***

These people were no one that Lyra knew. One of the people staring at her was a woman. She had long red hair and green eyes. The other person staring at her with a man with brown hair and blue eyes. The way they stared at her was with surprise. I mean, who wouldn't be surprised to see a woman suddenly appear in your living room? There was another look in their eyes as well. It was one of familiarity like they knew her somehow.

They couldn't know her. She was looking too much into it from the panic of suddenly being transported. No, she was kidnapped. These two probably knocked her out, took her away from her home, and then brought her here. But what did they want? What was so important about Lyra that they would kidnap her like that?

Finally, the silence was broken. The two people got over their surprise and now stood staring at her with slight grins. Lyra found herself narrowing her eyes at them from their sudden change in mood. The first person to speak was the ginger woman, "It's great to see you, Lyra!"

Hold on, how did this woman know her name? They probably stalked her before they brought her here. That had to be it. "It's a little surprising to not see the Doctor with you thought." The man suddenly spoke. The Doctor? Who was that? Lyra didn't know any doctors. There was no way that someone could be named the Doctor. No one would actually name their child that. They had to be crazy.

"Where am I?" Lyra stood up from the floor and backed away. "And who are you?" The man went to take a step toward her. She looked around for something to use as a weapon and managed to find one rather quickly. She picked up a fire poker that was situated beside the fireplace of the living room.  Lyra pointed the weapon at the man, causing him to back up, raising his hands in surrender. "Stay away!"

The looks of surprise had come back. It was as if they expected her to not act like this. They kidnapped her and they expected her to react kindly to them? As if. "Lyra," The woman addressed her with a soft tone. "Put the fire poker down. We're not going to hurt you."

"Then why did you kidnap me?" Lyra inquired. "And how do you know my name? I've never met you before," It was at this point that Lyra found herself rambling, something that she did whenever she was scared. "I'm pretty sure I would remember meeting you. For one, you're British. You don't meet a lot of British people where I'm from. This is the first time I recall ever meeting you," Lyra gasped suddenly, "You've been stalking me for months. You waited until the right moment and then knocked me out, and brought me here."

If they weren't shocked before then they definitely were now. They didn't exactly hide their expressions that well. Their faces gave away all of their emotions. It looked like they were surprised that she would accuse them of such a thing. "Rory," The woman said. Lyra looked at her with confusion. Who was Rory? She didn't know any Rory. The man beside her turned to look at the woman. He must've been Rory then. "Call the Doctor. He needs to be here for this." Rory stepped out of the room with his phone, dialing a number.

Great. Now she was going to die. Why couldn't she just play as a good kidnapping victim? No! She had to go and make a scene so now they had to kill her. They couldn't have a loud victim, that would be hard for them. This was going to be the end of Lyra Gemini, "Listen," Lyra's voice was shaky as she spoke. She could feel tears building up in her eyes. She tried desperately to not let them fall, "I don't know what you want. I don't have much. But I will give you anything, just... Please, don't kill me."

It was heartbreaking. The look on Lyra's face as she stared at the woman was absolutely heartbreaking. It looked like the expression of a woman who had already given up on getting out of this situation. The woman went to take a step toward her but Lyra brought the fire poker back up. The woman froze. "Lyra, this must be really confusing. We can explain, you just need to put the fire poker down. We won't hurt you," Lyra shook her head wildly. No way was she going to let go of the only defense she had. "Okay, fine then. My name is Amy Pond. The person who just stepped out is my husband, Rory. This is going to sound crazy to you, but we know you."

"But I don't-"

"I know. You don't know us," Amy finished her sentence. "We have an explanation for that but there is someone who can explain things better. His name is the Doctor," There was a sudden whooshing and whirring sound that resonated through the house. "That must be him now," Amy looked around for a moment as if she was trying to pinpoint the location of the sound. When she didn't see anything in sight, she focused back on Lyra, "I promise-"

Footsteps could be heard coming toward the living room. Suddenly, a man with floppy brown hair, a tweed jacket, and a bowtie came waltzing in. He had a huge grin on his face, "Pond! Oh, am I glad to see you!" This must've been the Doctor person that Amy had been talking about. The Doctor turned his gaze over to Lyra's direction, "Lyra!"

Like the others had tried to do, the Doctor went to step toward Lyra. Lyra tightened her grip on the fire poker, ready to attack him if he tried something. Amy stopped him before he could get close, "Doctor, step over here for a moment." The Doctor stared at her in confusion but couldn't complain much since she was basically dragging him away to talk away from Lyra.

This gave Lyra an opportunity to try and find an escape. Amy said that they weren't going to hurt her, but she didn't believe that. It was just a ploy to get her to let her guard down, nothing else. There were a few windows that she could get out through. The problem was, she had no idea what floor they were on of the building. The second problem was that they were standing right near the windows. They were also standing near the door so she didn't have any escape option at this point.

The sound of someone clearing their throat caught Lyra's attention. Her gaze shifted over to the direction of the noise. It was the Doctor. He looked at her like she was a wounded deer that was ready to take off at any moment. "Lyra," His voice conveyed the same emotion. He was trying not to startle her. "You can put that down. I swear to you that we are not going to hurt you."

There was something about his eyes that made Lyra believe him. She couldn't believe him. Not when she was suddenly somewhere new. They had to be behind what happened to her. Lyra had lowered the fire poker at this point though you could still tell that she was on her guard, "How did I get here? I was in my living room until I woke up here."

"There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this," The Doctor told her. This was the point where he finally started to approach her. "Give me the fire poker and I can explain," Slowly, he took the fire poker from her hand. She let him, not seeing any reason to go against his wishes yet. He moved the fire poker off to the side and then turned back to her. "Good. Now, you must have a lot of questions. Follow me."

Turning on his feet, the Doctor walked out of the living room. Lyra stood frozen for a moment. She briefly looked at Amy. The ginger woman only motioned with her head to follow after the Doctor. After a moment of silence and being frozen, Lyra finally got the courage to move her feet and head in the direction the Doctor went in.

What surprised Lyra was that there was a police box inside the house. She had no idea how they managed to get it inside, there didn't look like a big enough entrance for them to manage it. What surprised her even more was when the Doctor went inside it. It was strange, to say the least... But he said he was going to explain so she had to follow him. Mentally preparing herself, Lyra headed inside the police box.

"Oh, my God," Lyra's mouth dropped open. Inside the police box was huge. There seemed to be a console in the middle of the room and there were stairs leading off to who-knows-where. The Doctor seemed to be fiddling with some controls on the console. "It's bigger on the inside."

The sentence clearly made the Doctor happy, "I love it when they say that," He turned to Lyra, "Now, I owe you an explanation. Come on up here and I'll answer all of your questions," Lyra remained still for a moment. She was already this far in, it wasn't like she could go back now. Lyra cautiously made her way up the stairs and toward the Doctor. The Doctor only smiled at her. It was one of those encouraging smiles that urged you to keep going. Once Lyra was at his side, the Doctor took a deep breath, "I'm the Doctor and this is the Tardis. Time and relative dimension in space, meaning-"

"It can travel through time and space." Lyra was able to piece it together.

Grinning even wider, the Doctor praised her, "Aren't you a clever thing? Looks like you've always been clever then," Lyra shot him a puzzled look. He was talking as if he knew her. It was like what Amy and Rory were doing when they were in the living room. Calling her by her name even though she has never met them. "That must be confusing. Let me explain. You see, Lyra... You have the ability to travel through time," Lyra had no idea what to say to that. "We're linked somehow and because of that, you seem to travel through my timeline. We never meet in the right order so..."

And so the Doctor explained everything to her. At first, she wasn't sure what to think. Lyra wanted to call him insane, tell him that he's lost his mind and that she demanded to be taken back home. For some reason though, she believed him. It felt like he was being genuine. Like he had no reason to lie to her.

"So why can't I just go back home?" Lyra questioned.

It was an innocent question to Lyra. A valid question. Anyone would ask that if they were in her situation. To the Doctor, it looked as if it was a painful question. He stared at her with sad eyes, "We haven't found a way to get you back home yet," Sucking in a deep breath, Lyra nodded to herself, trying to collect her thoughts. "I have been trying," He took her hand into his own which caused her to jump slightly. She cast a glance down at their joined hands before looking back up at him, "I do promise, that while you're here with me, I will keep you safe. You can count on me for that, Lyra. I swear."

***

It took a while for Lyra to come to terms with her circumstances. The Doctor had let her relax for a little while to calm down. She wasn't sure how long she was in her room on the Tardis, but she had a feeling that it was for a while. She was sure that she accidentally took a nap at some point. The room, actually, was very nice. It was definitely to her liking. It gave her a comfy and cozy feel like her room back at her apartment. It had a bed in the corner, a desk that had a journal sitting on it, and even a TV was in the room.

Once Lyra calmed down enough, she left the room and went to find the Doctor. This led to them going right back to Amy and Rory's house since there was some kind of phenomenon that happened. The Doctor didn't really explain what phenomenon it was, he just said that she would find out what it was when she saw it. Lyra had no idea what he meant... Until she stepped out of the Tardis and saw dozens and dozens of perfectly-shaped black cubes. The brunette made her way to the Doctor who was examining one with a monocle while he sat on top of a child's jungle gym. She had no idea how he got up there so fast.

A new voice broke out, "Doctor! And Lyra!" Lyra found herself jumping at the new voice. She whirled around to see that it was Amy. She had Rory with her, along with an older man who looked similar to Rory. Must've been his father or some other relative. "Are you okay now?"

There was no idea in Lyra's mind how long that has taken place for them since she first appeared. The Doctor said that the Tardis traveled through time as well as space so it could've been only a few seconds since they saw her last or even a few weeks. Lyra shifted uncomfortably as she thought about her first moments in their home, "Still a little shocked... But fine, I guess," Lyra seemed to stare off into space for a moment as she rambled, "As fine as you can get after transporting to people who seem to know you and you've never met them before," Glancing over, she could see that they were just staring at her. It was clear that none of them knew what to say. "Yeah, I'll shut up now. Sorry about the... Threatening with the fire poker, by the way."

The way they smiled at her let her know that they had forgiven her. A little too quickly if Lyra said so herself. She did accuse them of kidnapping her and then tried to attack them with their own fire poker. Lyra would've been upset at that for a while if it was her. While they had chatted about Lyra's wellbeing, the Doctor continued to stare at the cube in his hand. Everyone turned to him when he spoke up, "Invasion of the very small cubes. That's new," The Doctor got off of the climbing playground and headed toward the Tardis. The others wasted no time in following him. "All absolutely identical," He paced around the console with a magnifying glass and a cube in hand. "Not a single molecule's difference between them. No blemishes, imperfections, individualities."

"How do cubes just appear out of nowhere?" Lyra asked.

From what the Doctor had said, he found out about the cubes from news articles and news channels. The cubes had just suddenly appeared, almost like they had fallen from out of the sky. No one knew where they came from, how they got to Earth, and why they were here. These questions were also unanswered to even the Doctor, "That's what I'd like to know."

"What if they're bombs?" For the first time since Lyra had seen him, Rory's father spoke. His question did seem like a good idea. Lyra found herself turning to him to hear what else had had to say about the cubes. He was holding his own cube. "Billions of tiny bombs? Or transport capsules maybe, with a mini robot inside. Or deadly hard drives. Or alien eggs? Or messages needing decoding. Or they're all parts of a bigger whole. Jigsaw puzzles that need fitting together."

"Wow," Lyra stared at him with wide eyes. "You are just full of ideas." There was no way that Lyra could come up with that many theories on what was going on. She could probably come up with at least two. He had probably been doing this kind of thing for a while, he had time to adapt to everything.

His ideas seemed like enough to convince the Doctor, "Very thorough, Brian. Very, very thorough. Well done. Stay here," The Doctor placed his cube on top of Brian's cubes. "Watch these. Yell if anything happens." The Doctor walked toward the door of the Tardis. Rory patted his father's shoulder as he walked past him.

Still, there seemed to be some questions that were left unanswered. Amy called out to the Doctor with a question of her own, "Doctor, is this an alien invasion? Because that's what it feels like." The Doctor grabbed some equipment and so did Amy and Rory. Lyra had no idea what they were going to be using those for but she decided to keep her mouth shut and roll with it.

"There couldn't be life forms in every cube, could there?" Rory inquired.

With thick wires held up on the Doctor's shoulder, he looked between the two. The look on his face was one that immediately let Lyra know that this was something that even he had no idea about. His answer solidified her own hypothesis on his thoughts about what was going on, "I don't know. And I really don't like not knowing," The Doctor walked out of the Tardis and Lyra walked out after him. She could see that they were in the living room of Amy and Rory's place. The other two walked out of the Tardis with equipment in hand, leaving Brian to watch the two cubes he had. "Right, I need to use your kitchen as a lab. Cook up some cubes. See what happens."

As soon as they stepped foot in the kitchen, they started sitting the equipment down. A pile of cubes sat on the kitchen table while the Doctor got a pot. Was he actually going to cook the cubes? Lyra thought that he might've been joking or being sarcastic. She didn't know that he was actually going to do it. What puzzled her even more was that no one was acting fazed by this. Not even slightly.

"Right, I'm due at work." Rory stated.

Briefly glancing at the three, Lyra finally decided to ask, "Is this kind of thing normal?" Upon asking the question, only Amy and Rory turned to look at her, the Doctor looked to be too wrapped up in what he was doing. Though he did stare at Rory with a confused look. "You guys are acting like this is normal."

"Nothing is ever normal with the Doctor," Amy commented. She turned her gaze to the Doctor, "Isn't that right, Doctor?"

The alien (Yes, he was an alien from what he told Lyra.) didn't pay attention to her question. He was too focused on Rory, "What? You've got a job?" The question made Lyra raise an eyebrow at him. Why wouldn't Rory have a job? Not everyone would travel through time and space the whole time.

"Of course I've got a job," Rory was obviously also confused by the question. No doubt he was thinking the same thing that Lyra had been thinking. "What do you think we do when we're not with you?"

"I imagined mostly kissing." The Doctor looked between the two of them. Ah, so they were the PDA couple. Lyra had seen enough TV and had been out enough to have a form an opinion on the subject. At first, it was really cute. But then, at some points, it just ended up being too much and you wanted to bash your head into a wall.

There was no denying it from the couple at all. Instead, Amy decided to get back to answering the Doctor's question about their profession, "I write travel articles for magazines and Rory heals the sick." Writing always sounded very interesting to Lyra. She had a fantasy that she would get a job and become a writer for a living. If only she knew anything about actually writing books.

"My shift starts in an hour," Rory mumbled. "You don't know where my scrubs are?" He directed this question to Amy. The Doctor, as he said he would do, was more focused on cooking the cubes. Lyra had no idea what exactly cooking the cubes would do but she would be very surprised if something did actually happen.

"In the lounge, where you left them," Amy replied.

Suddenly, the Doctor stopped. He turned to the two and stared at them with a look that Lyra couldn't quite place. It looked like disgust mixed with surprise. And so Rory left to go get ready to work which left Amy, the Doctor, and Lyra to make the experiment that the Doctor had planned. There had been a little chit-chat between them until the Doctor said something that felt like it changed the whole conversation, "Ah, the Ponds. With their house and their jobs and their everyday lives. The journalist and the nurse. Long way from Leadworth."

A smile was present on the Doctor's face as he looked at Amy. He pointed his... Well, Lyra didn't actually know what it was. He pointed it at a wire Amy held and it made a whirring noise. Amy had a grin just as big as the Doctor, "We think it's been ten years. Not for you or Earth, but for us. Ten years older. Ten years of you, on and off."

There was a moment of silence as the Doctor gazed at Amy. If Lyra had to describe the look, it would be one of a father that took a moment to actually look at how much his child had grown up. It was warm. "Look at you now," The Doctor's tone was even warmer. "All grown up."

"Ten years is a long time." Lyra mused. She couldn't imagine continuously traveling through time and space for that long. Lyra had never really been the type to wish to go traveling. She was usually fine with wherever you put her. As long as she had everything she needed then she had no use in leaving.

That was when Amy decided to surprise her, "We've been traveling with you for ten years too, Lyra."

Oh... "Huh... I stick around for a while then it sounds like." While it sounded nice being with the Doctor for that long, Lyra still wondered about home. She had left it behind and she had no say in the matter at all. She knew that her parents would be horrified to know that their daughter had gone missing. Lyra had been really close with her parents. Amy said that she had been around for 10 years so... How long until she actually went back home?

It looked like Amy was about to say something else... But the Doctor brought his hand up to cover her mouth. Amy stared at the alien with confusion and slight annoyance. The Doctor gave her a weary glance, "Spoilers, Pond."

Just then, the sound of the front door being smashed open caught their attention. Lyra felt herself jump as she heard the sound and heard men with loud voices saying things like, "Clear! Trap one, kitchen secured," and, "Trap three, back garden secured," Surrounding the three of them were men wearing all black with guns in hand. Lyra found herself stumbling back slightly as she looked at the arm men, "What the hell is this?" She looked to the Doctor and Amy, "Please tell me this isn't normal!"

All of Lyra's anxiousness faded as she witnessed what happened next. Rory had been escorted into the kitchen by gunpoint. The top half of him was dressed in his work clothes while the bottom half was just his underwear. Lyra snicked to herself and covered her mouth to not show any amusement at the tense situation. Rory had his hands held up so the men wouldn't shoot him, "There are soldiers all over my house, and I'm in my pants."

Thankfully, Lyra wasn't the only amused one. The Doctor had an amused expression on his face and Amy smirked at her husband, saying, "My whole life I've dreamed of saying that, and I miss it by being someone else." Oh, yeah. This was definitely normal for them. No normal person would act so calmly in a situation like this.

A new voice sounded out in the home, "All these muscles and they still don't know how to knock," A woman emerged from behind the men and behind Rory. Rory had joined his wife side and Lyra was able to get a better look at the woman. The woman had short blonde hair and wore jeans, along with a brown overcoat. "Sorry about the raucous entrance. Spike in Artron energy reading at this address," The Doctor crossed his arms as he observed the woman. "In the light of the last 24 hours, we had to check it out, and the dogs do love a run out, " The woman finally stopped right in front of them and gave them all a once-over before introducing herself, "Hello. Kate Stewart, head of scientific research at UNIT. And with dress sense like that," She held up a device to the Doctor's chest. Lyra could see the two hearts the Doctor had as the device x-rayed him. "You must be the Doctor," Kate pulled the device away and the Doctor gave her a salute. "I hoped it would be you," Kate then turned to Lyra, "And you're Lyra Gemini. It's nice to meet you."

Lyra sighed, "Great, someone else who seems to know me and I've still never met."

"Tell me," The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Since when did science run the military, Kate?"

"Since me," Kate was quick to answer. The confidence in her tone and the authority that she resonated was enough reason for Lyra to like her. She seemed like the type to demand respect and Lyra had always admired those types of women. It reminded her of her own mom. "UNIT's been adapting. Well, I dragged them along, kicking and screaming, which made it sound like more fun than it actually was."

"What do we know about these cubes?" The Doctor inquired.

The answer that Kate gave him was less than satisfactory, "Far less than we need to," You'd think someone from the science military would know something about this kind of phenomenon. To hear that they were just as clueless put Lyra a bit on edge. No one knew what was going on then. "We've been freighting them in from around the world for testing," Kate walked to stand on the opposite side of the kitchen table, "So far, we've subjected them to temperatures of plus and minus 200 Celsius, simulated a water depth of five miles, dropped one out of a helicopter at 10,000 feet, and rolled our best tank over it. Always intact."

Now that was surprising. Lyra didn't seem to be the only one to think so either, "That's impressive," The Doctor remarked. His expression then changed into frustration, "I don't want them to be impressive. I want them vulnerable with a nice Achilles heel."

"We don't know how they got here, what they're made of, or why they're here," Kate stated. Well, it was definitely good to know that they had no knowledge of what would happen or why these cubes were placed here. It looked like they were all going to find out together, and Lyra had a feeling that they'll find out in a bad way.

Glancing down at one of the cubes in their possession, the Doctor picked it up and tossed it around a bit, "And all around the world, people are picking them up and taking them home."

"Like iPads have dropped out of the sky," Kate told them. That was a good analogy. Anyone would take home something that just dropped out of the sky. It's new, no one knows what it is, which makes them want to bring them home and find out what it does. It doesn't matter if there are risks. "Taking them to work, taking pictures, making films, posting them on Flickr and YouTube. Within three hours, the cubes had a thousand separate Twitter accounts."

"Twitter?" The Doctor clearly had a distaste for Twitter.

A shrug came from Lyra, "Not surprised to know that. If people make Twitter accounts for their pets then they'll make it for anything." Lyra was rarely on Twitter but when she went on one time, she had seen an account that someone had made for a fake skeleton. To be honest, it was actually kind of funny.

"I've recommended we treat this as a hostile incursion. Gather them all up and lock them in a secure facility," Kate informed. "But that would take massive international agreement and cooperation." That was true. You also most likely wouldn't be able to get all of them. No one would willingly hand over something like this. Like Lyra had thought of before, they had literally fallen out of the sky and no one knew what they were. No way were they ever going to give them up willingly.

"We need evidence," The Doctor now stood in the doorway with his arms crossed. "The cubes arrived in plain sight, in vast quantities, as the sun rose. So," The Doctor came over and placed his hands on Amy and Rory's backs, "What does that tell us?"

"Maybe they wanted to be seen," Amy suggested as the Doctor wrapped his arms around her and her husband's shoulders. "Noticed."

"Or more than that," The Doctor stated. "They want to be observed. So we observe them. Stay with them round the clock. Watch the cubes, day and night," He let go of the two and fidgeted with one of the cubes more. "Record absolutely everything about them. Team cube, in it together," The Doctor kissed the cube with a smile. Lyra had a good feeling about this then... Is what she originally thought. The Doctor had stayed at the Ponds' house for four days, along with Lyra, to watch the cubes and nothing had happened. Lyra didn't mind that much. The Doctor, on the other hand, "Four days," He sat in between Amy and Rory, upside down. Lyra sat on a different chair in the lounge. The Doctor grabbed one of the cubes that sat on the coffee table, "Nothing! Nothing! Not a single change in any cube anywhere in the world," He hit the cube a few times. "Four days, and I am still in your lounge!" He sat up and stared between the two.

It was obvious that everyone in the room was annoyed by his outburst. Amy looked like a mother who was done with their child's whining, "You were the one who wanted to observe them."

"She's right," Lyra chimed in. She was also pretty annoyed with the Doctor's attitude. He did this whole spiel almost... She'd have to say five times now. "You were all, "Team cube, in it together," and now you want to give up."

The answer to Lyra's question came in no time at all, "Yes, well, I thought they'd do something, didn't I? Not just sit there while everyone eats endless cereal!" Finally, the Doctor swung his legs up and got up from the couch by climbing over the back. Lyra just looked at him with a deadpan look. All of that time traveling made it impossible for him to just wait around then.

"You said we had to be patient." Rory reminded him.

Coming back into the room after stepping out for a moment, the Doctor pointed at Rory, "Yes, you!" He exclaimed. Lyra was starting to get a headache from his shouting. She rested two fingers on her nose bridge as the sharp pain in her head persisted. The Doctor just kept on shouting, "You, not me! I hate being patient. Patience is for wimps," The Doctor plopped down between Amy and Rory. He remained silent for one second before going back to saying, "I can't live like this. Don't make me. I need to be busy."

"Fine!" Amy finally had enough. "Be busy! We'll watch the cubes."

With those final words, the Doctor went off to do whatever to relieve himself from the boredom. Lyra sighed as she stared off into the direction he disappeared in. She shook her head, "I wonder how my future self has ever been able to deal with this."

"Trust me," Rory piped up. "We've been wondering the same thing."

Time seemed to pass slowly at this point. Lyra could hear the Doctor doing god-knows-what as the other three sat and stared at the cubes. Eventually, all of the noise seemed to quiet down. Lyra shared a look with Amy to see if she was hearing, or not hearing, things correctly. Not long after that, the Doctor made his way back to the couch and sat down, "That's better. Nothing like a bit of activity to pass the time. How long was I gone?"

"Er," Rory glanced at his wristwatch. "About an hour."

There was silence. It was obvious that the Doctor was starting to become impatient once more, even though he had only just sat down. He shook his head and said, "I can't do it. No," The Doctor then jumped over the couch and headed toward the Tardis. The group watched as he walked into the space and time machine. It wasn't long before they followed after him. Amy had asked him where he was going but he didn't answer. He only stared at Brian, who was still sitting inside the Tardis, watching the cubes, "Brian, you're still here."

The statement seemed to confuse Brian, "You told me to watch the cubes."

"Four days ago." The Doctor said.

"Ah!" Brian exclaimed. "Doesn't time fly when you're alone with your thoughts?"

The revelation worried Lyra. Has he really just been sitting there this whole time? Lyra decided to voice her inquiries to the older man, "Haven't you eaten anything? Or even used the bathroom?"

Seeming to think for a moment, Brian finally replied, "I don't remember."

"Forget I asked."

Ignoring his dad, Rory faced the Doctor, "You can't just leave, Doctor."

"Yes, of course I can," The Doctor turned to Rory. He had his hands on his hips and this sort of arrogant look on his face. "Quick jaunt, restore sanity," He walked around behind Amy and Rory placing his arms around their shoulders, "Ooo, hey, come if you like." The alien shot a quick wink at Lyra who looked at him with an amused grin.

"They can't just go off like that." Brian was now standing.

"Can't they?" The Doctor turned his questions to Amy and Rory, "Can't you? That's how it goes, isn't it?" He looked genuinely confused that they would ever turn down going on a trip with him. That's when Lyra noted that people probably didn't say no a lot of the time to him. That just means that she'll have to. She will not be a yes-man, that's for sure.

"I've got my job," Rory told him.

What Rory said didn't seem to be enough for the Doctor, "Oh yes, Rory. The universe is awaiting, but you have a little job to do." Yeah, Lyra definitely wouldn't call Rory's job little if he was someone who helped the sick. Nurses and doctors were some of the most important people in society.

And, of course, Rory agreed with Lyra's thoughts, "It's not little. It's important to me. Look, what you do isn't all there is."

That stopped the Doctor for a moment. He removed his arms from the two and stared at the man in front of him with a look of surprise that he hid very well, "I never said it was. All right," He averted his gaze for a moment. After a moment, he looked up at Lyra, "Are you coming or staying, Lyra?"

Guess it's time to start now then. Lyra looked between them, easily picking up on the tense air that had just filled the Tardis before finally replying, "Uh... I don't think I'm ready for the whole space-time traveling thing yet so I'll just... Stay here." It wasn't entirely a lie. She definitely did not want to experience space and time travel yet. She had to build herself up for that part. She'd probably pass out from the shock or something.

The reply seemed to be very disheartening for the Doctor to hear. Once again, he looked at the floor, "Fine. I'll be back soon. Monitor the cubes. Call me," He straightened out his tweed jacket as he stepped away from the group. It was pretty easy to tell that he was a little hurt by them turning him down. "I'll have the Tardis set to every Earth news feed."

Days passed after that. The Doctor didn't show up at all during the time. Lyra suspected that he was probably out on an alien planet, exploring and getting himself into all kinds of trouble. The woman had gotten accustomed to being in the new place she found herself in. Amy and Rory had been more than happy to let her stay in their home and she couldn't be more thankful for them.

Eventually, Amy and Rory's wedding anniversary came along. They were having a big party with all of their friends and people from the neighborhood. Lyra had barely interacted with any of them so she tried to fit in and have fun as much as she could. She found that some of the questions they had were very hard to answer. For example, someone had asked how she knew Amy and Rory. It wasn't like she could tell them about what actually happened so she came up with the best lie that she could.

The talking became a bit too dull for her and she decided to hang out near the doors to the house. She decided to just people-watch since that was something that she had liked to do before she got transported. When she had a break from her home job, she would just stare out of the window and watch the people. It was very relaxing, seeing people go on about their lives and realizing that they had their own lives. They weren't just random people.

Speaking of people, Lyra noticed Amy walking toward her. She had her phone up to her ear and Lyra could hear her saying, "Hey! Doctor, it's me. Hello. So, the UN classified the cubes as provisionally safe, whatever that means, and Banksy and Damien Hirst put out statements saying the cubes are nothing to do with them. And the cubes, well, they're just here. Still. What's it been, nine months?" Wow, nine months? Lyra has been here for nine months already? That was crazy... "People are just taking them for granted. Maybe we'll never know why they came. But anyway. I got to Laura's wedding. It was great. She's here tonight, being as it's our wedding anniversary. We thought you might have dropped by. I left you messages."

A face full of flowers was what Lyra was met with at the end of Amy's message. She jumped slightly and looked over to see the Doctor with a huge bouquet of flowers. The Doctor lowered the bouquet and stared at Amy, who hadn't noticed that he had shown up, "I know!" Amy put down her phone and looked behind her to see who it was. "Happy anniversary! Come with me. And bring your husband."

"How long have you been waiting for us to call?" Lyra asked.