CHARACTERS: Amelia Pond, Rose Tyler ABOUT: Amelia is awaiting the arrival of anyone who can help with finding Prisoner Zero SET: Two years after the Doctor left LOCATION: Amelia Pond Residence RATING: PG OPEN/CLOSED: Closed PROGRESS: Incomplete NOTES: This is obviously set in Amy's past. For the sake of the timeline, the TARDIS has been stolen at this point in Rose's present (or this thread would not be able to take place).
Amelia Pond had never given up hope that the madman with the blue box would return to fix the crack in her wall. Even when he said he would only be five minutes and she had waited till the early hours of the morning, there was something about this man that she trusted without ever questioning the fact that he existed, that he was real. She knew he was real. Ever since that first meeting her days consisted of far off imaginary adventures with her best friend Rory, countless hours spent doodling the raggedy Doctor, and telling anyone who listened that there was a man out there with a time machine. To begin with her aunt had assumed this was simply a childhood imaginary friend, perfectly normal for the first few months. The woman had little interest in truly understanding the little girl’s incessant claims that the Doctor was a real person and she certainly had no time to listen to Amelia’s warnings that there was someone in the crack in her wall. Soon the term ‘Prisoner Zero’ was actually banned from the house, but that did not stop Amelia dragging Rory along to try and find this elusive creature.
But as the months turned into years – two to be exact – her aunt had made it her business to send Amelia to a psychiatrist. Her first meeting was the following morning and Amelia, however odd it seemed, was actually looking forward to the first session. Her aunt had told her that this man was going to help her ‘figure things out’ and to ‘separate reality from fantasy’. Amelia didn’t quite understand what she meant by that because she was very aware of fantasy and reality, and the Doctor ranked firmly in the ‘real’ category. Part of Amelia hoped that this other Doctor would listen to her – he was a Doctor, after all, and surely there was some common bond there. Amelia took any chance she could to talk about the Doctor and therefore a trip where she would be encouraged to speak her mind wasn’t the worst ‘punishment’ in the world. However, she was under no illusion of why she was being sent there, but her aunt would be sourly disappointed as there was no one who could convince her that she had dreamt the whole experience.
As she kneeled in front of her bed, hands pressed together to pray, she considered what she wanted to ask for. She no longer prayed to Santa because she had learnt that harsh reality six months ago. Santa was not real – but the Doctor most definitely was.
‘I make the same wish every night and I’m starting to think you don’t like the Doctor very much,’ she said, to whatever higher being was on duty that night. She had taken it upon herself to not place her bets on any deity: she would worship whichever one could bring the Doctor to her.
‘I’m starting to get worried about Prisoner Zero. I haven’t been able to hear anything inside the crack in my wall since the Doctor came … but, well, I don’t know if Rory was lying because he does that sometimes, but he said he was sure he saw a giant lizard person in the bathroom mirror. Now I checked and I couldn’t see any lizard,’ she said, impatiently. ‘Do you think you could send someone to check? It doesn’t have to be the Doctor because for some unknown reason,’ she opened one eye at this point, ‘you don’t like him very much. Please, please, please send someone. Rory knows I don’t like snakes, so I think he did it to try and scare me but even so, it’s better to be safe than sorry.’