To Be Astrid

Chapter 11 - The Time of Angels

The Time of Angels, part 2 -

"I found this", River handed the Doctor a book and Astrid looked over his shoulder to see, "Definitive work on the Angels. Well, the only one. Written by a madman. It's barely readable, but I've marked a few passages."

"He gets along with mad people", Astrid threw River a smirk to which she replied with an amused grin.

"Not bad, bit slow in the middle", the Doctor flipped through the pages and smelled them, alongside the cover, "Didn't you hate his girlfriend? No. No, hang on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait."

While the Doctor held all his sensors up to the book, one after the other, Amy leaned out again, "Doctor Song? Did you have more than one clip of the Angel?"

"No, just the four seconds", River replied.

"This book is wrong", the Doctor commented, seemingly listening to the flipping of the pages, "What's wrong with this book? It's wrong."

"May I see?", Astrid asked, with her hand out.

The Doctor handed the book to her and impatiently looked over her shoulder as she flipped through the pages more intently, looking at them with a concentrated face.

"It's so strange when you go all baby face. How early is this for you?", River spoke up.

"Very early", the Doctor just said.

"I only left a couple days ago for him, a few days ago he had a face you don't even know", Astrid mumbled.

"So you don't know who I am yet?", River replied.

"How do you know who I am?", the Doctor retorted, "I don't always look the same."

"To her you do. It's not about you", Astrid internally rolled her eyes, solemnly thinking about the two faces her mum had had in her presence.

"I've got pictures of all your faces. You never show up in the right order, though. I need a spotter's guide", River said, flipping through the pages of her diary.

"Pictures", Astrid mumbled, making a quick flip through of the book with her thumb, "Why aren't there any pictures?", she flipped through it the other way around, "This whole book's trying to warn us about them, so why no pictures?"

She turned back to her dad to see him look at the book just as concerned before turning the expression to her, "Why not show us what to look out for?"

River came up between them, "There was that bit about images. What was that?"

"Yes. Hang on", Astrid started flipping, too slow for the Doctor's liking.

He took the book away from her and read, "That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel."

"What does that mean?", River glanced between the Time Lords' worried expressions and repeated, "An image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel?"

"Amy", they both breathed out and ran to the container Amy was in.

"Doctor! It's in the room! Doctor", she called out.

River and Astrid exchanged a worried glance before following. This was Amy long before River and the Oracle was born. If anything were to happen to her right now, it might just change all of time and space, and neither of them would be there to fix it.

"Are you all right? What's happening?", the Doctor called to Amy, sonicking the door in an attempt to open it.

"Doctor? Doctor, it's coming out of the television", she replied in fear, "The Angel is here."