Sam's phone chirped. The text was from Dean. Dude. I seriously don't buy into the go-green yoga crap, but how many freakin' books can there be in the world? It's enough to make me turn tree-hugger and say all books should be digital.
Sam chuckled and replied, It's not just humans' books. This library has all the books ever written in the entire universe.
I thought aliens were all greenie-save-the-planet types!
Apparently not.
Crap.
Sam laughed again and dropped the phone into his pocket.
They kept moving, winding their way as systematically as they could through the twisting aisles of the library. Sam flexed his grip on the pistol Dean had given him before they'd separated. He couldn't believe that the Doctor hadn't heard them calling. He just desperately hoped that the shifter hadn't slipped away from them somehow.
Sherlock suddenly held his hand up. Amy tiptoed up and poked her head around him, making Sherlock give her an annoyed glance. Sam glanced over their heads.
The Doctor stood at the far end of a study nook, standing on the back of an overstuffed chair with his ear to the wall of the TARDIS, fingers slowly turning a dial set into a panel on the wall.
Amy stood beside him, holding his legs to make sure he didn't fall.
"You have got to be kidding me," Amy muttered.
Sam's phone buzzed.
###
John hunched as he wound through the bookcases, gun held to the side with both hands in a firing grip, ready to aim and shoot. Behind him, he could hear Dean's slightly heavier footsteps. Occasionally Dean's phone buzzed, the sound seeming loud in the quiet, echoing space.
"Oh, for crying out loud," John muttered after the third time. "You're as bad as teenage girls. 'Here, oh wait, I need to take a picture of the dead monster I just hunted down and killed. YOLO LOL.'"
Dean gave him a confused look. "What?"
"YOLO. You Only Live Once. Wa...wait, why am I explaining this to you? You're worse than Sherlock."
Dean snorted. "Thanks a lot."
John rolled his eyes. He felt like he was doing that more than normal, between Sherlock and the Winchesters. To think that he was the knowledgable one on pop culture here. Mary would get a good laugh out of it.
He slid around into an aisle and stopped, nearly gagging. A pile of what Sherlock had referred to as the 'gelatinous substance' lay in the middle of the aisle. Some of it still sort of held to the shape of what it had been--an ear, a finger, a toe.
He looked away, taking slow deep breaths. "Ooooh, tha...that's disgusting."
"Ughhhhh. I hate shifters, man." Dean stepped around him and poked at the goop with his toes. "From the amount here, it looks like he shifted from Sam to someone smaller."
John laughed. "Oh, yeah, that narrows it down a lot."
Dean grinned. "I mean a lot smaller. As in, not me, and probably not Sherlock." The grin faded from his face. "Man, I really hope it isn't the Doc. Shifters gain the memories of people they shift to."
John's stomach knotted. "So conceivably, the shifter could fly the TARDIS."
Dean yanked his phone from his pocket. "Better let Sam know ASAP."
###
The shifter changed again. To someone quite a bit smaller than you.
Sherlock swore under his breath as he saw the text. Sam texted back no kidding. Amy.
WHAT? We tested Amy!
Yeah, well, we're sitting here staring at Amy's doppelganger helping the Doctor.
Doppel-what?
Sam texted his brother their location and stuffed the phone back in his pocket. He tapped Sherlock's shoulder and gestured, indicating the detective should head around to the side. Sherlock nodded and turned away.
"Why me?" Amy whispered beside Sam. "Why would the shifter imitate me?"
"Ssh." Sam concentrated on what the Doctor and Amy Two were saying.
"...kind of pointless, wouldn't you think?" Amy Two said.
"Nah," the Doctor replied. "Better than them getting out and sitting in the shadows, just waiting to snatch up one of us."
"But what about the shifter?"
The Doctor fumbled the dial he was turning, and looked down at Amy Two. "What?"
Sam looked to the side and saw Sherlock standing at the opening. He held up his fingers, counting down. Five...four... Sam pulled the hammer back on his pistol. Three...two...one...
He and Sherlock moved out into the study area at the same time, leveling their guns at the shifter. She screamed and backed into the chair the Doctor stood on. The chair wobbled, and the Doctor waved his arms, just managing to keep his balance.
"Sherlock! Sam!" he yelled. "What are you doing? Put down those--"
"She's the shifter, Doc," Sam said.
"What?"
"The shifter turned into Amy. Look." Sam put his arm around Amy One. "This is the original Amy. Dean and John found another pile of shifter goo."
Amy Two looked from the Doctor to Sam and back, panicked. "Doctor, that's not true! I'm Amy! The real Amy! She must be the fake!"
Amy One crossed her arms, glaring at her twin. "I'm the real Amy, you mindless twit!"
"Don't call me that, you--"
"Okay, wait, wait, wait." The Doctor scrambled down from the chair, holding out his hands. "So we can figure this out, right. All we have to do is ask the Amys something only the real Amy would know--maybe something about her and Rory, maybe--"
"Won't work," Sherlock said. "The Winchesters say that when a shifter changes, it gains the memories of the person it changes into."
"Sort of," Sam said. "But enough that that kind of test won't work. Here." He unsheathed the silver knife at his hip.
Amy Two balled her hands. "You're joking, right? Doc, come on! You know I'm the real Amy!"
"She is wearing her wedding ring," the Doctor said softly. "That's silver."
Sam looked down at Amy One. She held up her hand, revealing the silver andd circling her ring finger. Sam thought back, trying to remember if it had been there when he'd first seen her.
As if sensing the reason that he hesitated, Amy One pulled up her sleeve, revealing the cut on her arm. "You watched me make this cut yourself, Sam. You know I'm not the shifter."
"Explain the wedding ring, then," Amy Two snapped. "How am I wearing a silver wedding ring?"
John and Dean dashed into the area, both jerking to a halt at the sight of the two Amys. Dean glanced over at Sam, and Sam spotted a flash of fear in his older brother's eyes. Dean tucked his pistol into the back of his jeans and moved to where he could see the two Amys better, his gaze flickering over both of them.
Sam looked over at the Doctor. The Timelord looked pain, his eyebrows pinched together and his forehead wrinkled as he looked back and forth from Amy Two, brandishing her wedding ring, to Amy One, whose hand that held up her sleeve trembled just a little. Amy One was also wearing her wedding ring.
"Do you think the shifter's eyes...?" Dean asked, looking up at Sam.
"Moriarty had shifter's eyes," Sam said.
"What do you mean, shifter's eyes?" Amy Two asked, taking a step back away from Dean.
"Shifter's eyes turn golden if if a flash of light shines on them. Like a cat's eyes at night," Dean said.
"Wait a moment," Sherlock said suddenly. His hand darted out and seized Amy Two's wrist. "Don't mind if I take a closer look at your wedding ring, do you?"
Amy Two's head jerked to face him, and in the quick movement, Sam spotted a flash of gold. Amy One inhaled sharply.
Amy Two yanked her hand free of Sherlock, leaving him a gooey handful of flesh and a raw red patch on her wrist. She whirled to run and found herself facing John and Dean's pistols, aimed right at her head. Her mouth fell open, and Sam could almost see the panic in the golden shifter eyes as she looked from face to face, hoping to find mercy.
He knew she didn't find it, even on his own face. Even on Amy's.
She turned to the Doctor. "Please help me! They're going to kill me!"
The Doctor's fists clenched and unclenched. "You impersonated my friend. Do you think that's something I take lightly?"
Amy Two looked back and forth around the room, then threw her head back and laughed. Sam flinched. Moriarty's laugh boomed around the small study nook, and when Amy Two lowered her head and looked at Sam, the grin on her face made shivers crawl down his spine.
"Okay, crazy shifter-shadow thing, time to cool it," Dean said. "Doc, you got a place we can keep this crazy SOB for a while?"
The Doctor shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe. Come along." He scurried down the aisle.
Dean prodded the shifter with his gun, and he and John kept careful eyes on it as they began to follow the Doctor.
"How did you know...?" Amy asked Sherlock.
He smiled smugly. "You twist your wedding ring around your finger when you're nervous. Amy Two never touched her ring. I suspect it wasn't really a ring at all, but some sort of illusion created by the melding of shifter and Vashta Nerada. I'd like to study that thing some more...the way it creates its flesh..." He looked down at the handful of slime he still held and headed out of the study nook.
Sam rubbed his mouth as he stuffed his gun into his jacket pocket. He checked his watch. It was only nine-thirty in the evening, and Sam realized with a jolt that it had only been an hour since Sherlock and Dean had handcuffed him to the TARDIS railing in the console room.
Amy suddenly gave him a tight hug. "Thank you."
Sam hugged her back, just as tightly.