Crossing the Lines

Part I: Strange Familiarity

He was a stranger in town. Anyone who looked at him could tell. Leadworth was not the kind of place where you could combine a suit with a trench coat and white sneakers without everyone noticing. And if you would still wear it without caring what people say, the people would care so much that everyone would know your face in the course of a few days. But no one here had seen his face before, so he probably was in Leadworth for the first time.

Amy watched how he walked along the road, meeting the people's offended gaze when passing him and noticing his choice of clothing. He did not seem bothered, though. Once or twice she could've sworn seeing a faint smile grazing his lips as people looked away in order to avoid eye contact.

But maybe her eyes tricked her, because mostly his facial expression was stern, and the narrowed eyebrows had something gloomy about them. Maybe that intimidated people and led them to lower their gaze. Even Amy felt the need to look away when his eyes locked with hers. But she was too intrigued by this man – and too stubborn – to break eye contact like she was a shy dog. And maybe this was what caused him to slightly change his direction and walk straight towards her.

"Hello," he said, as he came to a halt in front of her.

"Hello," Amy replied sceptically. Close up, she realised there was a sadness in his eyes like he had experienced great loss and sorrow. But his voice was untouched by this as he spoke.

"I'm looking for Amelia Pond."

"I'm Amelia and who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"You're… the Doctor?"

Amy thought she must've misunderstood him, but he let no doubt about it.

"Yes."

The astonishment that first had shown in her face, turned into anger.

"Do you think this is funny?"

"Why? Am I laughing? You think that?" She was so baffled by his reaction that she could not respond. "No? Good, because – to get this straight – my joking-face looks quite different."

"Then why would you claim to be the Doctor?"

"What? Sorry, did I miss something? Is 'the Doctor' a new word for 'clown' – or your equivalent of a clown – that you assume I must be joking when I say that I'm the Doctor?"

Amy stepped closer and stared straight into his eyes with determination. "When I was seven, I met a man. He said he was called the Doctor. He also said he was travelling through time and space and that I could come with him. And I believed him, because I was a kid. I believed that he'd take only five minutes and then he would come back and take me with him. For five years I believed that he would return, but he didn't."

He clenched his jar. "I'm sorry."

"What?" Amy swayed backwards. His simple apology came unexpected and seemed somehow out of place.

"I'm sorry I didn't come back as I promised."

"No." Amy shook her head. "No, you should be sorry you're keeping up this act of yours. You are not the Doctor. You don't even look like him, so don't you tell me you are my raggedy Doctor." She turned to leave, but he grabbed her arm and held her back.

"Wait. Listen to me. I am the Doctor. I'm a Timelord. I travel through time and space, and once my body is dying, I regenerate into a completely new form. That's why you don't recognise me. But I'm still the same person."

Amy shook her head again and tried to free her arm. She had to get away from him. This was too much for her.

"Let go of me," she said, as she couldn't get her arm out of his grip. He opened his mouth to respond, but she didn't want to hear it. "Just let go of me!"

And he did.

"Sorry. I didn't want to upset you or make you angry."

"Yeah? Maybe you should've left me alone then." Amy already started walking backwards while she was still looking at him. Then she turned, ready to run, but his next words made her stop in her tracks.

"The TARDIS. You know, the blue police box that is bigger on the inside? If I show you my TARDIS, will you believe me then?"

She turned, her teary eyes asking the question she couldn't utter: Why are you doing this to me?

"You don't have to believe me. All I'm asking for is a chance to try and prove that I'm telling the truth."

"Why?" The man claiming to be the Doctor gave her a questioning look, so she explained herself further. "Why are you trying so hard to make me believe you? Why is it so important to you?"

He didn't respond immediately, probably considering how to phrase his answer.

"The truth?" he finally asked and Amy gave a nod. "Because of this." He presented her with a small leather case. It contained a single piece of paper which read:

Find Amelia Pond.
(Leadworth, 2010)

Amy stared at the paper in her hands. There was something so familiar about it. She looked up, about to say something, but the man in the trench coat was already walking away.

"Wait!" she called and ran after him. She cursed herself for making it so easy on him. He was probably doing this on purpose, knowing that she would come after him.

As she rounded the corner to a small alley he had vanished in, she came to a halt. The blue police box, standing this time – not lying on its side like the night Amy had first seen it.

The man claiming to be the Doctor entered the door, leaving it wide open for her to follow. And she did. All those years she had wondered how it looked on the inside. How could she resist now she had the chance to find out?

So she passed through the door and stared in amazement at the vast room opening up to her. In the middle was a plateau with round controls where he stood.

"Bigger on the inside," he told her, watching how she took in every detail of the scenery.

Amy wondered how she was not more surprised about the fact that this small blue box contained so much space. But it felt not entirely new to her, just like the paper in her hand.

As her thoughts came back to what she was holding, she remembered again what she had wanted to say before. She came up towards him and held the leather case to his face.

"This is psychic paper. I know how it works. It shows me what you want me to see."

He gave a surprised smile. "So you know already how it works?"

"Yes. And that's how I know you could be easily manipulating me with this. I don't know why you've come for me and what you hope to gain by bringing me along, but you better tell me now, because you are not the Doctor. You might be some other guy travelling around in a blue box, but you are certainly not the Doctor."

His face had become serious again. "I told you, I regenerate. Every time I die, I change into a whole new body. Of course I look different. It wouldn't be the first time, anyway. In my 900 years in this universe I regenerated nine times already. Also there are no others travelling around in blue boxes; because firstly, no other machine like the TARDIS would constantly have the shape of a police box from England of the 1960s, and secondly, I'm the last of my kind."

"Yeah right," She rolled her eyes.

"You really don't believe me."

"You don't really have something to prove that what you're telling me is true, have you?"

"So you easily believe that there are other Timelords flying around in blue boxes. But you won't believe me that I'm 907 years old, regenerate into a new body when I'm about to die, and am in fact the last of the Timelords?"

Amy didn't know what to say. Actually, she wasn't sure anymore what she could and what she couldn't believe. But he had hit a nerve. What he had just told her, reminded her of something. She just had to remember it. It had to be somewhere in her brain…

Very old, and very kind, and the very last of his kind. Sound a bit familiar?

Amy blinked, confused. Those were her words. She had used them, but when? It was so hard to remember it. The memories were buried deep down in her brain, not easily to recover. But she had to try. It was important, she felt it.

A sea of stars. A homeless nation on a ship, sailing through it. A choice between protesting and forgetting. A poor creature, trapped and tortured. Starship UK, built around a starwhale. The last starwhale that had volunteered to take the crying children and their families away from the burning earth.

When she looked up again, it was like she was looking through whole new eyes.

"It's you. It really is you." She wrapped her arms around the Doctors neck and pulled him into a close hug. Surprised, he first hesitated to join in, but then laid his hands on her back.

Amy was still processing all the memories that returned to her. She had travelled with the Doctor. He had returned after all, even though twelve years later and not after fiver minutes like he had planned. He had shown her the universe, and Rory had been there as well. But then the Pandorica had opened and the exploding TARDIS had caused the whole universe to collapse. The Doctor had prevented that from happening by initiating a second Big Bang, but therefore had to leave the universe and it had been like he had never come back after she had first met him in her garden. And yet here he was again. That man. That impossible man!

"You came back," she whispered.

"I did."

"But…" – Amy pulled out of the hug to look at him again – "…how did you manage it? How did you come back from outside the universe?"

"Sorry?" He had no clue what she was talking about. Her enthusiasm faded and she stepped backwards. The Doctor gave a sigh.

"Amy… in a way you were right. I'm not the Doctor you know. Not now, anyway. In fact I've never met you before today."

She stared in disbelieve, trying to process the information he just had given her. "You never met me? But…"

"I'm a time traveller, remember? I don't always meet people in the right order. The Doctor you've met is probably a future version of me – maybe my next regeneration, but maybe even my thirteenth regeneration."

"But you came here, looking for me. Why would you do that?"

"I received the message on my psychic paper to come here and look for you. The one I showed you before."

"You also receive messages on your psychic paper?" He nodded. "But who would send you here and why?"

"I don't know." The Doctor leaned back against the console and ruffled his hair with his left hand. When he was done it stood off in every direction.

"So, what do we do now?" Amy asked. Remembering that she wasn't actually travelling with the Doctor – not with this version anyway – she corrected herself, "I mean, what are you gonna do?"

"Well, what I always do: put in a date and a place, pull a lever and off I go. – You want to come?"

Amy hesitated. "But… is that right. I mean, should that really be happening. When I first met you, you didn't know me. My name didn't ring any bells with you, if I go off with you now that'll change, wouldn't it?"

"I already know your name now. It's too late to turn back. Our feet are already wet, so why not dive head-first into the water?" He gave her a smile.

"But, what about my past? It'll change, right? And then I will have never met you and even this won't have happened like it has, because I won't remember you and…" Amy broke off as the Doctor gave her an amused look. "I'm not making any sense, am I?"

"Not really, no."

She put a hand to her head. "All this stuff with time travel and messing with my timeline is making my brain go fuzzy…"

The Doctor stepped closer towards her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry, nothing in your past is going to change. I'll take care of that."

She gave him a curious look. "You can do that?"

His face broke into a grin again. "Sure I can. I'm a timelord." And she couldn't help but laughing equally.

"Well then, where do you want to go?" the Doctor asked and turned towards the consol.

Amy took the place to his left. "Why don't you surprise me, Doctor? If I remember correctly, you're always good for surprises."

He looked at her, a grin spreading over his face. She smiled back and they did break eye contact for a while, not even as the Doctor pulled a lever and the TARDIS rocked into gear.