Eighty Years and Counting by Emachinescat

A Doctor Who and Hardy Boys Crossover Fan-Fiction

SUMMARY: The Doctor, Amy, and Rory find themselves in a place called Bayport where time has stopped but crime hasn't, and where the residents look to two teenagers for answers every time something goes wrong.

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A/N: I thought this might be amusing. This demanded to be written, so of course I had to forfeit my soul to the plot bunnies until I got it out here. :) Ever wonder why Frank and Joe Hardy have been teenagers for over eighty years, solved hundreds of mysteries, and yet never grow a year older? The Doctor has, and now, he's about to do some investigating of his own… the TARDIS is coming to Bayport, yo! ;) Enjoy and please REVIEW! (This will be a 3-parter)

Eighty Years and Counting

Part One: 1931

"Here we are!" the Doctor declared, slinging open the Tardis's doors with a flourish and taking a bounding step into the bright noon sunlight. "Bayport, Massachusetts, United States, North America, Earth,1931! And it's a Tuesday; I quite like Tuesdays, so much better than Sundays!"

Amy Pond and her fiancé, Rory Williams followed their quirky Time Lord friend out of the blue police box and glanced around curiously. The neighborhood they were in looked like your typical American apple-pie town, exactly what you'd expect to see in the suburbs. The houses mid-sized, mostly white, with an occasional vintage car parked in a flower-lined driveway. It was midday and seemed to be winter, seeing as the lack of children playing out in neatly manicured lawns and the frosty bite to the air. It was calm and peaceful. Quaint.

The kind of life that Rory had always dreamed of – albeit in his own time – and that the Doctor found positively boring. Which led to the question of –

"Why are we here, Doctor?" Amy asked bluntly as they followed the Doctor as he strutted down "Elm Street" like he owned the place, long fingers curled instinctively around his sonic screwdriver, eyes wide and curious as he looked around him. He seemed to be searching for something.

The Doctor turned around, still moving, now walking backwards as he answered. "What? A man can't just decide to take a nice stroll through the American 1930s? The suburbs… ah! Now there's the place to be. You've got… well, there's…" He looked around, trying to find some perk of being in a town that, at the moment, looked to him even more boring than Leadsworth, and that was saying something. He finally sighed in defeat and conceded,"Alright, Pond, you're right, it's all apple pie and sweet tea and lemonade here. It's too perfect, to predictable, and far, far too boring."

"So why are we here then?" Rory called, hurrying to catch up to his friends.

The Doctor finally stopped walking right as Rory was about to catch up. The two stood, nearly nose to nose, the Doctor studying Rory as if he'd only just seen him. "Come on, Rory, think about it. America. 1930s. What's going on in the early 1930s… or rather, what isn't going on?"

Rory closed his eyes briefly. "Um, uh… the Great Depression?" he answered, then when the Doctor didn't contradict him, he became more confident. "The Great Depression!"

The Doctor stared at him for a few more seconds before abruptly turning on his heel, clicking his sonic screwdriver as he did so. "Exactly!" he crowed as his screwdriver chirped, renting the peaceful quiet of the town. "The Great Depression, one of the most terrible times in America's history. Thousands of people lost their jobs due to stock market crashes, people lost their homes, their livelihoods, and some…" his voice grew grave, "…some couldn't take it. Some…"

"Took their own lives," Amy finished solemnly. "I remember this from school, but I still don't see what that has to do with why we're here. This is a good, safe place by the looks of it. No poverty. What's wrong?"

The Doctor was now scanning the area with his screwdriver, increasing his pace as the readings got stronger. "The Great Depression affected all of America in some way. No one was 'safe' from it. So why does this place look like it's straight out of the 1920s? We're at the heart of the Depression, and there are no traces of it. It's like something's protecting it…"

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Rory reasoned.

"Maybe," the Doctor conceded, having stopped at a big, white house sitting at the corner of High and Elm Street. Neither of his companions could tell any difference about the readings of the sonic screwdriver, but the Doctor seemed to believe that this was where it had been leading them. "But, good or not, it doesn't make sense. Why is this tiny little town in Massachusetts spared from the hardship of the rest of the country? Just a state away, thousands of people are homeless and living in shantytowns in Central Park, starving to death…" His face was grave. "I was there, you know. Central Park, Hooverville. Stopped some Daleks, got electrocuted. Same old stuff."

The shadow over his young-looking face melted away and he grinned. "Now, come along, Ponds; let's find out what's keeping little ole Bayport from the big bad Depression."

Laura Hardy was making an apple pie, puttering around the kitchen and humming, when there was a knock on the door. Brow furrowing slightly in confusion, the blonde, petite woman wondered who would be calling at this time of day. Hoping that her husband or sons hadn't gotten involved in something dangerous, she wiped her flour-covered hands on her apron and walked to the front door. The sight that greeted her on the other side of the threshold was certainly unexpected and very, very odd.

"Hullo!" said the man in the middle, grinning brightly, his hazel eyes darting around his surroundings, taking in everything. To most people, it would look as if he were just glancing around aimlessly, but Laura had seen the same intelligent gleam in his eyes that often graced Fenton's or the boys'. He was observing while trying to look like he was not observing, and that might have worked if Laura's husband hadn't been on the police force and then turned private investigator with their two sons following closely in his footsteps. Still, the young man didn't seem to have ill intent, he just looked curious and quite happy.

He had brown hair that was longer than was the style, the fringe of his bangs just brushing his eyebrows. Intelligent green eyes absorbed all the details around him and he had a strong nose and chin. He was a handsome man, probably in his twenties, so a few years older than her boys, and he wore a sharp tweed jacket, slacks, and a bright red bowtie.

He was flanked by a man and a woman. The girl was pretty, with the reddest hair Laura had ever come across, freckles, and a round face lit up by bright green eyes and full, smiling lips. She wore a skirt that was much too short and Laura resisted the almost motherly urge to tell her to put some clothes on or she'd freeze in the chilly February air. The man had brown eyes, a rather large nose, and blonde hair. He, too, looked nice enough and was wearing clothes that were a bit more reasonable for this weather.

The man in the middle smiled even wider as she gave him a not-exactly-suspicious-but-I-live-with-detectives-so-I'm-going-to-keep-my-eye-on-you look and offered a quick, "Hello?" as a reply.

"Lovely place," the man said. "Lots of… flowers and walls and things. Very… house-y." His eyes were still darting around and by the distracted tone of his voice and the way he kept glancing past her into the entrance way, she realized that he was itching to take a look inside, for whatever reason. She also observed that he spoke with a British accent, so he wasn't from around here.

"Who are you?" Laura asked, not inviting him inside just yet and trying to figure out just what he wanted.

"I'm the Doctor!" the young man replied, grinning madly and straightening his bowtie.

"Doctor who, exactly?" Laura asked, quirking an eyebrow in the skeptical way perfected by only the most skilled mothers.

"The Doctor" shifted his weight like he was full of unreleased energy, put his gangly hands in his pockets, and said, "Just the Doctor."

Laura's other eyebrow joined the first as she gave him an incredulous look. "Your name… is 'the Doctor'?"

Under her mother-ish scrutiny, the Doctor almost squirmed, much to the obvious amusement of his companions. She finally decided to go with it. Having a houseful of detectives had taught her that often one didn't want to or simply couldn't go by their true name, although if she was hiding from someone or trying to blend in, she would choose something a little more inconspicuous, like John Smith, but to each their own, she supposed.

"I'm Amy," the red-head offered and her accent was different as well, from both Laura's and the Doctor's. "And that's Rory."

Laura offered a quick hello before deciding that she might as well find out why they were here. She assumed that it was to see her husband, who already had a client at the moment and was off in another town working a case. "Are you here to see Fenton?" she asked bluntly.

The man nodded. "Fenton. Yes, of course, is he here? I can just pop in and say hello…"

Laura found she didn't quite believe him.

"Actually, he's on a case at the moment. Out of town. You'll have to come back some other time. Or," she added, "you could tell me why you're really here and I can see if there's anything I or my sons can do to help you. They're amateur detectives," she supplied proudly.

The Doctor cocked his head and regarded Laura for a long time before asking, "What's your name?"

"Laura," the woman replied, realizing that she'd never introduced herself. "Laura Hardy."

"Hardy, Hardy, Hardy…" the Doctor was tapping the side of his hand with one long finger, pacing as much as he could on the doorstep, and seemed to be wracking his brain. "Why does that name sound so familiar?"

If he didn't even know who they were, why was it that they were here? Laura regarded the man with a bit more suspicion this time and said, "Perhaps you've heard of my husband, Fenton? He's pretty well-known around here."

"Fenton Hardy, Fenton Hardy, Fenton… Think-think-think-think!" he ordered himself. He rounded on his friends. "Amy, Rory – Hardy: does it ring any bells?"

Amy shrugged as Laura looked on in confusion. "No," she said. "Should it?"

The Doctor turned to Rory. "Mr. Pond?" he prompted.

"Sorry, no idea."

Finally the Doctor's head snapped up and he whisked some identification out and showed it to Laura, who started at what she saw. Apparently he was Chief Collig's newest officer, having started the force yesterday. "Sorry, I just had to make sure you knew who you were," he informed her with a straight face and Laura had no idea if he was serious or not. "Chief sent me here to check out a possible threat in your house immediately. You're clearly not an imposter, so you can go… do something while we check things out."

Without another word, he quickly sidestepped past the confused woman, darted through the house as if he knew where he was going, and retreated into the basement. After a moment of silence, the man named Rory stammered, "S-sorry. He… does that. A lot."

Awkward silence reigned. Then there was a loud "Ah-ha!" from below, and the Doctor was darting back to the first floor, this time with a look of excitement on his face. "Oooh, yes!" he practically crowed. "It all makes sense now! I knew something wasn't right about the time; the fact that no one here's been affected by the Great Depression was only the tip of the iceburg!"

Laura gave him an odd look. "We've been lucky."

"No, you haven't, you've just been hidden! Oh, very clever; very clever! Nearly as clever as one of my ideas – almost. It's a rift!" he revealed, waving his gangly arms in a flourish. "A rift in time!"

"Like a crack?" Amy was instantly wary.

"Yes. Well, no. Weeell, sort of. Actually, it's nothing like a crack, but if it makes you feel better, then think of it as a crack."

Amy glared. "It doesn't."

Laura cleared her throat, totally lost by this point, and the Doctor turned his attention back to her, startled. "Sorry," he said. "We'll just be going now."

"What's a rift?" Laura demanded. "Is it safe?"

"Safe?" the Doctor repeated, glancing at her seriously. "Yes, it's fine. Come on, Ponds, say your goodbyes, because we've got some investigating of our own to do!"

A/N: There was the introduction. The boys themselves will appear in the next part! Please review; hope you're enjoying so far, and I'll update soon!

~Emachinescat ^..^