I can't believe how close to the end of the book we are! It's right there ah!

If you thought book one was good just wait until you see what I have planned for book two!

Onwards!

─── ｡ﾟ☆･*.☽ .* ☆ﾟ. ───

━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━
AIR CIRCULATION
━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━

Hollie woke up to the sound of the shower running and the Doctor loudly singing off-key in said shower. She winced at the uncomfortable position she had somehow managed to fall asleep in, the almost finished scanner on the bed.

It didn't take her long to get dressed, she was quicker than the Doctor, who was still in the shower and still singing loudly, she had almost finished getting dressed, and she swore her shoes were somewhere around the bed... it was hard to find anything with the mess the Doctor created the night before. Hollie continued to search before she was hauled as she looked up at the ceiling, a loud bang came from upstairs. She frowned deeply. It couldn't be the Doctor, she could still hear him in the shower, her eyes widened; but what if it was Craig?

Hollie swiftly headed out of the bedroom, her eyes widening instantly as she found herself staring at the Doctor's bare arse, the Time Lord running out of the bathroom.

She squeaked loudly as the Doctor bent over to retrieve the towel that was suddenly around his ankles. Hollies cheeks reddened as the seconds went by. The Doctor's whole body was still dripping wet and his hair was a complete soaking mess as he ran towards the stairs, towel now around his waist. Was that an electric toothbrush in his hand?

Hollie wished the universe would just swallow her whole and make her disappear after what she had just witnessed. She never expected to see that in a million years; although she wouldn't complain about what she saw.

"What happened, what's going on?" The Doctor demanded, pointing the toothbrush up the stairs. Craig turned around at the top of the stairs to look at the Time Lord.

Craig pointed at the device in the Doctor's hand. "Is that my toothbrush?"

"Correct. You spoke to the man upstairs?" He questioned.

"Yeah."

"What did he look like?"

"More normal than you do at the moment, mate." He replied, eyeing the Time Lord. "What are you doing?"

"I thought you might be in trouble." The Doctor answered.

"Thanks." Craig chuckled. "Well, if I ever am, you can come and save me with my toothbrush." He slipped past the Time Lord, heading to the kitchen as his phone rang.

Hollie blinked suddenly noticing the Doctor was now staring at her. Or was she the one staring at him?

She quickly turned around, opting to go back into the bedroom. The Doctor frowned at the back of the blonde's head. 'What's up with her?' He hummed to himself and then spun around as the front door opened, a smiling woman with long blonde hair who looked roughly the same age as Craig walked in, blinking at the Time Lord.

"Oh! Hello." She greeted slightly stunned by the Doctor's clothes, or rather lack of them.

"Ah! Hello." He smiled widely. "The Doctor."

"Right." She eyed him slightly.

"You must be Sophie." He guessed, air kissing both her cheeks, the blonde woman blinked slightly stunned.

The Doctor walked into the flat, Sophie followed while Craig stood on the phone.

"No, Dom's in Malta." He said on the phone. "There's nobody around." He noticed the Time Lord walk in. "Hang on a sec. We've got a match today, pub league. We're one down if you fancy it?"

"Pub league." He frowned. "A drinking competition?"

"No, football," Craig answered. "Play football."

"Football." He murmured thoughtfully suddenly remembering back to what Amy had said yesterday. "Football. Yes, blokes play football. I'm good at football, I think."

"You've saved my life." He cheered, patting the Doctor on his cheek before addressing the phone again: "I've got somebody. Yeah, all right, I'll see you down there." He hung up the phone. "Hey, Soph."

"Hey, I thought I'd come early and meet your new flatmates." She said happily and frowned. "I thought you said there were two?"

The Doctor frowned, spinning around, she wasn't still asleep because he saw her in the hallway after he had met Sophie...

His eyes widened.

The hallway!

The Doctor swallowed hard — If she had left the bedroom when he was in the hallway then that meant—

"Doctor?" Sophie frowned, looking at him oddly. "Are you okay?"

Why was it suddenly really hot in the flat? "Yeah." He replied. Blinking slightly. "We just had a late night, I think Holls is still asleep." He eyed the bedroom door briefly and then turned back to Sophie and Craig. "Do you play, Sophie?"

"No, Soph just stands on the sidelines." Craig cut in. "She's my mascot."

"I'm your mascot?" Sophie frowned, looking at him baffled. "Mascot?"

Craig began to shift uncomfortably under Sophie and now the Doctors gaze. "Well, yeah, not my mascot. It's a football match. I can't take a date." His eyes widened as the words left his lips.

Sophie frowned deeper at him, the Doctor's eyes darting between the humans. "I didn't say I was your date."

"Neither did I."

The Doctor stood there silently, still looking between them before he pointed his thumb behind himself at his and Hollies room cutting the silence like a knife as he spoke: "Better get dressed."

"The spare kit's just in the bottom drawer," Craig added, almost stumbling over his words while the Doctor was already half in the room, his head poking out briefly. "Bit of a mess."

The Doctor frowned stopping in his tracks before spinning around and opening the door again, poking his head out for a second time to hear Sophie reply to something Craig had said: "I have got another set."

"You've got two sets of keys to someone else's house?" The Doctor questioned.

"Yeah." She shrugged.

"I see." He noted. "You must like it here too."

The Doctor then slipped back into the room, closing the door behind him. He blinked when suddenly noticing Hollie sat on the bed not taken up yet by the scanner, her eyes glued to her phone. "Holls?" He called.

She looked up at him, blinking. "Hey." She forced a smile.

Why couldn't she get that image of him out of her head? It wasn't like it was traumatic; it was anything but traumatic.

The Doctor chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment as she watched him closely. "When did you wake up?"

"Not long after you went into the shower." She shrugged and a smile crept onto the corner of her lips. "Your singing is awful."

The Doctor chuckled; thank the gods his accidental towel slip didn't make things too awkward between them. "Sorry, it woke you up."

She shook her head. "I had to get up eventually." She then nodded to the door. "I heard a woman out there?"

"Craigs 'friend' Sophie." He replied with air quotation marks while Hollie nodded. "She has two keys to a flat she doesn't even live in."

Hollie frowned. "I have two keys to the TARDIS?"

"You kept misplacing the first one." The Doctor replied.

She rolled her eyes at the Time Lord. "I left them in my art room once!"

"The one time we needed to get to the TARDIS while being chased by the Daleks and you left your key on the TARDIS."

Hollie laughed at him. "Where was your key?"

"I gave it to you!" He huffed.

Hollie blinked. "You gave me your TARDIS key?"

"Well, yeah." He nodded slightly.

What was with the air circulation in the flat? It was truly awful. He was warm again, or was that just embarrassment catching up with him? "I couldn't let you keep going without one and then you lost the first so I gave you mine."

"Art room." She countered.

The Doctor rolled his eyes playfully while Hollie raised a brow at him: "And Amy?"

The Doctor shifted under her watchful gaze.

That bloody air circulation — again. "I gave her the spare."

Hollie shook her head smiling at him. "Oh, Doctor. You are an idiot."

The Doctor huffed but continued smiling at her. "Shut up, Holls." He suddenly spun around, pressing on the earpiece in his ear. "Hello Pond!" He loudly announced. "We're going out." He nodded at the blonde over his shoulder. "If we hang about the house all the time, him upstairs might get suspicious and notice me."

Hollie frowned. "What are we doing?"

"I'm doing football." He grinned, running over to a set of draws and opening them before pulling out a blue football kit.

Hollie laughed at the back of it. "Look at that!" She giggled shaking her head.

The Doctor frowned, turning it around and grinning at the number eleven printed on it.

"Football." Amy hummed. "Okay, well done. That is normal."

"Yeah, football. All outdoorsy." He hummed, pulling the shirt onto his head and looking down as Hollie giggled loudly once again.

He blushed slightly and quickly corrected his shirt so it was facing the right way. "Shush Holls." He grumbled. He suddenly blinked, looking at Hollie. "Now, football's the one with the sticks, isn't it?"

That only sent her into fits of giggles again. "Oh, Doctor. I'll find a video to explain the basics to you."

×××

The Doctor walked through the park with Hollie beside him, and Craig and Sophie on his other side.

"What are you actually called?" Craig questioned, frowning as he looked at the Time Lord. "What's your proper name?"

"Just call me the Doctor." The Doctor smiled.

"I can't go up to these guys and say hey, this is my new flatmate he's called the Doctor." He shook his head and Hollie giggled.

The Doctor frowned. "Why not?"

"Because it's weird."

"You don't get normal when it comes to him," Hollie spoke through her giggles.

"Oi!" The Doctor huffed as they reached the pitch.

"All right, Craig." A man greeted them. "Soph. All right, mate."

"Hello, I'm one of Craig's new flatmates." He greeted. "I'm called the Doctor."

Hollie quickly pulled the Doctor away before he managed to give more air kisses to anyone else. "And I'm Hollie."

"All right, Doctor, Hollie. I'm Sean." He shook the blonde's hand and turned back to the Time Lord. "So, where are you strongest?"

"Arms." The Doctor replied.

Hollie giggled and the Doctor looked at her confused while Craig explained:

"No, he means what position on the field."

The Doctor shrugged. "Not sure. The front? The side?" He guessed. "Below."

"Are you any good though?" Sean asked.

Hollie grinned, no matter what way the game went she was going to enjoy watching this.

×××

With the game underway, Hollie watched beside Sophie from the sidelines, how the Doctor the clumsiest man she knew could not only play football but play it well was beyond her. The Doctor was dribbling the ball past the enemy team like he was a pro and had easily scored at least five goals before the first half had even finished. By the end of the game almost everyone, even the enemy team's fans were shouting the Doctor's name as he scored another goal.

Hollie cheered with the rest of the spectators, she winced slightly at the unamused look on Craig's face as the Doctor ignored passing the ball to him as he scored yet another goal.

By the end of the game, it was clear who the winning team were and the Doctor grinned widely as he celebrated with the rest of the team before he ran over to the blonde. "Was I good?' He questioned.

"Good?" She laughed hugging him. "How can you play like that?" She questioned. "You can barely walk in a straight line sometimes."

"Oi!" He playfully narrowed his eyes at her before grinning again as Sean ran over to them, patting the Doctor on the back.

"You are so on the team." He cheered. "Next week we've got the Crown and Anchor. We're going to annihilate them."

The Doctors head snapped to the man, his face growing serious in a second. "Annihilate? No. No violence, do you understand me?" He warned. "Not while I'm around. Not today, not ever. I'm the Doctor, the Oncoming Storm—"

The Doctor sighed Hollies giggles now filled the air,

"and you basically meant beat them in a football match, didn't you?"

Sean looked between the pair oddly. "Yeah."

"Lovely." He grinned. "What sort of time?"

Craig opened a can of beer, spilling it everywhere and everyone laughed before it happened again, and again and again.

"Doctor?" Hollie questioned, taking the Time Lord's hand as he pressed the earpiece in his ear.

"Amy?" He questioned as Hollie looked at him worryingly. "Amy?"

"It's happening again." She winced as the TARDIS shook around her. "Worse."

The Doctor frowned. "What does the scanner say?"

"A lot of nines." She answered. "Is it good that they're nines? Tell me it's good that they're all nines."

"Yes, yes, it's, it's good. Zigzag plotter. Zigzag plotter, Amy."

The Doctor's eyes widened as he heard a bang followed by a scream. "Amy? Are you there?"

"Yes. Hello." She groaned.

"Oh, thank heavens. I thought for a moment the TARDIS had been flung off into the vortex with you inside it, lost forever."

"Doctor!" Hollie shouted in horror.

"What, you mean that could actually happen?" Amy snapped. "You have got to get me out of here."

"How are the numbers?"

"All fives."

"Fives?" He nodded to himself. "Even better, still, it means the effect's almost unbelievably powerful and dangerous, but don't worry. Hang on, okay?" The Doctor turned to Hollie. "I've got some rewiring to do."

×××

It was late afternoon when Hollie heard a knock on the door of the bedroom and the Doctor poked his head out of the door. "Hello, flatmate." The Doctor greeted, a traffic cone of all things in his hands.

"Hey, man." Craig nodded. "Er, listen. Er, Sophie's coming round tonight and I was wondering if you could give us some space?"

"Oh, don't mind me. You won't even know we're here." He nodded and looked up as a loud bang came from above. He frowned slightly. "That's the idea." He suddenly shut the door and quickly placed the traffic cone on the scanner still in progress. "Yes!" He beamed. "What a beauty."

Hollie giggled at him while shaking her head. "What did Craig want."

"Sophies coming round later so he wanted us to give him space." He waved off as he began to mess with the scanner a bit more, adding a broom before giving it a spin.

Hollie crossed her arms. "And you're going to listen?"

The Doctor stopped what he was doing and looked at her, wincing when the broom he had just added hit him in the back. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're not the best at following instructions, Doctor."

"I can!" He huffed.

Hollie raised a brow at him. "You completely ignored mine the other day when we played that drawing game with Amy and Cass."

"In my defence, my version looked better." He defended, crossing his arms and pouting at her.

"It cost us the game, Doctor." She rolled her eyes.

The Doctor stuck his tongue out at her. "Plus we won't be leaving the room anyway, this needs to be perfected before it can start its thing.

×××

It didn't take the Doctor long to finish his work and he grew more bored as the time went on. He was determined to prove to Hollie that he could follow instructions until it became unbearable and he found himself crawling along the kitchen floor, a normal screwdriver in hand with wires around his neck.

"Doctor!" Hollie hissed at him as she crawled after the Time Lord. She had only been in the bathroom for two minutes and in those two minutes, the Doctor had got himself into trouble quicker than you could say TARDIS.

"Where's this going?" Hollie heard Sophie ask Craig.

"I think that we should..." He began.

"Mmm?"

The Doctor popped his head out from behind the sofa. Hollie's face palmed. 'Idiot'.

"Hello." He smiled at the pair and Hollie sighed standing up, crossing her arms and looking at the Time Lord disapprovingly.

"What?" Craig looked between the pair.

"Sorry." The Doctor apologised. "Don't worry, I wasn't listening. In a world of my own down there."

Craig frowned. "Just re-connecting all the electrics." The Doctor informed. "It's a real mess." He held up a normal screwdriver. "Where's the on switch for this?"

"Give me that." Hollie huffed and snatched the normal screwdriver out of his hand.

"They really are just on their way out," Craig told Sophie.

"No, I don't mind. I mean, if you don't mind."

"I don't mind." Craig shrugged and added slightly bitterly: "Why would I mind?"

"Then stay." Sophie looked at the Doctor and Hollie. "Have a drink with us."

"What?" The Doctor looked at Hollie. "Do I have to stay now?"

She face palmed again.

"Do you want to stay?" Craig asked.

"I don't mind." He shrugged and looked at the blonde who slowly shook her head. "Holls."

She waved him off. "I give up." She announced with a sigh.

"Great," Craig muttered, his one hope in getting the Doctor out so he could be alone with Sophie crumbled in front of his very eyes.

Hollie perched on the armrest of the chair the Doctor was sitting on, a glass of red wine in her hand. The Doctor still had a bunch of wires around his neck and Hollie had reluctantly given him the screwdriver back. "Because life can seem pointless, you know, Doctor," Sophie explained. "Work, weekend, work, weekend. And there's six billion people on the planet doing pretty much the same."

"Six billion people." He hummed. "Watching you two at work, I'm starting to wonder where they all come from."

Sophie frowned. "Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"So then, the call centre." He changed the conversation as Hollie slightly jabbed him in the side as she placed her glass on the coffee table. "That's no good, then. What do you really want to do?"

"Don't laugh." She ordered. "I only ever told Craig about it. I want to work looking after animals. Maybe abroad? " She said thoughtfully. "Saw this orangutan sanctuary on telly."

The Doctor looked at her. "What's stopping you?"

"She can't. You need loads of qualifications." Craig explained.

"Yeah, true. Plus it's scary. Everyone I know lives round here. Like, Craig got offered a job in London. Better money. He didn't take it."

"What's wrong with staying here? I can't see the point of London."

"Well, perhaps that's you, then. Perhaps you'll just have to stay here, secure and a little bit miserable, till the day you drop." He hummed. "Better than trying and failing, eh?"

Sophie frowned at the Time Lord. "You think I'd fail?"

"Everybody's got dreams, Sophie. Very few are going to achieve them," he shrugged at her, "so why pretend?" He picked up a glass of wine and took a sip before letting it pour back into the glass from his mouth.

"Doctor." Hollie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "That was my glass."

The Time Lord blinked. "Oops, sorry Holls." He apologised.

"And I was enjoying it." She grumbled, pushing the glass away as he went to hand it to her.

The Doctor placed it back on the table and looked back at Sophie. "Perhaps, in the whole wide universe, a call centre about is where you should be."

"Why are you saying that?" She questioned. "That's horrible."

"Is it true?" "Of course, it's not true." She denied. "I'm not staying in a call centre all my life. I can do anything I want." She blinked as the Doctor smiled. "Oh, yeah. Right. Oh, my God." She began to laugh and looked at Craig. "Did you see what he just did?"

"No, sorry," the man looked between the Doctor and Sophie. "What's happening? Are you going to live with monkeys now?"

The Time Lord shrugged lightly. "It's a big old world, Sophie. Work out what's keeping you here, eh?" He raised a brow.

"I don't know. " She muttered. "I don't know."

×××

Hollie sighed as she closed the door to the bedroom and raised her eyebrows at the Doctor before holding out her hand to him.

He frowned looking at her and then slowly took her hand in his.

She shook her head and giggled slightly. "No, you owe me now." She informed him.

"Owe you?" He looked at her puzzled.

"You said you could follow instructions and you didn't."

"That wasn't a bet!" He blinked at her. "When did we agree on that?"

"You said you could and you didn't." She laughed. "You cock blocked Craig!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Stop flirting!" Amy shouted into the Doctor's ear.

"Ow!" He whined ripping off the earpiece. "Pond!" He huffed. "Sensitive ears!"

"Sorry." She apologised before adding. "She's right though."

"Not you too." He huffed. "Can you two stop ganging up on me for one second?"

"Not going to happen," Hollie smirked as Amy also answered:

"Nope."

The Doctor huffed, pouting slightly before he started up the scanner. "Shields are up. Let's scan." He nodded approvingly at the device he had made.

"Is it actually going to work?" Hollie questioned, looking unconvinced at the contraption in front of her. A rake, a broom and an oar spun around, pointing upwards while a clothesline was upside down on the floor, a large lampshade on top of it with fairy lights around that and a traffic cone on the top. "It looks like an awful art project made in year three." She chuckled.

"Oi!" He glared.

Amy rolled her eyes at the pair. "What are you getting?"

"Upstairs." He answered. "No traces of high technology. Totally normal?" He lightly hit a clock taped to the scanner. "No, no, no, no, no, it can't be. It's too normal."

"Too normal?" Hollie snorted as Amy added"

"Only for you could too normal be a problem. You said I could be lost forever. Just go upstairs." She pleaded.

"Without knowing and get myself and possibly Holls killed?" He questioned. "Then you really are lost. If I could just get a look in there." He blinked thoughtfully. "Hold on. Use the data bank. Get me the plans of this building. I want to know its history, the layout, everything."

"Meanwhile, I shall recruit a spy." He hummed grinning.

Hollie groaned. They were going to be stuck here forever.

─── ｡ﾟ☆･*.☽ .* ☆ﾟ. ───

I edited this chapter at two in the morning because I am determined to stay on schedule no matter what. I would be ahead if my brother hadn't broken his ankle while playing rugby. Oh well at least it isn't a bad fracture!