02.04.18

Oh boy.

As always, I'd like to start off this chapter by saying that I'm sorry for taking such a long-ass time with it. Life has yet again been a bit of a dick to me recently. But don't get me wrong, I haven't just been sitting on this chapter. I've opened it up plenty of times since I started writing it, and I just never felt like it was... 'ready' for you all. But now I think it finally is.

Thus, here it is.

But before we get to the good stuff, how about some Reviewer Replies? ... For once I'm hoping I don't have a lot of these to reply to...

Grac3: Are you serious? My writing made you do that? I don't know whether to be flattered or apologise. But I'm very glad you thought it was a good addition.

Misswhoviangirl: Thank you so much, it's great to know people enjoyed that chapter. It was special to me too. Kind of my own little way to say goodbye to the irreplaceable Elisabeth Sladen.

Guest: Welcome to our community, new Whovian! We hope you have a pleasant stay. And thank you so much for reading and enjoying my story. I hope you like what's to come.

maxikeeper234: I'm glad you've been enjoying the story. I hope this next chapter lives up to your expectations.

Thanks again for these reviews, they really do put a smile on my face.

Anyway, enough of this, go read Chapter 15, the first in another crossover, this time with... well, read on and find out.

Chapter 15

The sun was beating down harshly on the backs of the Doctor and Rory as the pair traversed across a desolate wasteland. The Doctor was trying to beat the heat by wearing a Stetson to shield himself, as well as having his tweed jacket slung over his shoulder, and shirt sleeves rolled to his elbows. Rory, on the other hand, was deeply regretting having double-layered his shirts. While he had originally been wearing a red plaid shirt over a dark-blue t-shirt, he now wore just the plaid shirt, all buttons open, and the t-shirt was off, hanging tucked-in from the side of his shorts.

Before leaving the TARDIS a couple of hours ago, Rory had practically slathered them both in a high SPF lotion, which did lead to a quick fifteen minutes of fun, but the Doctor soon had them hurrying out of the time machine and into the desert. Despite that, they were both sweating buckets as they trudged on, the Doctor leading the way with Rory close behind.

"Doctor, I don't think we've seen a single dinosaur this whole time," Rory groaned, fanning himself with his hands.

"The Permian era lasted for about 48 million years Rory, it's highly unlikely that today's the day that all the dinosaurs chose to sleep in," the Time Lord called over his shoulder. "Besides, can't you hear them?" In the distance, growls and roars could be heard, but they were few and far between. Most of the time, the only noise accompanying them was the crunch of their feet in the coarse sand and the chirp of various insects. Insects, which Rory was quick to point out, were absolutely huge.

"It's the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. Prehistory had a much more oxygenated atmosphere than your time Rory, and the native fauna are larger because of it," The Doctor explained.

"That doesn't mean there are going to be giant wasps, does it?" he asked, sounding more than a little nervous about it.

"Oh, no, nothing like that. Giant scorpions though, a definite maybe."

At that, Rory hurried forward, walking alongside the Doctor now. He reached for the Doctor's hand and laced their fingers together, giving the Time Lord's hand a gentle squeeze. "Why the sudden interest in seeing dinosaurs?" he asked, glancing to the Doctor.

"Honest answer?" the Doctor asked, and Rory could practically feel the smirk on his face.

"Always."

"Dinosaurs were something I did with Sarah Jane once. Not quite like this, though. I thought it might be nice to see them in their own habitat, instead of 1970s London."

Rory had to admit that he wasn't too surprised. It had been less than a month since they had attended Sarah Jane's funeral, and there were still times that the Doctor was sad about it. But as the Doctor had helped him long ago, Rory now helped the Doctor. Times like this, where the Doctor was remembering her fondly, made Rory smile. Maybe one day in the distant future, the Doctor would be doing things like this to remember him.

Rory verbalised none of this, instead opting for: "There were dinosaurs in London?"

"It was a long day," the Doctor replied with a shrug.

They continued to walk for another 20 minutes or so before Rory spotted something in the distance. Reaching into one of the pockets of his cargo shorts, he pulled out a small pair of folding binoculars, raised them to his face and stared off to the object of his interest.

The Doctor hadn't noticed, walking ahead slightly, before realising his boyfriend wasn't next to him anymore. Turning and walking back to Rory, he looked off in the same direction. "What is it?"

Rory passed the binoculars to the Doctor and pointed in the direction to look. "Do you see that too or is the heat starting to get to me?" The Doctor took the binoculars and looked to where Rory pointed.

Through the lenses, the Doctor saw that it was definitely not the heat getting to him. He could see what looked like a campsite, but after it had been run through by a herd of elephants. Though given the time period, it was probably a herd of something much more deadly.

Handing the binoculars back to Rory, he quickly grabbed the human's hand and took off towards the site, pulling Rory along behind him.

As they reached the site, both of them could see that this was quite clearly not from this time period. There was a trashed black tent, some bent, broken metal tables and crates. Rory even spotted wrapped chocolate bars having spilled from one.

"Doctor, how is this possible?" Rory asked as he opened another over-turned crate, this time finding what looked like medical supplies.

"Evidently, we're not the first time-travellers here." The Doctor answered from where he was investigating the torn and tattered tent.

"If they're time-travellers, why does it look like they were here for the long haul?" Rory wandered over to the Doctor, stumbling slightly on the way. Looking down, he saw he had tripped on a large, three-toed footprint, which didn't fill him with confidence.

"Maybe they were an expedition? Here to find out as much about the environment, the wildlife as possible? Or perhaps they were stranded. It's happened to me more than once, the TARDIS likes to run away sometimes. Or, and this is a slim one, but maybe it was a holiday? The sun is quite lovely here, could get a great tan. But…" The Doctor trailed off, seeing a large dark streak on a nearby rock. He walked over to it, running his hand lightly over it, some of it flaking off under his touch. Rory didn't need to ask to know what it was. He was a nurse after all, he'd seen plenty of it throughout his career. "I think I'm understanding why they didn't stick around."

"Doctor…" Rory hurried to the Time Lord, reaching for his hand, which the Doctor squeezed. Rory was sure it was meant to be reassuring, but Rory was feeling far from reassured.

"We should leave." The Doctor stepped back from the tent, eyes darting around their surroundings. "If the people here were chased off, that means what chased them off is probably very territorial, and if it's close, then it probably already knows we're here."

As if on cue, a fierce roar could be heard, both of them immediately snapping their heads to look in its direction. "That sounded close enough that leaving should definitely be a priority."

"Yep." Rory didn't need to be told twice, and was matching the Doctor's pace as they hurried from the campsite.

As the pair made their way over the crest of a hill, the Doctor paused, and Rory looked at him, confused as to why he had stopped when there was, what was almost definitely, a deadly creature coming after them. "Doctor, c'mon," he urged, pulling on his arm slightly.

"We're taking a detour," the Doctor said before pulling Rory in a direction that he knew didn't lead to the TARDIS, and more importantly, to safety.

As they got closer, Rory could see what had caught the Doctor's attention. Roughly two-and-a-half feet above the ground was a floating ball of shimmering, white-orange light. Though as they got even closer, that wasn't the part that amazed Rory. It was what looked like broken glass floating around the ball of light, which Rory could now see was slightly translucent.

Rory stood back from it slightly, as the Doctor walked around the orb. "You are beautiful!" The Doctor gasped, reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket and retrieving the Sonic Screwdriver. It whirred away as it scanned the phenomenon, and while Rory had to admit it was very pretty, it wasn't the most pressing thing on his mind. "It's like someone just shattered this one spot in space and time, and it's all just floating here… waiting to be put back together."

"That's all very poetic, Doctor, but what is it?" Rory asked, not able to stop himself from looking back over his shoulder every few seconds. Finishing his scan, the Doctor brought the Sonic up to his eyes, checking the readings.

"It's a dimensional lesion."

"A what-now?"

"Do you remember when the Sontarans and the Rutans were all over London in the 1600s? There were dimensional lesions all over the city, tears in space-time linking two completely different points in the universe." Rory just nodded, vaguely remembering what the Doctor was talking about. He couldn't place what, but something was fuzzing his memory of the events, but what the Doctor was saying still managed to make some kind of sense to him.

"Well, this is a dimensional lesion, but on a smaller scale. This isn't linking space-time in any two points in the universe, it's just linking two points in the Earth's history. On the other side of this lesion is another time and place on planet Earth. It would explain the campsite. If this goes to a time and place where there's civilisation, you wouldn't want to set up shop too far from your way home."

The Doctor studied the readings a little further, eyebrows furrowing slightly. "This one seems unstable though. It's giving off two very similar readings. Almost exactly the same, but with the tiniest differences."

"Where does it lead to? And when?" Rory asked, looking at it with suspicion. After all, there was no guarantee it led to anywhere more friendly than where they currently were.

"Shall we find out?" Pocketing the screwdriver, the Doctor walked around to Rory and held his hand out to him.

"Shouldn't we be going back to the TARDIS?" Rory urged, desperate to get away to somewhere distinctly less deadly.

"The TARDIS will be there when we get back. The biggest dinosaur in the world could step on it, and the dino would come off worse." The Doctor gave Rory his biggest, pleading eyes. His curiosity was not going to let him walk away from finding out what was on the other side of the lesion, and Rory knew that.

"Fine, but we're going to come right back, aren't we?" he demanded, as if the Doctor were a child pulling him.

"Yes, we'll come right back, now let's go!" Rory took the Doctor's hand, and reluctantly followed the Time Lord through the lesion.

There was a warm tingle as they passed through, and stepping out on the other side, they found they were in a lush green forest, surrounded by trails and trees in every direction. That was probably the smoothest time-travel experience Rory would ever have, as the Doctor's piloting of the TARDIS sometimes left a lot to be desired. Though he had to give it to the Time Lord, that wasn't always his fault.

"I think we're in the past still," The Doctor started. "Well, your past." He sucked the tip of his finger then held it out in the air. "Yep, definitely 2009. The year before you started travelling with me."

"Seems like a lifetime ago," Rory commented absentmindedly as he looked around the forest, finding it strangely familiar.

"As for where, if I had to guess, I'd say we're-" The Doctor was cut off at the sound of Rory's fingers snapping.

"We're in the Forest of Dean." The Doctor looked at Rory with surprise.

"How can you…?"

"When she was still alive, Mum would take Dad and I camping out here every summer. After she was gone and once I was old enough, I would still come out here on my own, to remember her. Amy came a couple times too. I know this forest like the back of my hand." The Doctor gave Rory a sad smile, but being here didn't make Rory feel sad at all. This forest was full of happy memories for him, he had absolutely no reason to be sad here. "We should camp here sometime, you and me. And I don't mean park the TARDIS nearby, live in that then come out to the forest. I mean, full-on 'tents and sleeping bags and roasting marshmallows' camping."

A smile crept onto the Doctor's face as he stepped over to his boyfriend. "That sounds lovely." The Doctor's hands lifted to sit on Rory's waist, and Rory's arms instinctively linked around the Doctor's neck. They were just about to kiss when a voice interrupted them.

"Who the hell are you two?" The voice had come from a young man stood not too far away. He had short black hair and kind brown eyes. He was dressed in a black waistcoat over a short-sleeved purple graphic t-shirt, under which was an orange long-sleeved t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up slightly. He also wore woollen fingerless gloves, red trousers and black combat boots.

"Hello!" The Doctor was quickly over to the man, shaking his hand eagerly and smiling widely at him. "I'm the Doctor, and this is my partner, Rory."

"Hi," Rory added, waving to the young man.

"Oh, uh, yeah, hi, Connor Temple… did you come through the anomaly?" Connor asked, pointing at the lesion.

"Anomaly?" Rory repeated as he walked to stand with the two men.

"He means the lesion," the Doctor clarified.

"Lesion? What do you- Hey, this is the first time that anomaly has opened in months, and it shouldn't lead to anywhere that has people, unless you came through an anomaly from the future into the past, then into the present," Connor speculated, surprisingly quickly.

"You seem to know a lot about them, Connor," the Doctor commented, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Are you with UNIT?"

"No, I'm from the ARC." Connor paused for a moment, surprised at himself. "Why did I just tell you that?"

"I have an honest face; people see it and they're honest. Now what's the ARC?"

Connor looked warily between the Doctor and Rory. "You can trust us," Rory added, hoping to alleviate Connor's concerns. The look lingered on the man's face before it softened slightly.

"It's the Anomaly Research Centre. We track and respond to anomalies when they open around the country, try to contain what comes through and put everything back where it came from before they close." Connor's eyes glanced behind the two men, and filled with surprise. "Speaking of, get back!" He grabbed an arm of both of men and pulled them away from the anomaly. The Doctor and Rory looked at it, seeing it start to pulse and flare, before it quickly shrunk down and disappeared completely.

"Doctor?" Rory murmured, voice laced with fear. With the anomaly closed, the pair now had no way to get back to the Permian, which also meant no way back to the TARDIS.

"Yes, Rory, I know…" The Doctor's voice was hollow. Rory knew the TARDIS was the last piece of the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey, and losing that after everything else the man had lost in his long, long life would destroy him. The Doctor spun to look at Connor. "You said that the anomaly hadn't open in months?" Connor nodded. "Is it likely to open again soon?"

Connor just shrugged. "We've only really just got started in predicting when anomalies would open, and this wasn't in the matrix, so… we don't know." Connor looked from the despairing Doctor to the worried Rory. "Were there more of you, on the other side of the anomaly?"

Rory answered. "No, it's just the two of us. But our way home is on the other side. And if we can't get back, we can't get home."

"Right," Connor said, looking and sounding slightly sad, though his look soon changed to confusion. "Wait, when you say home… does that mean you not from here… or not from now?"

"Both," Rory replied. "It's kind of hard to explain."

"We're time-travellers," The Doctor spoke up, the sadness gone from him now, replaced with his usual exuberance. "And my time machine is on the other side. That's how we were in the past, we didn't come through another lesion, we just landed."

"Time machine?" Connor repeated, incredulous. "That's impossible."

"You just watched us walk through a hole that leads to dinosaur times, but time machine is a stretch too far?" Rory asked, a grin on his face.

"Wait until he finds out I'm an alien, he'll not know what to do," the Doctor chuckled.

"Did you say alien?" Connor stared with amazement at the Doctor, eyes glittering. He then let out a huge cheer, and jumped into the air, punching his fist up high. "I knew there were aliens, I knew it! Abby and Cutter are never going to believe this." A look of shock crossed his face. "Ooh, actually, two ticks…" With that, he fished into his pocket for his phone, tapped it a few times then walked a few paces away as he spoke on the phone.

While Connor was busy, Rory walked over to the Doctor. "Do you think we can get the lesion open again?" he asked quietly, meeting the Time Lord's eyes.

The Doctor shrugged slightly, a puzzled look on his face. "No, not immediately. Maybe with some time." He pulled the Sonic out again and aimed it at where the lesion had once been. "The lesion is still there, the Sonic can see it, but it's invisible to us because it's closed. If I set a scan to determine the right frequencies and wavelengths to open it, we may only be stuck here for a day or two." He gave the Sonic a twist and double-clicked the button before pocketing the screwdriver. He gave Rory a wink before looking over his shoulder to where Connor was still talking on the phone. "Getting a look at whatever tech they've got at this Anomaly Research Centre of theirs might even help speed things along. Plus it'll give me a chance to see what they're getting up to, any hidden agendas."

"You think that's likely?" Rory asked. He thought Connor seemed honest, sweet even. Not the kind to work for a shadowy, evil organisation.

"Humans starting to mess with time? It's certainly a possibility." The Doctor sighed. "I'm a Time Lord, I know what I'm doing. And I trust that anyone who travels with me knows that there are somethings that can't be changed." Rory nodded. "But imagine in a few years, they're not just monitoring the lesions, they're opening them themselves, maybe even finding ways to decide the destination. It could be disastrous in the wrong hands."

"S'pose you have a point there," Rory agreed, arms folding over his chest. "So we're going to the ARC then?"

"A pair of people just walked out of the time-hole that leads to prehistory - we'll be dragged there kicking and screaming. Luckily, it's exactly where we want to be." The Doctor gave Rory a confident wink, which even now still caused the human's heart to flutter slightly.

Having finished up on the phone, Connor walked back towards the Doctor and Rory. "Cutter's already on his way in the SUV, should be here soon. Hope you don't mind if we take you back to the ARC? I'm afraid there's probably going to be a lot of questions for you."

"We'd be happy to come along, wouldn't we Rory?" The Doctor beamed, sneaking a look at Rory that just screamed 'Told You'. The human grinned, and nodded his agreement.

"Great," Connor grinned. "Hopefully Lester doesn't know about this yet, otherwise he'll have Becker and his army down here to get you. Works out well for you two that Cutter had me keep this anomaly on the down-low." As Connor had spoken, the sound of an engine in the distance could be heard getting louder. "Speak of the devil…"

The rumble of a heavy car grew louder, and soon the source, a silver SUV, could be seen through the trees heading in their direction. It parked nearby and the driver's door swung open. The man who stepped out looked to be in his early 40s. For a man, Cutter's dark blonde hair was long, falling at the front to frame the top of his face, and at the back to partway down his neck. He wore a dark green, almost black jacket, and beige trousers. Rory wondered if the weathered look to his face was making him look older than he actually was. He had sometimes seen the Doctor's face looked aged and weary, and with the stuff the Time Lord had seen, Rory was surprised it wasn't always that way. If Cutter was someone who helped with damage control around these 'anomalies', then Rory could believe that he had seen some stuff like the Doctor had.

"Connor," Cutter started, a slight Scottish accent coming through in his voice, "these are the two who came through the anomaly?" The younger man nodded. "You never said how they were there in the first place." His attention then turned to the Doctor and Rory. "A second anomaly, from the future, in the Permian, that's where you came from right?"

"Not quite," the Doctor replied, as Connor shot forward towards the older man, a smile on his face so wide it threatened to jump off and start doing circus tricks.

"Cutter, you're not gonna believe this." He paused for dramatic effect, eyes flitting between Cutter, and the Doctor and Rory. "They're time-travelling aliens."

Cutter let out a disbelieving laugh, but Rory looked almost offended. "Hey, I'm not an alien. Just a time-traveller."

"What's wrong with being an alien?" The Doctor said, turning to look at Rory with surprise.

"Nothing, you're lovely, I'd just like my identity to be respected," Rory said, flustered.

"You're serious?" Cutter asked, looking at the Doctor and Rory. "You're an alien, and you both travel in time?" His gaze locked on Rory. "What are you?"

"Human," he answered confidently. "Same as you, I assume."

"Y'know, technically, if you've been through a lesion, you're time-travellers too. Is alien really that big a step?" The Doctor questioned, looking at Cutter and Connor.

"Okay, but we don't have a time machine to use whenever we want," Connor countered.

"Lesion? Time machine? I think I need a moment. And a drink." Cutter paced forwards and back for a moment, eyes closed as he took all this information in.

"So you," he pointed at the Doctor, "are an alien, you," pointing at Rory, "are a human, and you have a time machine. Am I keeping up?" The Doctor nodded, smiling warmly. "Well, where is it? Your time machine?"

"Uh…" Rory looked back over his shoulder to where the lesion had been open a few minutes earlier. "It's currently stuck in the Permian."

"And I'd really like to get it back," The Doctor said, stepping forward towards Cutter. "Connor said you've some sort of matrix that tells you when anomalies are going to open?"

Cutter nodded. "A pretty new development, actually. But this anomaly wasn't on it…" he trailed off, looking deep in thought. "The name Helen Cutter doesn't mean anything to either of you, does it?" The pair shook their heads. "What about Claudia Brown?" Again, the two men shook their heads.

Cutter's face fell slightly, and Rory noticed that something in his eyes seemed to darken. Who were the people he'd asked about? They must be important to him, he reasoned, and decided he might ask him about them if he could find the time later on.

"The Doctor seems to know a lot about the anomalies. Perhaps he could help with the matrix? Or with my anomaly-sealing device?" Cutter turned to look at Connor, who held his hands up slightly, as if in surrender. "They already said they'd come to the ARC with us."

Cutter's eyes narrowed at the younger man, before a half-smile crept onto his face. He looked back to the Doctor and Rory. "I guess that's sorted then. But maybe we should keep the fact you're an alien with a time machine between us? We'll say you've been trapped in the Permian, having stumbled through another anomaly from this time somewhere."

"Works for us," The Doctor grinned, offering his hand out to Cutter, who took his hand and shook it firmly.

"Professor Nick Cutter, by the way. Never introduced myself." The Scot allowed himself to give the Time Lord a small smile.

"Professor, eh? I'm a Doctor."

"Doctor who?" At that, the Doctor beamed, and Rory let out a loud groan.

"Really? You'll need another chalkboard soon," Rory griped.

"What did I say?" Cutter asked, giving Connor a confused look.

"Just an inside-joke, nothing to worry about. Just the Doctor." The Doctor let go of Cutter's hand, and extended an arm back to Rory, who stepped forward to shake Cutter's hand. "And this is my partner in time." The Doctor paused for a moment, a hopeful smile on his face.

"You're terrible." Rory said in the most deadpan voice he could muster. The Doctor frowned, which soon vanished as he saw Connor snickering at his joke. "And I'm Rory." He gave Cutter's hand a quick shake.

"We should get back to the ARC. People are going to noticed that we've gone soon. Don't really want them knowing that this anomaly has opened again." Connor nodded to the Scot, and made for the passenger side door of the SUV, while Cutter went for the driver's side.

"Shall we?" The Doctor said with a grin to Rory.

"It's go with them or sleep in the forest, and I'm pretty sure it's going to rain." Rory began to move towards the SUV, the Doctor close behind him. Before getting into the car, the Doctor took a final look back towards where the anomaly had been.

He had been in this predicament more than once before. The TARDIS, his time machine and last remaining sliver of his home world, was stuck in another time and place that he seemingly had no way back to. But just like all the times before, he'd be damned if he was going to be stopped from getting back to her.

"Doctor?" Rory said, looking out from the back seat to the Time Lord. "All okay?"

The Doctor was brought back to reality, and flashed Rory his winning smile. He hadn't noticed that the engine was running, waiting for him to enter. "Always. Allons-y! Ooh, haven't said that in a while. How nostalgic." With that, the Doctor dropped into the seat, closed the door, and the silver SUV pulled away into the forest.

So... what did we all think?

I thought the ITV series Primeval was a prime candidate for crossing-over with Doctor Who due to the heavy sci-fi and fantasy themes of the shows. Though there is another reason why I thought the two shows should join up, but that will be revealed in a later chapter.

In conclusion, thank you so much for reading, and please, if you've anything to say, good or bad, about this chapter, leave me a review. I read them all.

Thanks again everybody,

Ryan :)