Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, or any series, books, or plot lines associated with it. The work done on this site is purely for amusement, not to be taken as an infringement of a copyright.
Quick Bio: Crestoflight3 here. Chances are you've never read my stories before. I mainly write for Digimon Adventure, and am running several comedy stories to last til further ado. However, this idea popped in my mind after my sister described a dream she had about Eleven and Rose, so I decided to finally write this. This is not related to the dream in any way besides the characterization. Mind, this is my first fic for Doctor Who, so please be kind and leave advice.
Note: Each chapter will follow a specific character as the person mainly followed. This may become important later on. Chapter One follows Rory Pond.
"Okay, so what should we do now?"
"Oh, Doctor, can't we have a break for once? We were barely done with our honeymoon before you whisked us off to see that shiny thingy…"
"Hey, that was a perfectly good excuse! They needed us to solve a public debate before a war broke out!"
"Um, time machine? Remember?"
"Rory Pond, be quiet."
Rory shook his head, his shaggy hair flying about his face. The Doctor was at the consul of the Tardis, pushing what appeared to Rory to be random buttons. Amy was leaning off of the railing, her arms crossed.
"Can't I have any time with my husband?"
"You have plenty of time. See? Right now. Five whole minutes have been wasted complaining on whether we could take a break or not."
Her expression didn't change. "Doctor. Come on! One day, that's all I'm asking for. One day at the beach…" A faraway expression entered her face.
The Doctor looked up from the console, a knowledgeable expression filling his face as his eyes flicked from Rory to rest on Amy. "Rio?"
Amy went next to him. "You did promise…"
"Okay, okay! We'll go to Rio! Happy, are you?"
Mrs. Pond jumped up and down, her battle won. "Yep! Hear that, Rory? We're finally heading to sunglasses and tanning!"
Rory smiled at his wife's accent, the voice he had grown up with. She had this way to induce enthusiasm when all he wanted was a nap. For some odd reason, the Doctor never slept, and Amy and Rory only got their naps in by the few odd times he was off studying something or catching up with an old, or new, friend.
However, Rory didn't think he'd be able to give up this life. He understood why Amy had been so amazed by the Time Lord when she was so young—he was so eccentric, so exciting, so dangerous, yet he got under your skin, made you want to prove that you were worth his attention. Whatever the reason, Rory didn't think he'd be able to pull himself away from the traveling…let alone his wife. His Amy.
Currently, she was pressing buttons, the Doctor's hand guiding hers, often pulling it up moments before she touched it as he changed his mind. Rory no longer saw him as a threat—more of a common ground between the amazing and the ordinary. And Rory no longer considered himself the main ordinary person anymore.
"There we go!" Smiling, Amy pulled the lever, initiating the Tardis to start its…well, its travel. Its time-and-space movement. Rory would have to ask for the word to describe it…
Suddenly, the Tardis pitched, more than normal. Rory grabbed onto a railing and, with his other hand, reached for Amy. Her hand found his and held on tightly. "Doctor, what's going on? Did I press a wrong button?"
"No…no, no. I was watching you…you couldn't of…no! No way!" The Doctor was examining a screen filled with incomprehensible symbols—the language of Gallifrey, he once said. His face was full of disbelief. Not panic, but certainly doubt.
The Doctor doubting something. That was never a good thing.
"Doctor, what's going on?" Rory said, suddenly glad he wasn't asleep—he would have been tossed all around by now.
"This isn't supposed to be happening! This can't be happening. There isn't any logical explanation. Not saying that logic was never faulty before, but this, this defies all logic and non-logic!"
"Doctor, spit it out, why don't you?" Amy said, sounding bossy and worried.
"I don't know. The Tardis won't tell me anything. It just keeps on saying, on this screen, 'Silence. Eternal Silence.'" He stared for a moment, his expression empty and vacated. "What does that mean?"
"Doctor, you were saying that there was no way…no way for what?" said Rory, trying to keep a grip. He wasn't supposed to panic. He had a wife who was staying calmer than he was.
"It says we aren't in our world anymore. But, well, that's just impossible. I mean, all of the other worlds were closed off when Davros…I saw to it that they closed! This would make it the, what, second time? Third? No, there's no way…the Tardis must have a loose wire or something," he stopped talking. Something was different.
Amy figured it out first. "We've landed," she said, looking toward the Tardis door.
"Okay, now would be a good time to try to leave-," Rory said, looking around nervously.
The Doctor ignored him. "Wonder what's out there."
Amy smiled a sly smile. "You know, Rory's right. We should leave…"
The Doctor gave her a stern glare. "And why would I listen to Mr. Pond over there?"
Rory muffled a "Hey," followed by a small "ow" as Amy kicked him. "Hey, I never said I agreed. Just that he's being smart."
"Oh, so running away from an adventure is 'smart'?" The Doctor was smiling now.
"Well, we could always take a quick look outside…"
"Amy, be quiet," Rory whispered. "Do you want us to get stuck in some strange world—oh, of course, being you, you would want us to get stuck on some strange world. Never mind."
"So, can we?" she went to the Doctor, looking as though she already knew the answer. Unfortunately, so did Rory.
"Well," the Doctor said, eyeing the door, "the Tardis does need a small break to regain its flying mechanism, seeing as we basically crash landed here, a fact I don't appreciate, so…"
Amy grabbed her red scarf before heading to open the door. "Ready?"
"Set," said the Doctor. When the next phrase wasn't added, both glared at Rory.
"What? Oh. Um, go?"
Together, with Rory in the middle, Amy and the Doctor opened the Tardis doors to a strange new world.
Strange really wasn't the best way to describe it. At least, that's what Rory thought. Actually, it was pretty normal. More than normal. If he would have been able to say it without getting a punch or another kick from his wife, Rory would have described the landscape that greeted them with one word: boring.
Not that it wasn't pretty or anything. It appeared the Tardis had 'crash-landed' in a small clearing in the middle of a wooded area, a high cliff extending up from one side, while a gentler valley followed from the other, only to rise and create another hill. This pattern followed into a mountain setting, heavily wooded and filled with ferns and roots.
Yes, it was beautiful. But it wasn't all outer-spacey, like Rory had come to expect from their travels. Even when they went to Italy, it still had creepy alien vampire women. It didn't look like vampires would be here.
Amy had obviously noticed this, too. She stopped staring around in wonder, instead glaring at the Doctor. He must have noticed this, for he too stopped his inspection and turned to look at Amy, his eyes still swiveling around and absorbing the landscape.
"Well? What's this?" she said, her face scrunched up as if she had been handed a tub of melted ice cream—disappointed and annoyed.
"What's what?" The Doctor replied, now looking to the sky, which was a cloudy shade of grey.
"Why are we in the middle of a wood? A wood, of all things," she said, looking around as if the wood had done her an injustice.
"Well, if I knew, I would have told you, wouldn't I?"
Rory decided to mention something. "Um, Doctor, I think I see—"
"Not now, Rory. Amy, you're right. Why did the Tardis land in the middle of a forest? There's nothing here, nothing at all. Unless you count the trees and ferns and squirrels—wait. Where are the squirrels?"
He was correct, as usual. There were no animals. There was no movement besides the three of them. There wasn't even visible wind.
Rory had already noticed this, and was trying again to tell the Doctor something he knew to be of importance. "Doctor, I—."
"Really, I've been to tons of places. I've even been to the middle of this desert world, well, not so much sand as the remains of a civilization—but, of everything I've seen, this is eerier than most. Nothing moving. I've been in a library with nothing but books and shadows, and there was more movement there than there is here, in this woods," he said, squatting down to pick up a leaf. He turned it over in his hand a few times, looking at its healthy green shade. Quietly, he murmured, "What's so different about this place?"
"Doctor, there's—."
"Wait, what's that?" The Doctor was looking up at the sky again, drawing Amy's attention.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you," said Rory, annoyed. "Smoke."
Sure enough, a thin line of dark smoke stood outlined in the grey sky, trickling off to their right. "Wherever that smoke is, there must be somebody. Or something," came the Doctor.
Amy's eyes twinkled, and she put her red hair in a quick ponytail, pulling strands off her denim jacket and red shirt underneath. She used her scarf as a quick bandana, and began striding forward. Within seconds, both Rory and the Doctor had grabbed each of her arms and pulled her back.
She moaned. "Come on? What? There's smoke, there's wind, there's got to be people. Somebody, you said."
The Doctor let her go, standing erect, his body facing the cliff but his head turned ninety degrees to watch the smoke. "I said somebody or something. And I'm not sure if the something would be friendly."
Amy stopped struggling, joining her two men in staring at the phenomenon. "Something. That's not good, is it?"
"It doesn't sound good," said her husband, dropping his hand down from her upper arm to her hand. She took hold of it and squeezed gently.
"You know what, I hate saying this, but, right now, I'd rather not know. There's nothing wrong here—in fact, this is the most peaceful place I've seen in a long time," came the Time Lord in a low tone.
"Too peaceful," Mrs. Pond added, her tone matching his.
"We should leave…?" Rory said, hesitant. Suddenly, leaving wasn't nearly as great sounding.
While the three stood, entranced, a sound came from behind. All three jumped in shock at the sound approaching.
The sound of footsteps.