someone..." she levelled a glare at the Doctor, "buggered off the workshop, leaving me to do everything by myself."

"I was making us new screwdrivers." the Doctor defended himself, then turned to Amy. "So that's..."

"14 years!" Amy growled.

"14 years since fish custard." the Doctor sighed. "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." Amy said, more calmly.

"Oh there is, amongst other things." the Doctor said. "So, coming?"

"No." Amy shook her head.

"You wanted to come 14 years ago."

"I grew up."

"Don't worry." the Doctor smirked. "We'll soon fix that." he snapped his fingers and the TARDIS' doors open, bathing Amy in the aqua glow from the lights. Her curiosity getting the better of her, Amy wandered in and marvelled at the dimensionally transcendental box. The Doctor and Gazelle stepped in after her, enjoying seeing the Human's reaction. They'd missed this over the two years that they'd gone companion-less. "Well?" the Doctor said after a moment. "Anything you wanna say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all."

"I'm in my nightie." Amy said, in awe at the impressive interior.

"Oh, don't worry, there's plenty of clothes in the wardrobe." Gazelle reassured her.

"So..." the Doctor clapped his hands, eager to get going, "all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will Where d'ya wanna start?

Amy snapped out of her awe. "You are both so sure that I'm coming."

"Yeah. We are." the Doctor said smugly.

"Oh, do you?" Amy raised a brow.

"You've waited for us all these years." Gazelle said knowingly. "You could've easily moved to a more exciting place, yet you didn't. You're coming."

"Can you get me back for tomorrow morning?" Amy asked.

"This is a time machine, Amy." Gazelle replied. "If she decides to co-operate, we can get ya back home in five minutes' time if ya liked. Why? What's happening tomorrow?"

"Nothing." Amy answered hastily. "Nothing. Just you know... stuff."

"All right, then. Back in time for stuff." the Doctor said, deciding not to press the issue. Just then, a bleep sounded from the console, indicating that the new sonic screwdrivers had finishing programming in their software. "Ah, they're ready." the Doctor said, taking them out of two slots in the console. One was similar to his previous one, but with a darker grey handle, gold metalwork instead of silver, wave amplifiers around the emitter head and a fluid link running along the handle to a user recognition ring. The other new sonic screwdriver had a larger, more toy-like design, with copper metalwork, a green emitter and extendable claws that housed the holographic display. "Here you go, love." the Doctor said to Gazelle, handing her the blue & gold sonic screwdriver.

"Thanks, dear." she replied, giving the screwdriver a quick test by flashing the Doctor with it's blue light. He reciprocated by flashing her with the green light of his new sonic screwdriver then they both slipped them into their pockets, ready for action.

"Why me?" Amy asked suddenly.

"Why not?" the Doctor countered.

"No, seriously. You are asking me to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. Why me?"

"I dunno, fun?" the Doctor shrugged. "Do we have to have a reason."

"People always have a reason."

"Do we look like people?"

"Yes."

"We ruined your childhood, Amy," Gazelle said, "so we want to make it up to you. Besides, it'll be nice to have another woman to talk to again." She sometimes missed the girls' time she used to enjoy with Rose, Martha and Donna.

"That's it?" Amy frowned. "Just that?"

"Just that. Promise." the Doctor nodded. Then he a small flickering line on the monitor nearest to him that seemed to mimic the crack from Amy's bedroom.

"Ok." Amy nodded slowly, not noticing the line.

The Doctor switched his monitor off. "So, are you ok, then?" he asked Amy. "Because this place, sometimes it can make people feel a bit... ya know."

"I'm fine." Amy waved him off. "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 box and a down-to-Earth wife."

"Amy Pond, there's something very important you need understand;" Gazelle said, patting Amy's shoulder, "my husband is definitely a mad man with a box, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"And you're definitely my down-to-Earth wife." the Doctor laughed, and with that, he and Gazelle starting firing up the instruments ready for departure. Amy watched them with amusement. "Goodbye Leadworth, hello everything!" the Doctor cheered as he pulled a lever with a flourish, sending them off into the Time Vortex, kicking off a new era for the Time Lords.