The Doctor managed to pull himself up completely soaking wet, he opened the doors of the TARDIS and threw out a grappling hook. The Stone coughing on the smoke from inside pulled herself up behind him while the Doctor poked his head out grinning at a little girl who stared at him. "Could I have an apple? All I can think about. Apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving? That's new. Never had cravings before." He rambled, climbing out and sitting on the edge of the box.
"You definitely still have a mouth." The Stone groaned pulling herself up.
The Doctor then turned helping her sit beside him while glaring at her. "Thank you, dear." He gritted out not wanting to get slapped just after regenerating.
"No problem sweetheart." She grinned seeing that he clearly was holding his tongue, she looked down at the inside of the TARDIS as the Doctor did.
"Whoa. Look at that."
"Are you okay?" The young ginger girl dressed in a nightie and a red cardigan asked looking at them. The Stone blinked having not noticed the young girl when she climbed out of the TARDIS. She did wonder what attention a small blue box flying and crashing would bring. Apparently, a young Scottish girl who looked around 7 years old.
"Just had a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up." The Doctor chuckled while the Stone rolled her eyes.
"You're soaking wet." She looked at them.
"We were in the swimming pool." The Stone muttered running a hand through her hair wishing she had a hairbrush around about now. She didn't like how this meeting with this child was going. It made her look mad, then again she did just climb out of a blue box that crashed, with a man who asked about apples when he first opened his mouth. Okay, she definitely was mad.
"He said you were in the library." The young girl looked at the Stone tilting her head slightly in confusion.
"So was the swimming pool." The Stone groaned.
"Are you the police ?" She asked looking at the Time Lords.
"Why?" The Doctor looked at her. "Did you call the police?"
"Did you come about the crack in my wall?" The child asked him.
"What crack?" The Doctor asked then cried out falling to the floor.
"Are you all right, mister?" The redhead asked looking concerned.
"No, I'm fine. It's okay." He nodded as the Stone jumped down gently rubbing his back knowing that it was just his regeneration. "This is all perfectly norm-" he then stopped when a small breath of golden energy left his mouth.
"Who are you?"
"He doesn't know yet." The Stone looked up at the girl helping the Doctor stand.
"I'm still cooking." The Doctor cut in then looked at the girl. "Does it scare you?"
"No, it just looks a bit... weird."
"No, no, no." He shook his head. "The crack in your wall. Does it scare you?"
"Yes." She nodded.
"Well then, no time to lose." The Doctor started to head off. "I'm the Doctor, this is the Stone." He nodded at the blonde who waved at the little girl. "Do everything we tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off."
"Rude and-" The Stone said about to finish off her sentence just as the Doctor walked straight into a tree. "-not ginger." She snorted at him as the Doctor jumped back up.
"Are you all right?"
"Early days." The Doctor waved her off. "Steering's a bit off."
"You know." The Stone whispered to the little girl. "I don't think it's because he's still cooking."
The girl looked at her strangely then followed the Doctor inside grabbing him an apple and handing it to him. "If you're a doctor, why does your box say Police?"
The Doctor ignored her question and bit into the apple only to spit it back out. "That's disgusting. What is that?"
"An apple."
"Apple's rubbish." He shivered. "Hate apples."
"You said you loved them."
"No, no, no. I like yoghurt." He nodded. "Yoghurt's my favourite. Give me yoghurt- ouch!"
"Rude and not ginger." The Stone pointed at him after hitting the back of his head. "Manners Doctor."
"Please." He added looking a little annoyed that his wife was treating him like a child.
"Better. Goodness, how your mother put up with you I will never know." She muttered as the girl handed him a pot of yoghurt from the fridge. The Doctor without using a spoon poured it into his mouth before spitting it back out making the Stone groan and pinch the bridge of her nose.
"I hate yoghurt." He shook his head. "It's just stuff with bits in."
"You said it was your favourite."
"New mouth. New rules. It's like eating after cleaning your teeth. Everything tastes wrong. Argh!" He cried violently twitching.
"What is it?" The child frowned. "What's wrong with you?"
"Wrong with me?" He blinked. "It's not my fault. Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish. Fry something." He ordered only to be hit around the head again by the Stone.
"Doctor I know you're still cooking but she's just a child you don't honestly expect her to cook do you?"
"You do it then." He looked at her.
"If you weren't my husband I would have already hit you where you really don't want to be hit." She glared at him. "Sorry there." She looked down at the child. "What was your name again?"
"Amelia."
"Amelia! Beautiful name." She nodded while the Doctor dried his hair with a towel the girl had found. "Do you know where a frying pan would be?"
"Yes." She nodded then brought out a frying pan handing it to the Time Lady.
"May I use your fridge?" The Stone asked. Amelia nodded and the Stone walked to the fridge, opening it. "Fry, fry, fry." She hummed then noticed the food she loved. Lots of salt and definitely fryable.
---------------------------------------------------------------
While the Stone fried the bacon the Doctor sat at the kitchen table. Amelia peered watching the Time Lady cook before glancing at the Doctor then whispering to the Stone. "Is he sick?"
"A little bit." The Stone slowly nodded looking over her shoulder at the Doctor. "He normally gets like this when he is sick."
"You're not sick are you?" She asked.
"No." The Stone chuckled. "I'm not sick... I sort of in a way promised him that I wouldn't get sick."
"How can you promise to not get sick?" Amelia frowned.
"Hmm." She stared at the young girl for a moment thinking. "You know when you promise someone something and cross your heart?" She asked.
"Yes."
"Well, I did that." The Stone smiled. "I crossed my hearts and promised not to. Someone has to look after him." She chuckled gesturing over her shoulder to the Doctor. Young Amelia slightly frowned wondering if it was the woman's accent or if she really just heard her say 'hearts'.
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"Ah, bacon!" The Doctor beamed as the Stone set down the plate. The Doctor placed a piece in his mouth only to spit it out on the floor making the Stone glare at him.
"Bacon. That's bacon. Are you trying to poison me?"
"Bacon is brilliant!" She narrowed her eyes at him taking the plate to eat the bacon later.
"Bacon is poison." He protested. Crossing his arms and pouting.
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Ah, you see?" The Doctor looked up as the Stone brought over a small plate of beans she had made for him. "Beans." He grinned shovelling a load in his mouth. The Doctor then jumped up running to the sink and spitting them out. "Beans are evil." He glared at her. "Bad, bad beans."
The Stone pinched the bridge of her nose and glanced at the redhead for any ideas since she had completely run out. That was before she noticed the loaf of bread on the counter behind the child. "How about bread and butter?" She looked at Amelia who slowly nodded at the idea.
"Now you're talking." The Doctor grinned at her as Amelia hurried over to the fridge grabbing the butter then a knife, a plate and then the bread handing it to the Stone.
The Time Lady spread some butter over the slice of bread then pushed it in front of the Doctor. "If you don't like this then I don't know what you will like." The Doctor took one bite before he stood up looking quite furious with the plate in hand and marched to the front door. The Stone let out a sigh slumping into a kitchen chair after hearing a plate smash as well as a cat meow in pain.
"And stay out!" She then heard the Doctor shout before the door slammed shut and the Doctor returned to the kitchen.
"Doctor, dear." The Stone shook her head. "Was there any need to throw the bread and the plate outside?"
"It offended me." he sniffed sitting down beside her.
"And how did it offend you?"
"It didn't agree with me." He said in the most serious face she had seen that night. Something she may never see again on him.
"Amelia." The Stone sighed. "Is there anything else the Doctor may be able to have?" She questioned. "I am so sorry for taking over your kitchen like this."
"We've got some carrots." Amelia shrugged suggestively.
The Stone let out another sigh mumbling under her breath after seeing the look on the Doctors face. "Oh dear..."
"Carrots? Are you insane?" He narrowed his eyes at her. "No. Wait. Hang on. When you were in your fourth incarnation and didn't know what to eat after regenerating what did you have Stone?" The Doctor looked at her making her frown at him.
"I don't know." she shrugged. "I can't remember." She hummed then looked at the fridge and blinked before she started to grin. "Fish fingers and custard." She then shivered scrunching up her nose at the thought after remembering trying it in her fifth incarnation, it was at that point in her life that she started to wonder if it was her fourth body where she began to go mad. "You think you need that?"
"Dear, I know what I need." He looked at her raising a hand as she raised an eyebrow at him. "I need fish fingers and custard."
"If you say so, sweetheart." She muttered wondering if it would actually work.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Surely enough it did and the Doctor happily dipped another fish finger into a bowl of custard while the Stone ate the bacon from earlier with a little bit more salt than she should have added. Honestly, did the woman think she was eating chips? While this happened little Amelia sat opposite from them eating ice cream. The Doctor after finishing the last of the fish fingers picked up the bowl of custard and proceeded to drink the remaining causing him to have a custard moustache. Something the Stone and the young Scottish girl found quite amusing.
"Funny." Amelia looked at the Doctor while the Stone shook her head fondly at him not even worrying as she moved her thumb over his upper lip to get rid of the moustache. The Doctor then grabbed her wrist and licked the custard off her thumb making the Time Lady scrunch up her nose. Even after all these centuries, he was still a child at heart.
"Am I?" He asked. Amelia then nodded at him continuing to eat the ice cream. "Good. Funny's good." He slowly nodded. "What's your name?"
"Amelia Pond."
"Oh, that's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond." He hummed.
"I asked her earlier, you were too busy drying your hair to pay attention." The Stone shook her head at him.
"It's like a name in a fairytale." The Stone nodded in agreement. "I never asked are we in Scotland, Amelia?"
"No. We had to move to England. It's rubbish." She sighed resting her head on a palm.
"So what about your mum and dad, then?" The Doctor looked at Amelia. "Are they upstairs? Thought we'd have woken them by now."
The Stone laughed at him. "You were making the racket sweetheart."
"You were no better with making the fire alarm go off when cooking the bacon."
"The TARDIS doesn't need a fire alarm so I don't worry about that." She huffed at him slightly blushing. "Anyway, your parents Amelia?" She turned to the Scottish girl.
"I don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt."
"I don't even have an aunt." The Doctor said.
"I had a cousin."
"You're lucky."
"I'm really not." She chuckled shaking her head. "So, your aunt, where is she?"
"She's out."
"And she left you all alone?" The Stone blinked at her.
"I'm not scared."
"Course, you're not." The Doctor nodded. "You're not scared of anything. Box falls out of the sky, man and woman falls out of a box, man eats fish custard while woman eats bacon with extra salt, and look at you, just sitting there. So you know what my wife thinks?" He asked raising a brow.
"What?" Amelia looked at the Time Lady in curiosity.
"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Doctor and the Stone stood in Amelia's bedroom looking at the crack that looked about three or four feet long in a slight 'w' shape.
"You've had some cowboys in here." The Doctor murmured looking at the crack then over his shoulder looking at Amelia. "Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."
"I used to hate apples, so my mum put faces on them." She handed him an apple with a smiley face cut into it.
"She sounds good, your mum." He nodded placing it into his pocket. "I'll keep it for later. This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing. Where's the draught coming from?" He then scanned it with his sonic screwdriver. "Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. You know what the crack is?"
"What?"
"It's a crack." The Stone answered. "But I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, because the crack isn't in the wall." She said after peering at the Doctors sonic.
"Where is it then?"
"Everywhere. In everything."
"It's a split in the skin of the world." The Doctor said. "Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together right here in the wall of your bedroom. Sometimes, can you hear?"
"A voice. Yes." She nodded. There was a faint growling. The Doctor tipped out a glass of water onto the floor and placed it on the crack pressing his ear to it to hear.
"Prisoner Zero?" He frowned.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped," Amelia said. "That's what I heard. What does it mean?"
"It means that on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner. And you know what that means?"
"What?" She frowned.
"You need a better wall. The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way."
"The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or..." She frowned.
"What?"
"You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?" The Doctor cut in as the Scottish girl slowly nodded. "Yes."
"Everything's going to be fine." The Stone took her hand as the Doctor took the other. He aimed his sonic at the wall and the crack widened brightening the room.
"Prisoner Zero has escaped." A voice said through the crack. "Prisoner Zero has escaped."
"Hello?" The Doctor leaned closer. "Hello?" He stepped back as a giant blue eye stared at them through the crack.
"What's that?" Amelia stared at the eye. Suddenly a bolt of light went to the Doctor who doubled over before the crack closed.
"There, you see? Told you it would close." The Doctor looked at the redhead. "Good as new."
"What's that thing?" She asked. "Was that Prisoner Zero?"
The Doctor shook his head looking at the Stone who did the same. "No. I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent me a message. Psychic paper." He brought it out. "Takes a lovely little message."
"Prisoner Zero has escaped." The Stone read off it frowning. "But why tell us?"
"Unless."
"Unless what?" Amelia looked at the Time Lords.
"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here. But he couldn't have. We'd know." He said before leaving the room wondering though Amelia's corridor.
---------------------------------------------------------------
"It's difficult. Brand new me. Nothing works yet, we'll find out what does later though won't we Stone." He said winking at the blonde who was now a bright red as they stood in the corridor.
Lightly coughing she shook her head at him. "Not the time to flirt, sweetheart." "Especially like that in the presences of a child."
"Right yes, sorry," he nodded clearing his own throat, "but there's something I'm missing. In the corner of my eye." He hummed. "Can't you see it Stone?" He asked.
"Well I did hit my head when I landed in the pool..." she muttered glancing at a wall for a moment. It felt like something else was there... like a door, she quickly dismissed the thought when a bell coming from the TARDIS sounded. The Time Lords looked at each other in alarm. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" They shouted running to the garden seeing the smoke.
"We've got to get back in there." The Doctor shouted. "The engines are phasing. It's going to burn!"
"But it's just a box." Amelia frowned following them. "How can a box have engines?"
"It's not a box. It's a time machine." The Doctor stated.
"What, a real one?" She looked at them eyes wide. "You've got a real time machine?"
"Not for much longer if we can't get her stabilised." The Stone ran a hand through her hair.
"Five-minute hop into the future should do it."
"Can I come?" Amelia asked.
"Not safe in here." The Doctor shook his head helping the Stone sit on the edge both of their legs dangling inside. "Not yet. Five minutes. Give us five minutes, we'll be right back."
"People always say that." Amelia looked down sadly.
The Doctor lost his smile and jumped back onto the ground bending down to Amelia's hight."Are we people? Do we even look like people?" He asked. Amelia then glanced at the strange Doctor in raggedy clothes and the woman named Stone who wore a ripped blouse that was looking quite tattered. "Trust us we're the Doctor and the Stone." He said moving back to where he sat before only to then jump into the TARDIS. "Geronimo!" He shouted before there was a large splash and a loud laugh.
"Oh, this might hurt." The Stone winced then gave a reassuring smile to the Scottish girl. "Promise to come back. Cross my hearts." She said crossing two sides of her chest with both hands. "Bye Amelia!" She shouted jumping in. There was another splash before the TARDIS doors closed.
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Doctor and the Stone stumbled out the TARDIS which was now correctly upright with smoke coming out of it. "Amelia! Amelia, we worked out what it was. We know what we were missing!" He shouted running in with the Stone. "You've got to get out of there!"
"Amelia?" The Stone said as they ran up to her bedroom door. "Amelia, are you all right? Are you there?"
"Prisoner Zero's here." The Doctor shouted. "Prisoner Zero is here! Prisoner Zero is here! Do you understand me?"
"Prisoner Zero is-" the Stone frowned turning around only to be hit around the head by a cricket bat. The Doctor saw her slump to the ground as his eyes widened spinning around he was then knocked out as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Doctor and the Stone slowly woke up to the sound of birds tweeting seeing a woman in a skirt and police uniform with her back towards the Time Lords.
"White male and female, both mid-twenties, breaking and entering. Send me some back-up. I've got them restrained." She then turned around. "Oi! You two, sit still."
"Cricket bat." The Doctor frowned. "I'm getting cricket bat, dear?"
"Yes definitely getting cricket bat." She winced.
"You two were breaking and entering." The policewoman said to them.
The Doctor went to stand only to be forced back down by the handcuff on his wrist connected with the Stones looped around a pipe connected to a radiator. "Well, that's much better." The Doctor muttered. "Brand new me. Whack on the head, just what I needed."
"You could have asked me, sweetheart, I could just hit you myself." She grinned at him as the Doctor blinked looking at her and the policewoman, he stopped to narrow his eyes at her.
"You hit my wife!"
"Do you two want to shut up now?" She snapped at them. "I've got back up on the way."
"Hang on, no, wait. You're a policewoman." The Doctor frowned.
"And you're breaking and entering. You see how this works?"
"But what are you doing here?" He questioned.
"Where's Amelia?" The Stone asked frowning slightly there was something about the policewoman that reminded her of Amelia... but what...
"Amelia Pond?" She questioned.
"Yeah, Amelia." The Stone nodded.
"Little Scottish girl. Where is she?" The Doctor asked.
"We 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."
"How long?" The Stone asked studying the woman.
"Six months."
"No. No. No. No, we can't be six months late. We said five minutes. I promised her." She groaned pinching the bridge of her nose.
"What happened to her?" The Doctor asked. "What happened to Amelia Pond?"
The policewoman turned around facing away from them. "Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up. They know something about Amelia Pond." She whispered making the Stone even more suspicious of the woman.
"We need to speak to whoever lives in this house right now." The Doctor demanded.
"I live here."
"But you're the police."
"Yes, and this is where I live." She protested. "Have you got a problem with that?"
"How many rooms?" The Stone looked at the woman dead in the eye.
"I'm sorry, what?" She blinked at the Stone.
"On this floor." The Doctor cut in. "How many rooms on this floor? Count them for us now."
"Why?"
"Because it will change your life."
"Five." She said pointing to each of them. "One, two, three, four, five."
"Six." Both the Time Lords stated.
"Six?" She raised a brow at them.
"Look." The Stone said her gaze shifting on the door neither her or the Doctor noticed before. She was too worried about him to notice. That and she hit her head in the TARDIS when they crashed.
"Look where?" The policewoman asked.
"Exactly where you don't want to look." The Doctor said. "Where you never want to look. The corner of your eye."
"Look behind you."
Slowly the woman looked at her eyes widening when they landed on the door at the end of the corridor. "That's, that is not possible. How's that possible?"
"There's a perception filter all round the door." The Stone answered. "I Sensed it the last time we were here. Should've seen it but I was too worried about you sweetheart." She looked at the Doctor.
"I should have sensed it as well but still not everything is working."
"But that's a whole room." The woman gaped. "That's a whole room I've never even noticed."
"The filter stops you noticing." The Doctor explained. "Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding, and you need to uncuff us now."
"I don't have the key." She said slowly moving closer to the door. "I lost it."
"How can you have lost it?"
"Stay away from that door!" The Stone shouted.
"Do not touch that door! Listen to me, do not open that." The Doctor shouted. "Why does no-one ever listen to us? Do we just have those faces that nobody listens to?" He groaned.
"Honestly I think it's because you're rude." The Stone muttered.
"Again. My screwdriver, where is it?" The Doctor dived into his pockets trying to find it while the Stone looked into hers to find her sonic before she froze her eyes widening. "Oh dear..."
"What?" The Doctor looked at her.
"It appears that my sonic was in my blazer... which is in the TARDIS..."
"Why can I not find my screwdriver?" The Doctor said after rolling his eyes at the Time Lady. "Silver thing, blue at the end," he asked the policewoman. "Where did it go?
"There's nothing here."
"Whatever's there stopped you seeing the room. What makes you think you could see it? Now please, just get out."
"Silver, blue at the end?" The policewoman asked.
"My screwdriver, yeah."
"It's here."
"Must have rolled under the door."
"Yeah. Must have." She replied before adding only to make the Stones eyes widen further. "And then it must have jumped up on the table."
"Get out of there!" She shouted. Get out of there! Get out!"
"Get out of there!" The Doctor now shouted at her before he stopped and frowned. "What is it?"
"There's nothing here, but-"
"Corner of your eye." He reminded her.
"What is it?"
"Don't try to see it." The Stone told her.
"If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you." The Doctor said making the Stone groan at him. As if that would help! "Don't look at it. Do not look."
They waited for a moment hearing nothing before they heard the high pitched scream of the policewoman a moment before they both shouted. "Get out!" She then ran over to the Time Lords. "Give me that." The Doctor ordered taking the sonic flashing it at the door to lock it then flashed it at the cuffs trying to free himself and the Stone. "Come on." He groaned. "What's the bad alien done to you?"
"Will that door hold it?" The policewoman asked.
"Oh, yeah, yeah, of course." He sarcastically nodded. "It's an interdimensional multiform from outer space. They're all terrified of wood." he deadpanned.
"What's that?" She asked staring at the glowing light now under the door. "What's it doing?"
"I don't know. Getting dressed?" He guessed. "Run. Just go. Your back up's coming. We'll be fine."
"There is no backup."
"We heard you on the radio." The Stone looked at her. "You called for back up."
"I was pretending." She looked at them. "It's a pretend radio."
"You're a policewoman." The Doctor pointed out.
"I'm a kissogram!" She shouted taking her cap off letting her long red hair fall.
"Oh dear..." The Stone looked at her having an idea of exactly who it was. Suddenly the door fell down to reveal a workman in overalls, toolbelt and a black dog.
"But it's just-"
"No, it isn't." The Doctor cut in. "Look at the faces."
She stared at the faces frowning when the dog barked but didn't more. She then looked to see that the man was barking.
"What? I'm sorry, but what?" She looked at it confused.
"It's all one creature." The Doctor explained. "One creature disguised as two."
"Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though." The Stone raised a brow. "You got the voice a bit muddled, did you? But where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?"
Suddenly the man opened his mouth to reveal large teeth. He then started to slowly move forward. "Stay, boy!" The Doctor ordered. "Her and us, we're safe. Want to know why?"
"She sent for back up." The Stone cut in while the Doctor nodded.
"I didn't send for back-up!" She shouted.
"I know. That was a clever lie that wasn't so clever. I did it to save our lives." She groaned.
"Okay, yeah, no backup. And that's why we're safe." The Doctor nodded. "Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had back up, you'd have to kill us."