The Pond Life 1: April

How to Listen to Answering Machine Messages...

Amy and Rory leaned over the answering machine. If what Sarah-Jane said, his message should be interesting. At least, that's what she said. Whether or not it was, that was a whole other question. The push of a button and the message began...

"Hello, Ponds, checking in. How are you?"

He sounded out of breath.

He'd sunk down the wall, his twin hearts pounding as he choked down air. He had to play it cool. He was drawing out the Alpha that Chris was helping Peter and the Hales hunt. The guy was killing pregnant mothers, ones that he impregnated. Saying that the pups were unsatisfactory and the bitch that bred them had to die. The son of a bitch wanted Grace. HIS Grace, The Doctor's Grace. That she'd be the next bitch and maybe he wouldn't kill her. Well, maybe.

Amy and Rory shared a look, wondering what caused the out of breath feeling.

"Not much to report..."

There was a roar in the background, a faint 'buggering bastard' before the sound of running.

The Alpha was on his heels, but the Doctor was still faster. Glad he had that Bluetooth earpiece that Chris had given him.

Was this what Sarah-Jane meant? Listen to the background, rather than what he was actually saying.

"Surfed the fire falls of Florinall Nine..."

Amy snorted, sure he did. Or, maybe he had and he was telling her about it, but that didn't mean it was what he was doing at the time of the message.

The Doctor spun around the corner, glad he'd grabbed onto the pole as he did. Helped him keep his momentum without crashing into the lockers. Though, he hoped it slowed the Alpha down some. Wanted him as far away from Grace as possible.

He was definitely running and from something big...and possibly blood thirsty murderous and out for his Time Lord arse. The Doctor had that effect on people sometimes.

"Not deliberately, just the easiest way out."

That was true enough, when running from things or escaping traps.

The watch on his wrist was starting to pick up signals from the other earpieces. Though he didn't intend for it to pick up on the answering machine message: "Doctor, lead him to the gym. Peter, Derek and Malia are waiting for him there. Chris and Lydia got Grace out of town".

What the hell was really going on? The two shared a worried look, but knew that there would be more messages over time. Just as Sarah-Jane said there would be. Did she know more than she let on?

"Met Mata Hari in a Paris hotel room..." The Doctor yelped and there was the sound of him bursting through doors, "Interesting woman."

Amy snickered at how his voice cracked, knowing the sound as she would often jumpscare him just for fun. And sometimes, the TARDIS even helped her. The old girl seemed to like her well enough.

The Doctor scrambled backward, on the gym floor, as the Alpha came running toward him. It was stupid to play bait, but the Alpha wanted him out of the way so that the man could take Grace. Quite literally. He planned on impregnating her and likely killing her before the baby could be born.

"I will have her, Doctor..." The Alpha taunted, before jumping...

They both jumpscared when there was three wolf howls from the answering machine, then snarls and the sounds of ripping and bodies thudding.

"Laid down some backing vocals..."

There was some laughter from the other side and the Doctor telling them to shut up.

"That's not singing, Doctor," Scott rolled his eyes, helping the man to his feet, "that's shower time featuring dirty bird Gracie fantasies".

Rory choked on his glass of wine, that Amy poured during the Doctor's pause.

"I should be with you any day now. Literally, any day. Helmic regulator's playing up, can't get the temporal steering right."

Then came the taunting...

"Don't let him lie to you," Scott yelled at the phone, "he's got his head full of..."

The Doctor gave Scott an evil glare, one that made Peter stand behind Malia...who rolled her eyes at her father.

"Some Alpha you are," She grumbled, "scared when the Doctor wants to strangle Scott for calling him on the crush on Gracie."

The pack there, as Peter and Derek were taking care of the Alpha's body, laughed and walked with the Doctor to the car. As he'd left the TARDIS in Derek's basement. In exchange for rebuilding the house, rebuilding the escape route under the house to include port hole's to the sealed Torchwood 2 hub that only three people outside of the Doctor knew how to access: Jack, Gwen and her husband Rhys. And, by technicality, their daughter Anwen as she was playing with her blocks at the time the Doctor told them. The other port hole went to UNIT and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. Even SHE had teased him about Grace.

Amy snickered, "They aren't giving him any quarter, are they?"

"Not at all," Rory cackled, sitting down his wine, "this is what Sarah-Jane meant. Ignore what he's actually saying and listen to what he's actually doing. Should send this to Jack..."

Rory paused for a moment, trying to remember where the man...memories left over from the Centurion...had told him some of the safe houses.

"Send it to Kate," Amy spoke, as the woman had introduced herself a while back, "ask her to sent it to the Captain."

"Oh, dear..."

They didn't miss the pause. Like something was in the car that he didn't expect to see.

The Doctor didn't really know what to think. What the hell did THEY want?

"I appear to have collided with Ancient Greece..."