Chapter 2: Hurting Heads and Scooby Doo's House

Annalise's car pulled up to the gate once more. She'd been there only just this morning, but it felt like so much longer. Slinging her carpet bag over her shoulder, she exited the vehicle and took careful steps, being sure to maneuver around puddles. Due to the rain, the crisp leaves or earlier had been traded for the type of squelchy mud Anna was loath to clean from her shoes, despite knowing she should. She'd just let it build up until it was unavoidable.

Larry was here too, having walked there after work at Sally's request. As Sally opened the door for the both of them, he blurted out the first thing on his mind.

"You live in Scooby Doo's house!"

Sally and Anna rolled their eyes in sync. "For God's sake, I don't live here."

She let them in and led them into the decrepit drawing room. Larry settled onto the floor and pulled out a portable DVD player and popped in a disk.

"Okay, this is the one with the clearest sound. Bit if a better picture quality on some other ones, but I don't know"

His companions shrugged. "It doesn't really matter."

A slightly fuzzy image of the same man appeared once more on the screen. Larry pointed to him. "Okay. There he is."

"The Doctor," Sally added, nodding.

The Doctor? And then the pain was back. It felt as though something was ramming an anvil repeatedly into Anna's temple. She put her head in her hands, something the other two stayed oblivious to.

"Who's the Doctor?"

"He's the Doctor."

And then, just when Annalise thought things couldn't get any more odd, the man on the screen spoke with eerily accurate timing and precision. "Yup. That's me."

Ignoring her head as best she could, Anna said what was on her mind, "Okay, that was scary."

Larry waved her off. "No, it sounds like he's replying, but he always says that."

"Yes, I do," The Doctor said cheerily.

Larry wasn't fazed at all. "And that."

"Yup. And this." And they were back to a part Anna had heard before.

Sallly was getting even more freaked out by the minute. "He can hear us. Oh, my God, you can really hear us."

Ever the realist, Larry explained why she was wrong, "Of course he can't hear us. Look, I've got a transcript. See? Everything he says. 'Yup, that's me. Yes, I do. Yup, and this.' Next it's--"

"--Are you going to read out the whole thing?" The Doctor and Larry said in sync.

Larry looked sheepish. "Sorry."

Yet Sally still seemed convinced the man on screen could hear her. "Who are you?"

To Anna's surprise, he answered appropriately. "I'm a time traveller. Or I was. I'm stuck in 1969."

And once again, Martha walked on. "We're stuck. All of space and time, he promised me. Now I've got a job in a shop. I've got to support him!"

"Martha."

"Sorry."

Sallly furrowed her eyebrows. "I've seen this bit before."

"I've seen it twice!" Annalise put in.

Larry puffed out his chest. "Well, none of you have got me beat. I've seen it hundreds of times.

"Quite possibly. . ." The Doctor responded, though it looked as though he wanted to add 'you nerd' at the end. A playful glint glimmered in his brown irises, trusting and endearing. He was the type of person Annalise would want as a friend.

Sally just shook her head. "So 1969, that's where you're talking from?"

He nodded on the screen. " 'fraid so."

Sally still didn't completely understand. "But you're replying to me. You can't know exactly what I'm going to say, forty years before I say it."

"Thirty eight." Both him and Anna corrected, before she shot him a look that he couldn't see. Larry looked fascinated as he scribbled on his transcript. "I'm getting this down. I'm writing in your bits."

"How? How is this possible? Tell me."

Larry, quickly switching to shorthand reprimanded Sally, "Not so fast!"

The Doctor started talking again and everyone shut up, "People don't understand time. It's not what you think it is."

"Then what is it?" Anna asked curiously, foolishly wondering if his answer would be different.

"Complicated." Was the only response she got from him.

"Tell us," Sally urged. But the Doctor wasn't budging yet.

"Very complicated."

Sally raise her eyebrows before glaring at the DVD player screen. "I'm clever and I'm listening. And don't patronize me because people have died, and I'm not happy. Tell me."

Seemingly impressed by her rant, the Doctor fixed his glasses and explained, "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey stuff."

Sally looked annoyed, this wasn't quite the answer she's been hoping for. "Yeah, I've seen this bit before. You said that sentence got away from you."

The Doctor scratched the back of his next absently. "It got away from me, yeah."

Sally just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and next thing you're going to say is, well I can hear you."

"Well, I can hear you," The Doctor attempted to explain.

"This isn't possible." Anna shook her head.

"No. It's brilliant!" Larry corrected elatedly, still writing in nearly illegible scrawl.

"Well, not hear you, exactly, but I know everything you're going to say," The Doctor said, waving his hands about to convey his message.

"Always gives me the shivers, that bit," Larry interjected unhelpfully.

Anna tried to ask him something, if he really could hear then surely he would answer. "How can you know what we're going to say?"

"Look to your left." Was the only explanation he offered.

Anna and Sally both snapped their head to their left, where Larry sat, writing away. He looked completely oblivious. "Like, what does he mean by look to your left? I've written tons about that on the forums. I think it's a political statement."

Sally lightly slapped his shoulder. "He means you. What are you doing?"

"I'm writing in your bits. That way I've got a complete transcript of the whole conversation. Wait until this hits the net. This will explode the egg forums."

The Doctor nodded, to confirm what Larry had said, but not about the egg forums, or whatever. "I've got a copy of the finished transcript. It's on my autocue."

"How can you have a copy of the finished transcript? It's still being written." Sally asked confusedly.

"I told you. I'm a time traveller. I got it in the future," The Doctor replied slowly and emphatically, trying to get the point across.

Sally raised her hand up as if she'd had an epiphany; a kind of 'hold everything' gesture. "Okay, I figured it out. . . No, wait. No, let me get my head round this. You're reading aloud from a transcript of a conversation you're still having."

"Wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey?" Both Annalise and the Doctor offered, before she once again shot him a look, resisting he urge to say 'jinx'. Sally looked at her newly acquired friend for a moment before shaking her head and turning her attention to back to Larry.

"Never mind that. You can do shorthand?"

"So?" It seemed that Larry, like Annalise, wanted to move on to more important topics.

The Doctor nodded from on screen, as if agreeing with them. "What matters is, we can communicate. We have got big problems now. They have taken the blue box, haven't they? The angels have the phone box."

"The angels have the phone boy," Larry-the-fanboy quoted excitedly, "That's my favourite bit, I've got it on a t-shirt."

"What do you mean, Angels? You mean those statue things?" Sally questioned.

"Angels? Statues?" Anna interrupted, "What angels?" Did they mean the creatures her gran had warned her about.

"Creatures from another world," He elaborated. Another world? A sharp pang coursed through Anna.

"But they're just statues, aren't they," Larry asked.

"Only when you see them," The Doctor corrected.

"And what, pray tell, does that mean?" Annalise asked, patience running thin.

"The lonely assassins, they used to be called. No one quite knows where they came from, but they're as old as the universe, or very nearly, and they have survived this long because they have the most perfect defence system ever evolved. They are quantum-locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze into rock. No choice. It's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing, they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. Of course, a stone can't kill you either. But then you turn your head away, then you blink, and oh yes it can."

Anna pointed to the statue outside, one that was uncomfortably close to the window. "Okay, so we don't take our eyes off that."

On screen, the Doctor kept explaining, "That's why they cover their eyes. They're not crying. They can't risk looking at each other. Their greatest asset is their greatest curse. They can never be seen. The loneliest creatures in the universe. And I'm sorry. I am very, very sorry. It's up to you now."

"What are we supposed to do?" Sally asked confusedly.

"The blue box, it's my time machine. There is a world of time energy in there they could feast on forever, but the damage they could do could switch off the sun. You have got to send it back to me."

"How?" The three said at the same time.

The Doctor shrugged apologetically. "And that's it, I'm afraid. There's no more from you on the transcript, that's the last I've got. I don't know what stopped you talking, but I can guess. They're coming. The Angels are coming for you. But listen, your life could depend on this. Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink. Good luck."

The picture stopped and gave way to just a blue screen. Sally frantically pressed random buttons on the keyboard. "No! Don't! You can't!"

"I'll rewind him," Larry offered. Sally then smacked him on the shoulder.

"What good would tha-"

Letting them bicker, Anna sighed and removed the disc, having a feeling it would come in handy. When she looked up, she let out shriek, finding herself face-to-face with the gaping mouth of a Weeping Angel.

"Keep looking at it. Keep looking at it." Sally ordered hurriedly.

Larry tried to calm the two women down. "There's just one, right, there's just this one. We're okay if we just keep staring at this one statue. Everything's going to be fine."

"There are three more," Sally said worriedly, "They were upstairs before, but I think I hear them moving."

Sally went and checked the front door while Annalise and Larry kept their eyes on the other statues.

"Don't blink. Remember what he said. Don't even blink," Anna reminded him while they were waiting for Sally.

Larry laughed nervously. "Who blinks? I'm too scared to blink."

They stood in silence until Sally returned, looking panicked. "They've locked us in!"

"Why?"

Sally looked sheepish. "I've got something they want."

"What?" Larry cried out, absolutely terrified.

"The key. I took it last time I was here. They followed me to get it back. I led them to the blue box. Now they've got that."

Every mention of the blue box added more weight onto Annalise's headache. There was a ringing in her ears, a pounding. Bum bum bum bum. Four beats at a time, blocking out everything.

And then Sally was shaking her shoulders. "Anna! Are you alright?" Without even waiting for an answer she grabbed her hand, "C'mon we're going to the cellar. There may be an exit hatch down there. Annalise was just able to snag her carpet bag before she was pulled out.

The Angels followed as the three ran down the stairs. At the base of the steps, a massive blue box stood. Seeing it just made the pain worse for Annalise.

She just barely heard Sally saying, "Oh, my god, it's turning out the lights."

It was nice to know the black spots flickering in Annalise's vision weren't all imaginary. Such a comfort. Forget time, her whole world was wibbly wobbly.

"Quickly!" Larry yelled at Sally.

And suddenly Anna was pulled into the box. She opened her eyes fully, trying to ignore the pounding, and almost fell down when she saw the surrounding room.

If the massive space could even be called a room. It felt comforting, like it was reaching out to Anna. . . or maybe that was just the pain-induced deliriums talking.

"It's bigger on the inside!" Larry exclaimed.

At those words, a hologram appeared. A hologram of The Doctor, "This is security protocol seven one two. This time capsule has detected the presence of an authorised control disc, valid one journey."

"Shit!" Larry cried out, "I left the disc upstairs."

Sinking down to the floor, Annalise was barely able to mutter, "Jacket. . . inner pocket." Before completely curling into a fetal position.

And then the world was shaking around her. Sally and Larry were calling her name, and yelling about something else. The last thing Anna heard was Sally screaming,

"Oh my God, it's leaving us behind! Doctor no, you can't!"

The shaking continued, and a loud whooshing filled the air. The creak of a door rang out before a chipper voice proclaimed, "Aaand we're back! My sexy's returned and-- Oh heeello!"

Unfamiliar hands felt Annalise's neck, searching for a pulse. They found it easily, too easily. Her heart was pounding.

"Who is she?" A new voice questioned, this one female, "Doctor! What's she doing here."

"Well, she's not Sally," The other voice mused.

And then all the pieces clicked into place for Anna. She was in the Doctor's time machine. The pounding still in her head, she met their eyes.

"My. . . head!" She groaned. "Why won't the pounding stop? Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Over and over!"

The Doctor knit his eyebrows together. "The TARDIS wasn't supposed to bring anyone back. She must've done so for a reason."

"Doctor! Have you even been listening to her? It's her head, she's getting this pounding."

"My bag!" Anna gasped out, "It's in there."

The Doctor went to her purse and looked through it, "Wallet-- boring. Drivers license-- Ew. Clothing-- Oh my. Erm, oh look! Something else." And then he froze.

"Doctor?" Martha prodded him gently. "What is-- Is that a fob watch?"

The pounding was getting louder, the entire time it had been coming from the watch.

"Open me!" A little voice whispered, "It's time."

Lunging forward-- and trying to ignore the throbbing pain it caused --Annalise snatched the watch from the Doctor's hands and pressed the button to open it. Something that had never worked before.

Golden dust flew from the inside of the watch to her face, and her head snapped back with a sickening crack before she fell to the floor.

•••
Hey! I hope y'all are liking it so far, I'm really excited for this story, and I've got big plans. Please tell me what you think of it in the comments, and whatever suggestions you might have (or things cleared up), because I'd love to make this an awesome fanfic.

Love y'all!
Peeves