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The Doctor opened the car door, freeing his tie and the three of them ran across the green towards the nurse in question, Rory. Who Danni was always happy to see, and it felt like she hadn't seen him in such a long time. It had been such a brief encounter last time, with the Doctor wanting to spend some alone time together, she'd not gotten to see her resident murse at all really. And seeing him looking absolutely dumbfounded as the Doctor snatched his phone out of his hand and examined the picture of the man and dog he'd been filming closely, "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?" The Doctor demanded. Rory turned to Amy, unsure of what was happening.
"Amy?" He asked as she ran up and linked arms with him, trying to play the strange behaviour of the man down.
"Hi! Oh, this is Rory, he's a... friend." She explained lamely.
"Boyfriend." He corrected.
"Kind of boyfriend." She offered and he shot her a look.
"Amy!" Both Rory and Danni complained at the same time, causing Amy and Rory looked down at her.
"Really, Amy." Danni continued, unfazed by the bewildered looked, "Who wouldn't want to be linked to this very handsome murse."
"Well, maybe not handsome..." Rory denied before frowning, "Wait, did you call me a 'murse'?"
"Man and dog, why?" The Doctor prompted firmly, trying to get back on track. That and he didn't think Rory was particularly handsome. He had a big nose, for starters. The Doctor resisted the need to reach up and feel his own nose again. He was sure it wasn't that big, he didn't understand why Danni would say it. Rory turned away from Danni and looked the man in the tattered clothes up and down, his mouth falling open slightly in realisation.
"Oh, my God, it's him." He stated in shock, stepping back as he pointed.
"Just answer his question, please." Amy demanded with a forced smile. This was highly embarrassing. As if it wasn't enough that Jeff and his grandma had ratted her out about her childhood habits, now Rory was going to.
"It's him, though." He interrupted, "The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor."
"Yeah, he came back." Amy retorted as if it wasn't a big deal. Why were people making it such a big thing, really? Didn't they realise the world was about to end, and they were focusing on her imaginary friends! Rory then turned to look at Danni, seemingly noticing her for the first time as he looked her up and down.
"Is that Danni-Girl?" He asked and Danni waved at him, a grin on her face.
"Hello!" She greeted, rocking on her heals, "I suppose it's nice to finally meet me, isn't it? You told me it was."
"I told you?" Rory asked, confused and Danni nodded.
"Of course, silly. Didn't Amy not tell you about the time travel?"
"Time travel?" He repeated before turning to Amy "But they were a story. They were a game." He protested meekly, only to be grabbed by the shirt by the Doctor, who was becoming increasingly annoyed at both their lack of urgency about the world ending, and the attention his Danni-Girl was paying to the man with the giant nose.
"Man and dog - why? Tell me now." He demanded, shaking Rory slightly to get him back on focus.
"Sorry." Rory apologised with a nod, "Because he can't be there. Because he's…"
"...in a hospital, in a coma." The Doctor spoke along with him, finishing the sentence as Rory trailed off at the end.
"Yeah." Rory confirmed, wondering just how he knew that.
"Knew it." The Doctor whispered with a grin, "Multi-form, you see?" He let go of Rory, smoothing out his clothes, "Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed, a psychic link with a living but dormant," He prodded Rory hard in the middle of the forehead, "mind."
"Will you stop manhandling the murse?" Danni snapped slightly, knowing a Rory this early wouldn't stand up for himself against the Doctor. The Doctor opened his mouth, ready to defend himself because he wasn't manhandling the 'murse', and maybe she should be more conserned about him, because she was his Danni-Girl and he'd just regenerated. Then there was a large growl, followed by a snap and an snarl. They all turned to see the man and dog, Prisoner Zero, snarling in warning at them. The Doctor stepped in front of Danni, all annoyance gone as he headed slightly towards the multiform.
"Prisoner Zero." He stated triumphantly. Rory turned to Amy, still not quite grasping the situation. It wasn't everyday your girlfriend's imaginary friends came to life, after all.
"What, there's a Prisoner Zero too?" He asked and Amy nodded with a roll of her eyes.
"Yes." She muttered back.
"Do keep up, Rory." Danni tutted as their attentions were pulled upwards, the sound of the spaceship flying overhead filling the air. The giant eye scanned the area, looking for it's lost prisoner.
"See," The Doctor started, pulling out his screwdriver, "that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." He held the screwdriver aloft and set it off, causing a large amount of noise and chaos to ensue. Doors began slamming, sirens began to wail and the whole crowd began shouting in panic, "I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" He taunted. Danni laughed happily as a fire engine drove past, a group of bewildered and panicking firemen chasing it down the street in an attempt to stop it. Prisoner Zero barked in warning, but the Doctor aimed the screwdriver at a phone box, causing it to explode. He aimed it higher once more, but the screwdriver then exploded in his hand, causing him to drop it with a yelp, "No, no, no, don't do that!" He begged as the noise stopped and the ship dismissed the ruckus, turning and flying away.
"Look, it's going." Rory pointed out.
"No, come back, he's here!" The Doctor shouted vainly after it, "Come back! He's here, Prisoner Zero is here. Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is..." Amy shot forward, having been keeping her eye on Prisoner Zero, and grabbed the Doctor's arm.
"Doctor! The drain. It just sort of melted and went down the drain." She exclaimed and he rolled his eyes, shrugging her hand off him.
"Well, of course it did." He retorted, taking Danni's hand for reassurance.
"It's not going to stay near us now the Doctor tried to reveal it's location." Danni added, a bit more gently as she squeezed his hand. She could tell just by the look on his face that he was frustrated that is hadn't worked and that his beloved screwdriver had exploded, but she knew he loved the next model so it didn't bother her too much.
"What do we do now?" Amy asked her.
"While it's hiding in human form the ship will dismiss it, believing it's from Earth." Danni explained and the Doctor smiled fondly as she broke it down for the others. He loved hearing her work through situations, she was always so much smarter than she gave herself credit for, "The only way they'll not burn the planet is to see Prisoner Zero with their own, giant eye."
"We need to drive it into the open." The Doctor agreed, seeing where she was heading. He frowned, trying to work out what to do next, "No TARDIS, no screwdriver, 17 minutes. Come on, think. Think!" He snarled angrily at himself.
"Stop it." Danni snapped and he looked down at her, surprised, "You'll get there, so stop being so hard on yourself." He smiled, pulling her up against him, pressing his hands on each of her hips. She felt his fingers clench together ever so slightly, the fabric bunching up as he tried to hold onto her even tighter. He grinned happily, bowing his head down.
"Always trying to cheer me up." He muttered before brushing his lips against hers. She smiled, doing the same back until they were snogging in the middle of the village green. Rory watched them, wide eyed at their change of attitude, as they completely seemed to forget about the spaceship with the giant eye and the creature that looked like a coma patient.
"Does this happen often?" He asked Amy, who was glowering at the pair, arms crossed.
"This is not acceptable." She muttered darkly, her Scottish accent becoming even thicker as a sure-fire sign of her anger, "17 minutes!" She shouted at them pointedly and the Doctor suddenly let Danni go, blushing deeply whilst Danni just looked pleased with herself.
"Right, sorry." He coughed then, holding onto Danni's hand as he dragged her across the green to the drain. The Doctor barely glanced at the hole in the ground, but Rory knelt down to see if he could work out how the creature managed to disappear down a drain.
"So that thing, that hid in my house for 12 years?" Amy asked, incredulous. A year or two she could understand, but 12 seemed ridiculous.
"Multi-forms can live for millennia. 12 years is a pit-stop." The Doctor offered as an explanation. Amy shook her head. No, that wasn't good enough.
"So how come you two show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute?" She pressed.
"They're looking for him, but followed me." The Doctor replied, "They saw me through the crack, got a fix. They're only late cos I am."
"What's he on about?" Rory asked. He had been told a lot about the Doctor over the years, but the way the Doctor was rambling didn't help anything stick.
"When we visited Amy as a child, the guard spotted the Doctor through the crack in the wall. Did Amy tell you about that?" Danni asked and Rory nodded, "They knew he wasn't Prisoner Zero, I'm guessing, but also saw he was alien. So they followed him as their best lead, coming back when we landed again." Rory nodded, that made a little more sense. Context, that what the Doctor lacked. He seemed to expect everyone to know everything he did.
"Nurse-Boy, give me your phone." The Doctor added, holding his hand out for Rory's phone.
"How can he be real? They were never real." Rory protested. The Doctor made a grabbing motion to towards the phone.
"Phone, now, give me!" He demanded. Rory held it out to him but Danni placed a hand over it, stopping the Doctor taking it.
"Manners." She scolded, "Ask for it nicely or you're not having it."
"Danni..." He started and she shook her head.
"No, I'm not having you being mean to my murse. Ask nicely." The Doctor sighed.
"Can I please have your phone?" He asked, obviously very reluctantly. Danni beamed, kissing him on the cheek, which he turned into a peck on the lips when he saw what she was doing.
"Thank you, Spaceman." She praised, "Give him the phone, Rory." She commanded and Rory, who had begun to feel good at the fact someone was actually standing up for him, sighed in resignation and handed the phone to the Doctor.
"He was just a game. We were kids. You made me dress up as him. You were her." He continued to rant at Amy, "Although, I am starting to understand all the kissing."
"We kiss a lot." Danni told him, the Doctor trying to hide the smile that appeared at that revelation, "You may as well get used to it, Rory. It doesn't get any better."
"These are all coma patients?" The Doctor asked Rory, trying to focus on the task at hand and not the potential snogs he'd get in the future.
"Yeah." Rory replied with a nod.
"No, they're all the multi-form. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero." The Doctor corrected.
"He's using them to blend in. A human disguise for an alien fugitive." Danni added and the Doctor placed a kiss on the top of her head.
"Brilliant, as always." He praised. Amy frowned, not at all jealous of the way her Raggedy Man acted with Danni and stepped slightly closer.
"He had a dog, though. There's a dog in a coma?" She asked and the Doctor shook his head.
"The coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog. Laptop!" He exclaimed suddenly, startling two of the three humans stood there. He turned to Amy, pointing at her dramatically, "Your friend, what was his name? Not him," He motioned to Rory, "the good-looking one."
"Thanks." Rory grumbled.
"Jeff." Amy told him and Rory turned away, annoyed.
"Oh, thanks." He repeated and Danni patted his arm sympathetically.
"Oh, ignore him, he's just jealous I like you." She reassured him. Rory grinned, while the Doctor pouted, upset he'd been caught out.
"He had a laptop in his bag, a laptop." He continued, still only addressing Amy, "Big bag, big laptop, I need Jeff's laptop. You two, get to the hospital, get everyone out, clear the whole floor." He waved Rory's phone pointedly before grabbing Danni's hand, "Phone us when you're done." He pulled her off as he began to run in the direction of Jeff's house, leaving them both stood there.
"You know, you have no reason to be jealous of Rory." She told him gently and he shrugged.
"Oh, I know." He replied, trying to act like he didn't care. She smiled, he was a terrible liar sometimes.
"You and me, Spaceman, until the end of time." She reminded him. He seemed to relax slightly, although she hadn't noticed he'd tensed to begin with.
"That's right, Danni-Girl. You and me." He repeated. Still, he'd show her his incredibly clever plan, just to reinforce the fact that he was perfect for her, and to make sure she didn't look twice at any other man ever again.
~0~0~0~
The Doctor shown off the entire time they had been at Jeff's house, talking quickly as he hacked into a video conference of the greatest minds on the planet. He sent them equations and explanations of great scientific discoveries, proving that he was someone they should listen to. Danni couldn't help but think he was proving himself just a bit too much, and that for some reason he felt the need to show just how much smarter he was than everyone else. Though, Danni thought that might have had something with her practically swooning at the sight of Patrick Moore, who was neither good-looking or alluring, but was exceptionally smart and really, who wouldn't fangirl over Patrick Moore? The only person who she could think of who knew more about the night sky than him was the Doctor?
They'd left Jeff in the presence of the geniuses of the world, ready to convince them to follow the Doctor's plan of resetting the entire world to zero, and began to head towards the hospital, which was nowhere in sight. Pretty quickly Danni had to pull him to the side of a road, bending over as she panted.
"I can't do this." She wheezed, "That hospital could be miles away and we don't have long left! I can't keep up with your energy at the best of times, but you've just regenerated and I haven't." He smirked slightly at the double entendre in her words.
"What do you suggest, then?" He asked, "We don't have the TARDIS, she's still rebuilding."
"Then we need to find some other wheels. A car, or a moped, or something!" She exclaimed. The Doctor scanned the immediate area, dismissing quite a lot of the vehicles pretty much instantly before spotting a pair of firemen walking away from a fire truck just down the road, looking rather baffled at it's escape as they headed off to find a set of keys so they could take it back to the station. He grabbed Danni's hand.
"I have just the thing!" He cried out happily, taking her over and hopping into the drivers seat.
"This is really impractical." She scolded, climbing in next to him, "Dibs on the siren." He groaned.
"No fair!" He moaned and she grinned.
"I called it first." She gloated and he pouted, "Oh, don't be a baby, Theta." The Doctor's head snapped to one side, eyes wide as he stared at her. He suddenly had the overwhelming urge to let the Earth burn any push her back onto the long bench-like seat, leaning over her and making sure she cried that name in a completely different way. He blushed, his own thoughts making him pleasantly uncomfortable as she stared back, eyebrow raised, knowing exactly what she'd done.
Instead, he pulled out his battered screwdriver and held it to the ignition.
"Please." He whispered, pressing the button on it. The last, dying notes buzzed out of the blue end of the screwdriver before it died completely, and the engine switched on. He cheered, and they were soon driving at a fantastic speed towards the hospital. Rory's phone rang, and Danni reached into his pocket, answering it.
"Doctor?" Amy asked on the other end.
"Nope, Danni." She replied.
"Oh." Amy let out, clearly disappointed and Danni smiled. Amy was so cute when she was crushing on the doctor, "Well, we're at the hospital, but we can't get through." Danni nodded, turning to the Doctor.
"They're at the hospital, but they can't get through." She relayed to him.
"Tell her to look in the mirror." The Doctor told her and Danni turned back to the phone.
"He says look in the mirror." She repeated.
"Oh!" Amy stated, confused. Rory asked what was happening, his mumbled words barely making it down the line, "Look in the mirror." Amy repeated, still sounding confused, "Ha-ha! Uniform!" She cried, realising what the Doctor was pointing out, "Are you on your way? You're going to need a car." She asked and Danni nodded, looking up at the ceiling of the fire engine cab.
"Don't worry." Danni reassured her, "The Doctor found us something quite appropriate." She then hung up without any warning, a habit she knew would continue to annoy Amy the entire time they' would know each other. There was no other reason why she did it. The Doctor reached up, ready to turn the siren on and she jumped up, grabbing his hand, "Hey! I called it first!" The Doctor pouted, but she still did the honours, flicking the switch and the sirens began to blare, the Doctor speeding up. He glanced at her, seeing the joyful look on her face and they both began laughing happily together.