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Craig walked Sophie to the front door, smiling even though he was fuming inside. By the time the Doctor had been done convincing Sophie to jet off to go live with monkeys, Sophie had been tired and wanted to go home.
"So, are you going to be taking off then, seeing the world?" Craig asked her with a smile. He didn't want to seem too against the idea, after all why wouldn't he want his friend to go have an adventure of a lifetime? Halfway across the world. With monkeys.
"What? Do you think I should?" She asked hopefully, shooting him that smile he'd never been able to resist.
"Yeah... Like the Doctor says," he motioned behind him at the flat, "what's keeping you here?"
"Yeah, exactly! What?" She eyed him, willing him to say something but they just stared at each other, "Bye." She replied reluctantly and they hugged tightly, neither of them really wanting to let go.
"See you." Craig patted her arm, just in case... well, he wasn't sure what it was 'just in case' of, but he did it anyway.
"See you in a bit."
~0~0~0~
The Doctor had, by the time he'd finished his scanner, found that he'd had to remove the mattress off the bed to fit the entire device in the room with enough space to spin it's make-shift propeller-like arms fully. This had left Danni to lie on the duvet on the floor, just too tired to keep awake any longer. He'd covered her in his jacket so she wouldn't be cold as she was using the only cover they had as a mattress. He paused his final inspection of the device to watch her tap the rhythm of four on her own skull gently, her breathing steady and deep, indicating it was purely an involuntary action.
She hadn't initially wanted to tell him when she was from, but when he'd pressed she'd admitted she had just come from the Byzantium, which meant she'd been the Danni who had been there the last time he'd seen River. Which meant she was becoming increasingly paranoid about the archaeologist, and that worried him. It meant she was shortly be going to Midnight, and he knew that wasn't going to be good...
"Right." He called into his communicator as he turned it on, taking his mind off that particular adventure, "Shield's up. Let's scan!" He began to gently spin the machine, ducking out of the way of the wooden arms as they swung around by his head.
"What are you getting?" Amy asked on the other side of the connection, becoming impatient.
"Upstairs." He told her, running over to a digital clock and spinning it around so he could read the results, "No traces of high technology. Totally normal. No no, no, no, it can't be! It's too normal!" He exclaimed, moving back to the main bulk of the device. Too normal meant that whatever was up there was trying to hide themselves from the outside world, and in his experience good guys never hid. Danni stirred at his loud yell and he paused, relaxing only when she mumbled but didn't wake up. He had to be quieter.
"Only for you could too normal be a problem." Amy retorted, "You said I could be lost forever. Just go upstairs."
"Without knowing, get myself killed, then you really are lost." He replied in a whisper, looking at the wrists watches spinning around with the arms, "If I could just get a look in there... Hold on." He grabbed one of the watches, stopping the device in its tracks as an idea struck him, "Use the data bank, get me the plans of this building - its history, the layout, everything. Meanwhile, I shall recruit a spy." He turned the communicator off; if upstairs had this level of technology he could only keep the communication link open for as little time as possible.
"River..." His eyes shot over to Danni, who had sobbed the woman's name before rolling over restlessly. He sat on the floor next to her, leaning against the wall as he pushed her hair behind her ear.
"I promised, and I meant it." He whispered in her ear, "Dream of something happy, Danni-Girl." He pressed his finger to her temple and sent her the few memories of her old universe he had seen, recalling every story she had ever told him. He smiled as she sighed, content.
~0~0~0~
Meanwhile, Craig slowly walked over to his coffee table with a resigned sigh, picking up the wine glass he had left there. He was such a coward, but there was no way she would stay just for him. He looked up at the ceiling, seeing the stain and frowning. Sophie was right, it was getting bigger. It was now reaching down from his ceiling towards the other sofa pushed against the wall. He stood on the sofa to get a better look, eyeing it uncertainly. Danni had said not to touch it, but she'd barely looked at it. And the Doctor had been suspicious of it as well.
"The Rotmeister..."He muttered to himself, he was a ridiculous man. How had he managed to get a girlfriend and he hadn't? Craig reached up and touched the very edge of the rot, an electric shock shooting through the tip of his fingers, "Ahh! Ow!" He stepped down off the sofa and looked at his fingers, the tips black with mould. He shook his hand, that really hurt!
~0~0~0~
The Doctor knocked on Craig's bedroom door, a tray full of breakfast goodies balanced in his grasp. He'd left Danni to sleep a little longer, scared of waking her up so he'd set himself the task of making up his interfering the night before. He could see the pair needed a kick start otherwise they'd never get together, but of course they didn't see it that way.
"Craig! Craig? Breakfast. It's normal." There was no answer and he frowned, concerned. He knew Craig hadn't got up to go to work yet, so why wasn't he answering, "Craig?" He struggled to open the door and stepped into his room, seeing the man passed out on his bed, "Craig!" He rushed over, placing the tray at the edge of the bed. He then knelt beside the unconscious man, grabbing his arm.
"Craig, Danni told you not to touch it! Why does no one ever listen to her?" He growled, looking at the long black streak of poison visible in the veins in his arm, "What's that? An unfamiliar and obviously poisonous substance. 'Oh, I know what would be really clever, I'll stick my hand in it!' Come on, Craig, breathe." He pounded on Craig's chest, right in the middle and Craig shot up with a gasp, coughing at the air that poured into his lungs, "Come on, Craig, breathe! Thems are healthy footballer's lungs!" He grabbed the teapot from the forgotten breakfast, running out into the hallway and towards the kitchen, "Right. Reverse the enzyme decay. Excite the tannin molecules." He skidded to a stop, seeing Danni looking like she had just woken up but holding a mass of teabags.
"He touched the rot, didn't he?" She asked, yawning at the end and he nodded. He held the teapot out and she shoved the teabags into the top.
~0~0~0~
Danni had helped the Doctor prop Craig up against his pillows, the poor man sweating and shivering as his body tried to fight off the foreign substance invading his bloodstream. The Doctor held the spout of the teapot to his lips, helping him drink the concentrated tea. When Danni had woken up, she remembered what had happened that morning, she had forced herself to get up and gathered every teabag in the kitchen she could find. The Doctor had taken longer than she thought he'd take to rush in, though. She must have woken up the moment he'd left the kitchen, breakfast in hand.
"I've got to go to work." Craig told them both hoarsely as Danni wiped his forehead with a damp cloth.
"On no account. You need rest. One more." The Doctor tipped the pot, Craig struggling to swallow another mouthful.
"It's the planning meeting, it's important." He insisted weakly.
"You're important." The Doctor corrected, placing the teapot down, "You're going to be fine, Craig." Craig fell unconscious again, but this time to help himself recover. The Doctor looked at Danni, who shrugged with a conspiring grin.
"If it's important, someone should go." She pointed out, "We don't want to get him into trouble." The Doctor nodded, pulling her out of the room.
~0~0~0~
Craig burst into his office at the call centre in a panic. He'd slept in, this was a disaster. He'd loose the account, even his job for this and while he hated it, Sophie was there. He couldn't leave her alone to meet someone else and move on.
"Oh, afternoon." His boss greeted as he stopped, panting.
"I'm so sorry, Michael, I don't know what happened, I've got no excuse." He begged for forgiveness as he leant on the top of his desk. He still felt a bit under the weather, but it seemed unimportant now.
"I think that's not what my screen is telling me, Mr Lang." The Doctor popped up from under his desk, headset on as his talked to the customer on the other end.
"What's he doing here?" Craig exclaimed before turning to the man, "What are you doing here?" The Doctor grinned at him, obviously enjoying himself, but didn't reply.
"If that's your attitude, Mr Lang, please take your custom elsewhere." He blew a raspberry into the headset before hanging up on the rude man. Some people had no manners.
"No, no, no, that's one of my best clients!" Craig protested.
"Craig, how are you feeling? Had some time to kill, I was curious, never worked in an office. Never worked in anywhere." He told the man, who stared angry and bewildered.
"You're insane!"
"Leave off the Doctor, I love the Doctor. He was brilliant in the planning meeting." Michael told him pointedly, the Doctor grinning proudly.
"You went to the planning meeting?" What the hell was going on? Was he trying to steal his life or something? Why would he want his life, from the little he knew the man he had a much better life than he did. Lots of money, the woman he loved. The ability to just decide to go take over someone else's job, why would he trade that in for Craig's mundane existence?
"Yes. I was your representative. We don't need Mr Lang any more. Rude Mr Lang." The Doctor explained as there was a cheer from behind them. Craig spun on the spot to see Danni sat behind another computer, arms in the air in triumph.
"I did it!" She screamed and the rest of the office cheered her, clapping as she did a little dance in her chair, arms still raised.
"Did what?!" Craig demanded.
"Beat Michael's score at Peggle!" She explained, "I am the Peggle Queen!" She had been addicted to Peggle in her own universe. Many university projects had been put off because of the little brightly-coloured game of skill, she was fantastic at it. Sophie walked over, offering her a biscuit and Danni took one with a squeal of delight.
"Ooo, custard creams! My favourite. You are an angel, my dear." She bit into it happily as Sophie laughed, shaking her head as she headed over to the Doctor, placing the mug of tea she'd made him on the desk in front of him.
"Here you go, and I found some custard creams!" The Doctor reached forward, grabbing a bicuit of the plate."
"Sophie, my hero." He praised. Sophie turned to Craig, rocking on her heels nervously.
"Hi, Craig. I went on the web, applied for a wildlife charity thing. They said I could always start as a volunteer straight away. Should I do it?" She asked him. Craig shrugged, unable to look away from the Doctor, who was still sat in his chair, in his office, doing his job as if it was the most normal thing in the universe for him to be doing.
"Yeah, great, yeah, good, go for it." He brushed off.
"You look awful. About turn! Bed. Now." The Doctor commanded as Sophie walked away, dejected, "Who next?" He typed on the keyboard, "Oh, yes." Craig, not knowing what to do, turned to his boss who waved goodbye. He headed out of the door in a daze, glancing over at Craig, "Hello, Mr Joergensen. Can you hold? I have to eat a biscuit." He watched Danni walk over to Sophie, was had watched Craig go on the verge of tears. She sat on the edge of the girls desk, her legs swinging in the air.
"Men are idiots." Danni told her with a smile, "But they always come through in the end. Just give him a little more time, I promise it'll work out."
"How do you know that?" Sophie asked her quietly.
"Because I can see how much you mean to him. He just has to gain the courage to admit it out loud. Sometimes it takes the idea of someone never coming back to make us realise what exactly they are to us." She looked over at the Doctor, smiling gently at the man who was chatting happily away to someone on the phone. She'd had more dreams about River last night, but then they'd changed to nicer memories, not dreams at all but actual memories from her old life back home. She knew it was him, somehow the Doctor had calmed her down and it just made her love him all the more. She'd woken up that morning determined to focus, to not let the noise to drive her paranoia up. He'd promised on two separate occasions now that he wasn't going to marry River, and this was the first time she'd believed him. The Wedding of River Song wouldn't happen, she just knew it.
~0~0~0~
"I just don't see what people are complaining about." The Doctor explained, swinging Danni's hand as they walked home from Craig's office, "If that's what work is, they should be happy. It was brilliant."
"That wasn't actual work though." Danni pointed out, "That was you charming an entire office while talking to random people on the phone. Pretty much every other job on the planet is nothing like that."
"No," He disagreed, the pair walking up the steps to the front door, "I was being normal, just like Amy told me to do."
"All right. Imagine this then; doing that all day, every day for roughly 50 years, give or take." He paused, his hand at the lock as he thought about it then nodded.
"Yeah, maybe not." He admitted, "Still, for my first ever day at work I don't think I did too bad."
"'First day'?" Danni repeated, "Do I have to remind you about the exploding chickens?"
"I wish Martha never told you about that." He grumbled,unlocking the door and letting her into the hallway first, "You're never going to let it go are you?" They paused, seeing a fluffy cat sat on the stairs, as if it was waiting for them to come home again.
"Ah, your spy." Danni stated, "And an adorable one as well." They both walked over as the cat meowed.
"Have you been upstairs?" The cat meowed again, answering his question, "Yes?" The cat let out a long, deep-throated gurgle as it stopped a few steps from the bottom. Danni sat next to it, stroking it's fur with a smile. Oh, he was so soft, she loved cats. Her mum wouldn't let her get one, she could appreciate why really because she'd have been awful at looking after it, but she still had moaned about a cat for all her teenage life.
"What's his name?" Danni asked the Doctor, the cat meowing in response.
"Terrence, apparently." The Doctor replied with a mildly surprised look. Danni smiled, pulling the cat onto her lap.
"Hello, Terrence." She said quietly, the cat pawing her before making itself comfortable. The Doctor sat next to her, reaching over to stroke it as well.
"You can do it. Show me what's up there?" He told the cat gently, it replying with a series of meows, "What's behind that door? Try to show me. Ohh, that doesn't make sense! Ever see anyone go up there? Lots of people? Good good. What kind of people?" He frowned, looking up at the door then at Danni, "People who never come back down. That's very bad." The front door to the flat opened, Craig staring at the pair, confused and frustrated. The Doctor blinked at him but Danni smiled.
"Hi Craig!" She greeted happily, "You look much better. Have you met Terrence? He's absolutely gorgeous." Craig continued to stare at the Doctor as Danni turned back to Terrence, giving him a cuddle.
"I can't take this any more." Craig stated firmly, "I want you to go!" He turned and walked back into the flat. The Doctor and Danni stared at each other, alarmed, before the Doctor scrambled up, following him into the front room while Danni gently placed Terrence back onto the stairs.
"You can have this back an' all." Craig told the Doctor, shoving the paper bag of money they had given him back at him.
"What have we done?" The Doctor asked.
"Danni? Nothing, except put up with you maybe. It's you, get out."
"What have I done?" The Doctor exclaimed, turning to Danni who shrugged. How was she supposed to explain to him he hadn't actually done anything other than be himself?
"For a start, talking to a cat." Craig listed, pointing to the door. The Doctor chucked the paper bag over his shoulder, showering the floor and Danni in notes. Danni sighed, resigned to picking up his mess yet again.
"Lots of people talk to cats. Including Danni." The Doctor retorted.
"Everybody loves you, you're better at football than me, and my job, and now Sophie's all 'Oh, monkeys, monkeys!' and then..." He ranted, storming over to their bedroom door and chucking it open, revealing the scanner, "There's that!" The Doctor dashed over, standing close to Craig as he tried to block his view of the device.
"It's art! A statement on modern society, 'Ooh, ain't modern society awful?'" He reached over and stopped it spinning. Danni sat down on the pile of covers she had woken up on.
"Actually it's a scanner." She explained and the Doctor spun to stare at her.
"Danni!" He cried and she rolled her eyes.
"Why not tell him the truth?" She replied, "It's not like he'll believe me anyway." Craig shook his head at the pair, how did she manage to understand anything he was going on about?
"Me and you," Craig motioned between himself and the Doctor, "it's not gonna work out. You've been here three days, the three weirdest days of my life."
"Your days will get a lot weirder if we go!" Danni smiled to herself, he kept saying 'we'. It wasn't like he was thinking of himself, or even leaving her in the flat while he left. It was both of them or neither of them in his mind.
"I thought it was good weird, but it's not, it's bad weird! I can't do this any more!" Craig exclaimed.
"I can't leave this place. I'm like you, I can't see the point of anywhere else. Madrid, hah, what a dump! We have to stay." The Doctor insisted firmly.
"No, you don't, you have to leave!"
"I can't go!" The Doctor shouted.
"Just get out!" Craig shouted back. The Doctor reached over, grabbing the lapels of Craig's work jacket and pulled him close.
"Oh, please don't head-butt him." Danni groaned, but the Doctor had already made up his mind.
"Right! Only way! I'm going to show you something, but ssh, really, ssh! Oh, I am going to regret this. OK, right... First, general background!" He head-butted Craig, sending him snapshots of his memories and general background information. The pair broke apart, each groaning in pain, Danni shaking her head. There must be a better way of doing that.
"You're a..." Craig panted, his mouth wide open in shock as he saw everything the Doctor sent him.
"Yes." The Doctor nodded, leaning against the wall and holding his forehead.
"From..." Craig pointed towards the sky and the Doctor nodded again, holding his finger to his lips.
"Ssh."
"You've got a TARDIS!" Craig cupped his hands around his mouth, blown away by the flood of activity in his head. Everything made much more sense now!
"Yes. Ssh!" The Doctor shushed him again, motioning to his own face, "Eleventh!" Craig turned to look a Danni.
"You're from another universe!" He squeaked, his voice incredibly high-pitched.
"Right..." The Doctor turned him back, needing him to focus, "OK, specific detail!" He head-butted him again, sending a flood of detail to him. They both fell apart, groaning louder this time until Craig gasped, pointing at him.
"You saw my ad in the paper shop window." He breathed and the Doctor nodded, turning around and holding up the sign Amy had left for him.
"Yes, with this right above it." He showed it tor Craig, "Which is odd, because Amy hasn't written it yet. Time travel, it can happen." He grinned, hoping to calm him down but Craig just turned back to the scanner, pointing at it.
"That's a scanner! You used non-technological technology of Lammasteen." He cried and the Doctor clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Shut up!" He shouted, Craig staring back, eyes wide.
"Both of you shut up." Danni hissed, climbing up and forcing the Doctor to let go of Craig, "Upstairs will hear you shouting at each other!"
~0~0~0~
Sophie let herself into Craig's flat with her pink keys, a small plastic bag in hand. While she and Danni hadn't had the chance to go shopping, she had stopped on her way around to grab her a pair of pyjamas, having seen her wearing the Doctor's football jersey the night before. She hoped they'd fit, because she didn't know what the girl's size was, but they were blue and she seemed to like blue.
She unlocked the front door to their flat, barely noticing the flickering of the lights upstairs.
"Please can you help me?" Sophie jumped, spinning to see a little girl with pigtails stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at her, teddy in hand. Sophie slowly moved to the bottom of the stairs.
"Hi." She said gently, not wanting to alarm her.
"Please. Will you help me?" The girl asked again.
"What's the matter, my love?" She started walking up the stairs towards the little girl, "Help you?"