FIC: Aimless (4/?)
Category: Fanfiction
Title: Aimless (4/?)
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters/Pairing: Rory/Eleven
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Slash, blatant abuse of science, AU
Spoilers: Possible mentions of all early Series 5 episodes
Word Count: 2,861
Chapter Summary: The Doctor isn't there and Rory remembers the Doctor being there.
A/N: So I'm still freaking out over Let's Kill Hitler (fantastic episode, even if it was a little light on plot). I had a huge freak-out moment during the scene where Amy calls Rory gay because... Well, you'll find out in a later chapter. ;D Anyway, to celebrate the return of our favorite show, here's chapter four! Sorry if there's not much plot, but there really wasn't a good place to break for the end of the chapter. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 3
Time passes. With each hour that the Doctor’s gone, Rory finds that he remembers more and more, though he hadn’t even realized that he actually remembered any of it. Most of the memories are little things, nothing of any actual value. He wakes up with his head back in the Doctor’s lap more than once. They speak little.
Three hours go by, and Rory’s alone again. The Doctor’s only been gone for about ten minutes or so, but it feels like forever. Wryly, Rory remembers thinking the same thing more than fifteen years ago.
He very nearly groans aloud when he feels that pulling sensation, but then he’s standing in his living room, staring up at his father.
“In bed at eight,” Dad growls. “Got it? I don’t want to come home to see you on the couch watching scary movies.”
“I’ll be in bed,” Rory promises. “Don’t worry.”
“There’s leftover pizza in the fridge,” Dad adds. “You know how to heat it up.”
Rory nods. “I’ll be fine, Dad. Really, don’t worry about me.”
Dad gives him a small smile and ruffles his hair. “I’m always gonna worry about you, Rory. Now come on, give your dad a hug.” He holds his arms out, and Rory quickly wraps his arms around his father’s waist. He feels a light pat on his back, and he pulls away.
“Bed at eight,” Dad reminds him on his way to the door.
“I know,” Rory says with a small roll of his eyes.
“Lock the door behind me!”
“I will, Dad.”
“And don’t open the door to strangers!”
“Dad! I know!” Rory shakes his head. “I’m seven now. I’m not a little kid.”
Dad laughs at that. “Sure, Rory. Whatever makes you happy.” And with that, he pulls the door shut. Rory quickly locks the door behind him, then hurries over to the window to peer through. He sees Dad get in the car, hears it rumble to life, and then watches as it putters down the street. He waits until the tail lights disappear, then lets the curtains fall and tears through the house to the living room.
Ten minutes later, he’s seated on the couch with his feet on the coffee table, eating popcorn and watching the first scary movie he could find.
He’s so mesmerized by the movie that when the crash comes, he can’t help the little yelp that escapes his mouth. Popcorn goes flying through the air, peppering the ground. For a moment, he sits on the couch, staring in horror at the floor (how in the name of God is he going to clean that up before Dad gets home?), and then he realizes that he should probably be more concerned with what’s going on outside.
He glances nervously at the telly. What if it’s like the aliens in the movie? Maybe they crashed in his backyard and they’re going to turn him into one of them? The man on the screen has a gun in his hand as he goes to approach the aliens. Rory knows that Dad doesn’t keep guns in the house, but he does know where he can find a water pistol.
He rushes upstairs to grab it, quickly fills it in the bathroom sink, and then hurries back downstairs. He glances out the window in the back door and swallows hard before unlocking it and slipping into the backyard.
There's smoke coming from where the shed is. Rory walks up slowly, his hand clutched tightly around the water pistol. He steps slowly into the garden...
And sees that the shed has been destroyed. By a large blue box that says "police".
And then a man pops out of the top.
He has wild hair and crazy eyes, and something tells Rory that he's insane, but he can't help taking a step forward. The man doesn't seem to notice him at first. Not until he steps around to the front of the box. Then the man looks at him and asks, "Have you got any apples? It’s all I can think about, apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving! Oh, that's new, never had cravings before."
Rory's not quite sure what to think, so he just stares at the man for a long time, and then asks, "Who are you?"
"Not a clue!" the man grunts as he shoves himself up and hauls himself over the edge of the box. He lands in a clumsy heap on the ground in front of where the shed used to be. His clothes are tattered-his shirt is ripped, his tie is ragged, and his pants have holes in them.
Rory is very confused.
"Are you a policeman?" he asks finally, because it would make sense. How else would he have a box that says 'police' on it?
"No, no, not me." The man shakes his head. "I'm not police, that's ridiculous. I'm the Doctor. Now, do you have any apples?"
"Dad said not to let strangers in the house," Rory says, suddenly recalling that particular fact.
"Am I strange?" the man-the Doctor-asks.
"Yes," Rory answers.
"Good." The Doctor grins. "I would hate to be ordinary. Ordinary's boring. Now I'd really like an apple, if you don't mind."
The man seems harmless enough-you know, except for the broken shed-so Rory leads him inside and he waits patiently enough for Rory to dig an apple out of the fruit basket on the counter. The Doctor takes it, bites in, and promptly spits apple out all over the floor.
“What’d you do that for?” Rory protests. “Now I’ve gotta clean that up!”
“What is that?” the Doctor demands.
“It’s an apple!” Rory exclaims indignantly. “You said you love apples!”
“Nope, apples are rubbish.” The Doctor takes a moment to consider something, and then says, “Give me yogurt, yogurt’s my favorite.”
Yogurt doesn’t work either.
So they try bacon, and beans, and bread and butter. Nothing seems to please this man, and Rory pulls the fridge door open with a sigh. “We haven’t got much else,” he says with a glance back at the Doctor. “There’s carrots, but I don’t know, you probably won’t like those either…”
“Carrots?” The Doctor stares at him like he’s mad, though Rory’s fairly certain that he’s got that backwards. “No, no, hang on, I know what I need.” With a light push he gets Rory out of the way and pulls the freezer open. “I need... fish fingers, and custard.” He turns and grins.
Soon they’re sitting at the kitchen table, Rory eating ice cream and the Doctor digging into his fish fingers and custard. Rory tries his best to look skeptical, but it’s hard not to think that the strange man in his kitchen eating fish custard isn’t a little funny, so he can’t help the small smile that spreads over his face.
“What?” the Doctor asks indignantly.
“Nothing.” Rory wipes at his face hurriedly with the sleeve of his shirt and adds, quickly, “You’re just funny, is all.”
“Am I?” The Doctor smiles. “Good. Funny’s good.” He takes another bite of the fish finger in his hand. “So, then, what’s your name?”
“Rory,” he answers. “Rory Williams.”
“Rory Williams.” The Doctor says his name like he’s trying on a new pair of shoes and needs to know if they’ll work or not. “Good name. There are better, but that’s a good one. So, Rory Williams, where’s your mum and dad?”
“Dad’s out,” Rory says, hoping he can just avoid the subject of his mum. People at school keep asking questions about his mum. Adam Riley says it’s Rory’s fault Mum left, because he’s weird and she didn’t want a weirdo for a son, but everyone knows Adam Riley’s just a big bully, so Rory tries not to let it get to him.
“What about your mum?” the Doctor asks.
Rory bites the inside of his cheek before answering quietly, “She left. She lives in London now. I only see her on my birthday.”
“That so. Sorry ‘bout that.” Rory ducks his head and stares into the ice cream, trying to ignore the Doctor’s stare. “You’re home by yourself, then? All alone?”
“I’m not scared,” Rory says quickly. “I was watching a scary movie all by myself and I didn’t even get scared.”
“No, ‘course you’re not scared,” the Doctor says with a grin. “How old are you, Rory?”
“Seven,” Rory answers. He tries to keep the pride out of his voice but he’s really very happy. He’s only been seven for about a month, but it’s ages before most of the other kids at school, so he’s older than all of them. Even if they aren’t very nice to him, at least he can say he’s older.
“Practically all grown up.” The Doctor wipes custard off his face. “But come on, then, man in a blue box falls out of the sky, destroys your shed, eats fish custard... Nothing scary about that?”
“I’ve seen scarier things,” says Rory in what he hopes is a worldly tone, like he’s seen all sorts of things the Doctor would never believe.
“That so?” The Doctor pops an eyebrow. “Like what, may I ask?”
Rory opens his mouth, but has to pause to think. He’s not sure the movie he was watching really counts, because to be honest, it wasn’t really that scary at all. It was more silly than anything else. Still, there has to be something. And then it hits him.
“The crack in my wall,” he blurts, before he can stop himself.
The Doctor looks surprised. “What crack?”
“In my bedroom wall,” Rory says, and he tries to hide a blush. When he told Dad about the crack, he’d scoffed and told Rory, “You’re seven years old now, you can’t be scared of something as silly as a crack in your wall.”
“There’s a crack in your wall, eh?” The Doctor doesn’t look like he’s going to tell Rory that it’s silly to be scared of a crack. Rory’s surprised by that, because when he called Mum on Saturday like he always does, she told him it was silly to be scared of a crack, too, and usually Mum tells him to be brave and stand up to whatever’s scaring him. Of course, usually it’s just Adam Riley, and not a stupid crack. “What’s so scary about the crack, then?” the Doctor asks.
Rory looks down at his ice cream. “Sometimes,” he mumbles, “it almost sounds like there’s voices coming from it. At night, when no one else is awake, so only I can hear it.” He looks up. “It wouldn’t be scary if it was in a movie. It’s just... it’s real.”
“Well, then, Rory Williams,” says the Doctor, and his grin returns. “Let’s go check out that crack, shall we?”
---
The Doctor seems to find the crack in his wall extremely interesting. He’s got something with a blue light on the end out and is pointing it at the crack. Rory stands back and watches nervously, chewing on his bottom lip.
“What’s that you’ve got?” he asks finally.
“A screwdriver,” the Doctor answers.
Rory frowns. “That’s not a screwdriver. Screwdrivers have... you know... things on the end.”
“This has got a thing on the end!” the Doctor protests, pointing to the blue light.
“Well, yeah, but…” Rory shrugs. “Screwdrivers have different things. Not like that.”
“Well, it’s sonic,” says the Doctor defensively. He seems rather fond of his screwdriver. He turns back to the crack.
“What’s that mean?” Rory asks with another frown.
“It makes a noise and...” The Doctor hesitates. “Stuff. It’s complicated.”
“That’s what all the grown-ups say,” Rory grumbles as he sits down on his bed. He watches the Doctor for a little longer. Finally, he asks, “Do you know what it is, yet? The crack, I mean.”
“It’s a solid wall, but the crack doesn’t go all the way through,” the Doctor muses to himself, ignoring Rory. “Two parts of space and time that should never have touched,” he murmurs. He presses his ear to the wall with a frown. “There’s a voice on the other side. ‘Prisoner Zero-’”
“-has escaped,” Rory finishes. “That’s what it always says. I dunno what it means, though.”
“It means that on the other side of this wall, there’s a prison. And they’ve lose a prisoner.” The Doctor glances over at him. “Can you always hear it, Rory?”
Rory shakes his head. “Usually only at night, when no one else is around. Dad didn’t believe me when I told him, so I don’t say anything about it anymore.” He glances past the Doctor to the crack. “He paid someone to come fix it, but it just came back. He thinks I did it.”
“Well, there’s one thing we can be sure about,” the Doctor says as he steps away from the crack. “You most certainly did not do this.”
“Can you fix it?” Rory asks him.
The Doctor hesitates, then says, “You know when grown-ups tell you ‘everything’s gonna be fine’, and you think they’re probably lying to make you feel better?”
Rory feels a slight spark of fear. “Yeah, why?”
“Everything’s gonna be fine," the Doctor says with a smile. He holds out a hand toward Rory. He hesitates, but takes it. The Doctor’s hands are cool and calloused, but at the same time soft, and strong enough to make Rory think that maybe there’s a little spark of truth in his statement of “everything’s gonna be fine.”
The Doctor gently pulls Rory off the bed and behind him, then raises the hand holding the screwdriver, points it at the crack, and presses down a button.
Rory lets out a startled squeak of fear when, suddenly, the crack opens even wider. He clutches the Doctor’s hand tighter and the Doctor glances down at him and flashes him a quick smile before turning back to the crack. Well, ‘gaping hole’ might be more accurate.
“Hello?” the Doctor calls. “Anybody there?”
Suddenly, a large eye appears on the other side of the hole. Rory’s eyes widen, and, without thinking, his other hand comes up and clutches at the Doctor’s sleeve. The eye stares at them for a moment or two, and then a small light shoots out at the Doctor and the crack seals. The Doctor stumbles and lands on the bed and Rory is pulled with him.
“See?” the Doctor grins. “Told you everything would be fine.”
“What was that?” Rory asks fearfully.
“Prisoner Zero’s guard, I’m guessing.” The Doctor lets go of Rory's hand and reaches into his pocket to dig something out. “And it sent us a message.” He holds up a piece of blank paper. “Psychic paper,” he says with a grin. He glances at the paper then and frowns. “’Prisoner Zero has escaped.’ But why would they tell us that? Unless...”
“Unless what?”
The Doctor glances up. “Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here.”
“Through my room?” Rory asks with wide eyes.
The Doctor ignores the question and steps out into the hallway. “I’m missing something,” he murmurs. “Something... In the corner of my eye...” He slowly turns his head...
BONG.
Rory jumps, and the Doctor blinks in surprise. The sound comes again.
The Doctor’s eyes widen. “No, no, no, no, no!” He turns and races down the stairs. Rory follows as quickly as he can, but it’s hard enough to keep up with grown-ups when they’re walking, let alone sprinting.
He follows the Doctor all the way out to the backyard. “The engines are phasing!” the Doctor shouts. “I’ve gotta get back in there or she’s gonna blow!” He rushes over to the box that destroyed the shed and starts looking around frantically.
“Engines?” Rory echoes. “How can it have engines? It’s only a box, isn’t it?”
“No, no, it’s much more than that.” The Doctor grabs a hose off the ground and throws it over one of the doors to the box, then the other. He looks over at Rory, then. “I’ll be back,” he promises. “Five minutes. Just five minutes, I promise.”
“Can’t I come with you?” Rory asks quietly. He doesn’t want to stay. Why would he want to stay in Leadworth when he could go with the Doctor? The wild, crazy, exciting, brilliant Doctor.
“No, no, it’s not safe yet,” the Doctor says with a shake of his head. “Five minutes. I promise, I’ll be there.”
“That’s what Mum said,” Rory can’t stop himself from mumbling. “About my birthday.”
The Doctor hesitates, and then comes over and kneels down in front of him. “Rory Williams,” he murmurs. “I will be back. I promise you that. Don’t you worry. It’ll just be five minutes.” He ruffles Rory’s hair and then stands up. He climbs up to sit on the edge of the box, glances over his shoulder, gives Rory a wink, and then shouts, “Geronimo!” and plunges into the box. The doors, pulled by the hose, swing shut behind him.
Slowly, with a noise Rory can’t describe, the box fades out of view until it’s completely gone. Normally, he would be quite astonished, but he’s seen so much tonight that he doesn’t even bother wasting his time with that. Instead, he sits down with a sigh and waits.
Chapter 5
Title: Aimless (4/?)
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters/Pairing: Rory/Eleven
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Slash, blatant abuse of science, AU
Spoilers: Possible mentions of all early Series 5 episodes
Word Count: 2,861
Chapter Summary: The Doctor isn't there and Rory remembers the Doctor being there.
A/N: So I'm still freaking out over Let's Kill Hitler (fantastic episode, even if it was a little light on plot). I had a huge freak-out moment during the scene where Amy calls Rory gay because... Well, you'll find out in a later chapter. ;D Anyway, to celebrate the return of our favorite show, here's chapter four! Sorry if there's not much plot, but there really wasn't a good place to break for the end of the chapter. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 3
Time passes. With each hour that the Doctor’s gone, Rory finds that he remembers more and more, though he hadn’t even realized that he actually remembered any of it. Most of the memories are little things, nothing of any actual value. He wakes up with his head back in the Doctor’s lap more than once. They speak little.
Three hours go by, and Rory’s alone again. The Doctor’s only been gone for about ten minutes or so, but it feels like forever. Wryly, Rory remembers thinking the same thing more than fifteen years ago.
He very nearly groans aloud when he feels that pulling sensation, but then he’s standing in his living room, staring up at his father.
“In bed at eight,” Dad growls. “Got it? I don’t want to come home to see you on the couch watching scary movies.”
“I’ll be in bed,” Rory promises. “Don’t worry.”
“There’s leftover pizza in the fridge,” Dad adds. “You know how to heat it up.”
Rory nods. “I’ll be fine, Dad. Really, don’t worry about me.”
Dad gives him a small smile and ruffles his hair. “I’m always gonna worry about you, Rory. Now come on, give your dad a hug.” He holds his arms out, and Rory quickly wraps his arms around his father’s waist. He feels a light pat on his back, and he pulls away.
“Bed at eight,” Dad reminds him on his way to the door.
“I know,” Rory says with a small roll of his eyes.
“Lock the door behind me!”
“I will, Dad.”
“And don’t open the door to strangers!”
“Dad! I know!” Rory shakes his head. “I’m seven now. I’m not a little kid.”
Dad laughs at that. “Sure, Rory. Whatever makes you happy.” And with that, he pulls the door shut. Rory quickly locks the door behind him, then hurries over to the window to peer through. He sees Dad get in the car, hears it rumble to life, and then watches as it putters down the street. He waits until the tail lights disappear, then lets the curtains fall and tears through the house to the living room.
Ten minutes later, he’s seated on the couch with his feet on the coffee table, eating popcorn and watching the first scary movie he could find.
He’s so mesmerized by the movie that when the crash comes, he can’t help the little yelp that escapes his mouth. Popcorn goes flying through the air, peppering the ground. For a moment, he sits on the couch, staring in horror at the floor (how in the name of God is he going to clean that up before Dad gets home?), and then he realizes that he should probably be more concerned with what’s going on outside.
He glances nervously at the telly. What if it’s like the aliens in the movie? Maybe they crashed in his backyard and they’re going to turn him into one of them? The man on the screen has a gun in his hand as he goes to approach the aliens. Rory knows that Dad doesn’t keep guns in the house, but he does know where he can find a water pistol.
He rushes upstairs to grab it, quickly fills it in the bathroom sink, and then hurries back downstairs. He glances out the window in the back door and swallows hard before unlocking it and slipping into the backyard.
There's smoke coming from where the shed is. Rory walks up slowly, his hand clutched tightly around the water pistol. He steps slowly into the garden...
And sees that the shed has been destroyed. By a large blue box that says "police".
And then a man pops out of the top.
He has wild hair and crazy eyes, and something tells Rory that he's insane, but he can't help taking a step forward. The man doesn't seem to notice him at first. Not until he steps around to the front of the box. Then the man looks at him and asks, "Have you got any apples? It’s all I can think about, apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving! Oh, that's new, never had cravings before."
Rory's not quite sure what to think, so he just stares at the man for a long time, and then asks, "Who are you?"
"Not a clue!" the man grunts as he shoves himself up and hauls himself over the edge of the box. He lands in a clumsy heap on the ground in front of where the shed used to be. His clothes are tattered-his shirt is ripped, his tie is ragged, and his pants have holes in them.
Rory is very confused.
"Are you a policeman?" he asks finally, because it would make sense. How else would he have a box that says 'police' on it?
"No, no, not me." The man shakes his head. "I'm not police, that's ridiculous. I'm the Doctor. Now, do you have any apples?"
"Dad said not to let strangers in the house," Rory says, suddenly recalling that particular fact.
"Am I strange?" the man-the Doctor-asks.
"Yes," Rory answers.
"Good." The Doctor grins. "I would hate to be ordinary. Ordinary's boring. Now I'd really like an apple, if you don't mind."
The man seems harmless enough-you know, except for the broken shed-so Rory leads him inside and he waits patiently enough for Rory to dig an apple out of the fruit basket on the counter. The Doctor takes it, bites in, and promptly spits apple out all over the floor.
“What’d you do that for?” Rory protests. “Now I’ve gotta clean that up!”
“What is that?” the Doctor demands.
“It’s an apple!” Rory exclaims indignantly. “You said you love apples!”
“Nope, apples are rubbish.” The Doctor takes a moment to consider something, and then says, “Give me yogurt, yogurt’s my favorite.”
Yogurt doesn’t work either.
So they try bacon, and beans, and bread and butter. Nothing seems to please this man, and Rory pulls the fridge door open with a sigh. “We haven’t got much else,” he says with a glance back at the Doctor. “There’s carrots, but I don’t know, you probably won’t like those either…”
“Carrots?” The Doctor stares at him like he’s mad, though Rory’s fairly certain that he’s got that backwards. “No, no, hang on, I know what I need.” With a light push he gets Rory out of the way and pulls the freezer open. “I need... fish fingers, and custard.” He turns and grins.
Soon they’re sitting at the kitchen table, Rory eating ice cream and the Doctor digging into his fish fingers and custard. Rory tries his best to look skeptical, but it’s hard not to think that the strange man in his kitchen eating fish custard isn’t a little funny, so he can’t help the small smile that spreads over his face.
“What?” the Doctor asks indignantly.
“Nothing.” Rory wipes at his face hurriedly with the sleeve of his shirt and adds, quickly, “You’re just funny, is all.”
“Am I?” The Doctor smiles. “Good. Funny’s good.” He takes another bite of the fish finger in his hand. “So, then, what’s your name?”
“Rory,” he answers. “Rory Williams.”
“Rory Williams.” The Doctor says his name like he’s trying on a new pair of shoes and needs to know if they’ll work or not. “Good name. There are better, but that’s a good one. So, Rory Williams, where’s your mum and dad?”
“Dad’s out,” Rory says, hoping he can just avoid the subject of his mum. People at school keep asking questions about his mum. Adam Riley says it’s Rory’s fault Mum left, because he’s weird and she didn’t want a weirdo for a son, but everyone knows Adam Riley’s just a big bully, so Rory tries not to let it get to him.
“What about your mum?” the Doctor asks.
Rory bites the inside of his cheek before answering quietly, “She left. She lives in London now. I only see her on my birthday.”
“That so. Sorry ‘bout that.” Rory ducks his head and stares into the ice cream, trying to ignore the Doctor’s stare. “You’re home by yourself, then? All alone?”
“I’m not scared,” Rory says quickly. “I was watching a scary movie all by myself and I didn’t even get scared.”
“No, ‘course you’re not scared,” the Doctor says with a grin. “How old are you, Rory?”
“Seven,” Rory answers. He tries to keep the pride out of his voice but he’s really very happy. He’s only been seven for about a month, but it’s ages before most of the other kids at school, so he’s older than all of them. Even if they aren’t very nice to him, at least he can say he’s older.
“Practically all grown up.” The Doctor wipes custard off his face. “But come on, then, man in a blue box falls out of the sky, destroys your shed, eats fish custard... Nothing scary about that?”
“I’ve seen scarier things,” says Rory in what he hopes is a worldly tone, like he’s seen all sorts of things the Doctor would never believe.
“That so?” The Doctor pops an eyebrow. “Like what, may I ask?”
Rory opens his mouth, but has to pause to think. He’s not sure the movie he was watching really counts, because to be honest, it wasn’t really that scary at all. It was more silly than anything else. Still, there has to be something. And then it hits him.
“The crack in my wall,” he blurts, before he can stop himself.
The Doctor looks surprised. “What crack?”
“In my bedroom wall,” Rory says, and he tries to hide a blush. When he told Dad about the crack, he’d scoffed and told Rory, “You’re seven years old now, you can’t be scared of something as silly as a crack in your wall.”
“There’s a crack in your wall, eh?” The Doctor doesn’t look like he’s going to tell Rory that it’s silly to be scared of a crack. Rory’s surprised by that, because when he called Mum on Saturday like he always does, she told him it was silly to be scared of a crack, too, and usually Mum tells him to be brave and stand up to whatever’s scaring him. Of course, usually it’s just Adam Riley, and not a stupid crack. “What’s so scary about the crack, then?” the Doctor asks.
Rory looks down at his ice cream. “Sometimes,” he mumbles, “it almost sounds like there’s voices coming from it. At night, when no one else is awake, so only I can hear it.” He looks up. “It wouldn’t be scary if it was in a movie. It’s just... it’s real.”
“Well, then, Rory Williams,” says the Doctor, and his grin returns. “Let’s go check out that crack, shall we?”
---
The Doctor seems to find the crack in his wall extremely interesting. He’s got something with a blue light on the end out and is pointing it at the crack. Rory stands back and watches nervously, chewing on his bottom lip.
“What’s that you’ve got?” he asks finally.
“A screwdriver,” the Doctor answers.
Rory frowns. “That’s not a screwdriver. Screwdrivers have... you know... things on the end.”
“This has got a thing on the end!” the Doctor protests, pointing to the blue light.
“Well, yeah, but…” Rory shrugs. “Screwdrivers have different things. Not like that.”
“Well, it’s sonic,” says the Doctor defensively. He seems rather fond of his screwdriver. He turns back to the crack.
“What’s that mean?” Rory asks with another frown.
“It makes a noise and...” The Doctor hesitates. “Stuff. It’s complicated.”
“That’s what all the grown-ups say,” Rory grumbles as he sits down on his bed. He watches the Doctor for a little longer. Finally, he asks, “Do you know what it is, yet? The crack, I mean.”
“It’s a solid wall, but the crack doesn’t go all the way through,” the Doctor muses to himself, ignoring Rory. “Two parts of space and time that should never have touched,” he murmurs. He presses his ear to the wall with a frown. “There’s a voice on the other side. ‘Prisoner Zero-’”
“-has escaped,” Rory finishes. “That’s what it always says. I dunno what it means, though.”
“It means that on the other side of this wall, there’s a prison. And they’ve lose a prisoner.” The Doctor glances over at him. “Can you always hear it, Rory?”
Rory shakes his head. “Usually only at night, when no one else is around. Dad didn’t believe me when I told him, so I don’t say anything about it anymore.” He glances past the Doctor to the crack. “He paid someone to come fix it, but it just came back. He thinks I did it.”
“Well, there’s one thing we can be sure about,” the Doctor says as he steps away from the crack. “You most certainly did not do this.”
“Can you fix it?” Rory asks him.
The Doctor hesitates, then says, “You know when grown-ups tell you ‘everything’s gonna be fine’, and you think they’re probably lying to make you feel better?”
Rory feels a slight spark of fear. “Yeah, why?”
“Everything’s gonna be fine," the Doctor says with a smile. He holds out a hand toward Rory. He hesitates, but takes it. The Doctor’s hands are cool and calloused, but at the same time soft, and strong enough to make Rory think that maybe there’s a little spark of truth in his statement of “everything’s gonna be fine.”
The Doctor gently pulls Rory off the bed and behind him, then raises the hand holding the screwdriver, points it at the crack, and presses down a button.
Rory lets out a startled squeak of fear when, suddenly, the crack opens even wider. He clutches the Doctor’s hand tighter and the Doctor glances down at him and flashes him a quick smile before turning back to the crack. Well, ‘gaping hole’ might be more accurate.
“Hello?” the Doctor calls. “Anybody there?”
Suddenly, a large eye appears on the other side of the hole. Rory’s eyes widen, and, without thinking, his other hand comes up and clutches at the Doctor’s sleeve. The eye stares at them for a moment or two, and then a small light shoots out at the Doctor and the crack seals. The Doctor stumbles and lands on the bed and Rory is pulled with him.
“See?” the Doctor grins. “Told you everything would be fine.”
“What was that?” Rory asks fearfully.
“Prisoner Zero’s guard, I’m guessing.” The Doctor lets go of Rory's hand and reaches into his pocket to dig something out. “And it sent us a message.” He holds up a piece of blank paper. “Psychic paper,” he says with a grin. He glances at the paper then and frowns. “’Prisoner Zero has escaped.’ But why would they tell us that? Unless...”
“Unless what?”
The Doctor glances up. “Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here.”
“Through my room?” Rory asks with wide eyes.
The Doctor ignores the question and steps out into the hallway. “I’m missing something,” he murmurs. “Something... In the corner of my eye...” He slowly turns his head...
BONG.
Rory jumps, and the Doctor blinks in surprise. The sound comes again.
The Doctor’s eyes widen. “No, no, no, no, no!” He turns and races down the stairs. Rory follows as quickly as he can, but it’s hard enough to keep up with grown-ups when they’re walking, let alone sprinting.
He follows the Doctor all the way out to the backyard. “The engines are phasing!” the Doctor shouts. “I’ve gotta get back in there or she’s gonna blow!” He rushes over to the box that destroyed the shed and starts looking around frantically.
“Engines?” Rory echoes. “How can it have engines? It’s only a box, isn’t it?”
“No, no, it’s much more than that.” The Doctor grabs a hose off the ground and throws it over one of the doors to the box, then the other. He looks over at Rory, then. “I’ll be back,” he promises. “Five minutes. Just five minutes, I promise.”
“Can’t I come with you?” Rory asks quietly. He doesn’t want to stay. Why would he want to stay in Leadworth when he could go with the Doctor? The wild, crazy, exciting, brilliant Doctor.
“No, no, it’s not safe yet,” the Doctor says with a shake of his head. “Five minutes. I promise, I’ll be there.”
“That’s what Mum said,” Rory can’t stop himself from mumbling. “About my birthday.”
The Doctor hesitates, and then comes over and kneels down in front of him. “Rory Williams,” he murmurs. “I will be back. I promise you that. Don’t you worry. It’ll just be five minutes.” He ruffles Rory’s hair and then stands up. He climbs up to sit on the edge of the box, glances over his shoulder, gives Rory a wink, and then shouts, “Geronimo!” and plunges into the box. The doors, pulled by the hose, swing shut behind him.
Slowly, with a noise Rory can’t describe, the box fades out of view until it’s completely gone. Normally, he would be quite astonished, but he’s seen so much tonight that he doesn’t even bother wasting his time with that. Instead, he sits down with a sigh and waits.
Chapter 5