Chapter Text
“Hey, Wilson!” Cuddy greeted with a smile, setting down the file she was looking over as the oncologist walked through the door. “What can I do for you?”
“Hello! I just came to tell you I love the new statue out-front,” Wilson remarked, “It really compliments the building.”
Confusion took over Cuddy’s face, her smile faltering but not disappearing. “What statue?”
Wilson chuckled. “You know… the angel? The one covering its eyes?” He made large hand motions, to try to jog Cuddy’s memory.
Cuddy half-blinked and shook her head slightly. “I have no clue what you’re talking about, but I appreciate the compliment.” She picked up the file she was reading earlier, tapping it against the desk to neaten the now-loose pages, and continued reading it.
Wilson left, realising his cue to do so, shrugging off the interaction.
-
“Where is it… where is it?” The Doctor hissed under his breath, eyes fixated on his crudely-made locator device. He ran his free hand through his hair. “Where’s that bloody angel?!”
He crossed a road, nearly avoiding being hit by a car. Just then, his device began to beep rapidly, and he looked up. He was standing in front of a hospital, but that bit didn’t matter. Directly next to its front doors was a tall, stone statue of a weeping angel
The Doctor grinned. “There you are, you little bugger.”
He hopped up the stairs, his eyes focused on the angel. He must’ve forgot to look ahead of him, because he crashed into someone walking out of the building.
He blinked.
He opened his eyes.
The statue was gone.
Crap, where did it go? He can’t have a stray angel here, in the 21st century! Especially not one that can-
“Shoot, I’m so sorry,” An Australian accent brought the Doctor back to reality, and he looked down at the man in front of him. It was a blonde man, presumably a doctor, considering the lab coat he was wearing.
“Are you… okay?” The man spoke again. He must’ve noticed the pure panic on the Doctor’s face, because his own turned to confusion and worry.
The Doctor inhaled, running his hand through his hair. “Yeah, no, I’m- I’m fine. Er, there was a statute– right there,” He pointed to the empty space that the weeping angel used to occupy, “do you know where it went?”
The other man turned to look at where the Doctor was pointing. His eyebrows furrowed. “No, I’ve never noticed a statue there. Are you sure you’re not hallucinating?”
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “No, it was there, I’m certain. Listen, er, doctor…” he squinted, trying to read the doctor’s name tag, “doctor Chase, if you see that statue, get everyone away from the building and make sure there’s someone looking at it at all times . It’s very important that you do this, for everyone’s safety. Got it?”
Chase eyed the Doctor, not convinced in the slightest. “Yeah, come with me. Unless you can prove that this statue is dangerous, I’m gonna keep you here and make sure you’re not suffering from hallucinations.” He nodded to the Doctor to follow him, before retreating into the building.
The Doctor complied reluctantly, following the intensivist into the building and into the clinic area.
“Sit here, er– what’s your name?” Chase gestured to a clinic chair, prompting the Doctor to sit down.
“I’m the Doctor.”
Chase chuckled. “Doctor what?”
“If you like,” The Doctor smiled at Chase.
“Okay, Doctor if-you-like, we’ll get to you as soon as we can.”
-
“House, I have a patient that might interest you,” Chase walked into House’s office, where the diagnostician was repeatedly throwing his red tennis ball against the wall.
House turned to look at Chase, catching the tennis ball and setting it down on his desk. “Tell me,”
“Nothing much, just some guy who’s hallucinating- but get this- he wouldn’t tell me his name. He said to refer to him as ‘ The Doctor ’.”
House spun his chair to face Chase, “ The Doctor ? Like, from Doctor Who ?”
Chase nodded, not being able to suppress his smile for longer. “Weird, right?”
House nodded as well. “Is he in a room?”
“He’s in the clinic.”
“Great,” House stood up, picking his cane up and limping past Chase and towards the doorway, “I’m going to interrogate him until he tells us what he has to hide.”
-
“Hello,” House greeted with a passive-aggressive smile, “My fellow employee here tells me your name is… The Doctor .” The diagnostician gestured to Chase with an open palm. Chase waved briefly.
“Yep,” The Doctor confirmed.
“Like from Doctor Who ?” House pushed.
The Doctor paused. “What’s- what’s Doctor Who ?”
House chuckled. “You can’t tell me you don’t know what Doctor Who is! You’re the star!”
“I’m the star of what– a T.V show?”
“Ding, ding! Two points to John Smith!” House put on an announcer voice, before switching his voice back to normal. “Precisely, Sherlock.”
The Doctor paused again, confusion evident on his face. “I don’t understand.”
House inhaled. “Well, maybe meeting one of your fans will jog your memory,” He pulled his flip-phone out of his pocket and dialled a number the Doctor couldn’t see.
“ James Wilson, ” A voice crackled through the speaker phone.
“Hello, Wilson,” House said, “Would you like to meet the Doctor? From Doctor Who?”
“ Why, is one of the actors in the hospital? ”
“Nope, some lunatic in the clinic believes he’s the real doctor.”
Wilson paused. “ I’ll come down now. ” The call ended with a beep. House clicked his phone closed. He turned to the Doctor with a satisfied grin on his face.
“Well, let’s see if the fanatic can believe your gripping story ,” House mocked.
-
“So, let me get this straight,” Wilson stopped the Doctor’s rambling with his open palm, his eyes closing briefly as he put his other hand on his hip. “You came here because a weeping angel had brought you here. You need to track down this specific angel because it sends people to the future , not the past. Is that correct?”
“How does he know all this stuff?” House interrupted, not talking to anyone in particular, “This is top-tier nerdiness.”
Wilson gave House not much more than a glance before turning his attention back to the supposed Doctor.
“Yes, that’s correct,” The Doctor confirmed, before his attention diverted to something behind Wilson and a look of pure terror replaced the confusion on his face. “What’s more important now is that you all turn around. And don’t blink.”
Chase was the first to turn, followed by Wilson, who turned when he heard the intensivist curse under his breath.
House took a moment to analyze the Doctor’s emotion, looking for any sign of trickery, before he, too, turned around.
There, only a few dozen inches away from them, was a graphite statue of an angel. Its hands covered its eyes, and it hunched over slightly. It looked like it was crying.
“That thing is going to kill us all if we blink. So, do not move. Do not look away.” The Doctor warned.
“You said it would take us to the future, right? Not kill us?” House asked, to which the Doctor clarified with a simple “Correct”.
“Well, I vote for the future. Everyone, say ‘aye’!” House raised his cane to the air briefly, before squeezing his eyes shut.
The Doctor tried to remind House about the dangers, but he, too, accidentally diverted his gaze from the angel.
That left Wilson and Chase.
Now, one person blinks 15 to 20 times a minute. That’s one blink every 3-4 seconds. Now, the chance that someone blinks in the same minute as someone else is very high, practically guarenteed. But, the chance that someone blinks in the same second as someone else is much lower. It’s roughly a 1 in 400 chance. Despite this, a blink lasts shorter than a second.
If Wilson and Chase blinked in the same second, all would be fine, right?
Roughly 150 milliseconds out of the 1000 in a second are taken up by blinking. That’s roughly 1/6 of a second. The chance that two people blink in the same second is 1 in 400. Out of that 0.0025%, 16.6% blink at the exact same time. That is a 1 in 2500 chance that two people blink for the exact duration of time.
But that’s such a small chance, surely it wouldn’t be now, would it?
Well, that particular second must’ve been the lucky one.
-
“Sir, four life forms have materialised in the mess hall,” Isaac chirped, turning to face the captain.
Ed furrowed his eyebrows slightly. “Can you scan them? See what species they are?”
Isaac turned around again, tapping a few buttons on the control panel. “3 are human, one is… unidentified.”
“As in, an unknown species?”
“Affirmative, sir.”
Ed paused. “Bortus, Isaac, come with me. Oh, and Alara. Come with us to make sure they don’t kill us.”
He stood up, the aliens following behind him, and he made his way to the mess hall. He checked his pockets for his gun, before opening the large double-doors.
There stood four humanoids. They looked up when they heard the door open, and Ed had to stop himself from laughing when he saw the emotions on their faces. One looked confused, one looked bewildered, and one looked downright scared.
Then, he saw the fourth one. That one didn’t look scared or confused, that one was.. Excited. Happy.
“Greetings. You are onboard the USS Orville . Please state your names and your intentions for boarding our ship.” Bortus said, stepping forward.
There was a silence. An awkward silence. An expectant silence. A heavy silence.
“What the hell is happening?!”