Disclaimer/Author's Note: I don't own Dr Who. I am just someone who keeps getting hit by plot bunnies. This is dedicated to my wonderful theatrical friends who keep inspiring me with wonderful ideas and situations. This is set about 11 years after Bad wolf Bay.
The sounds of children's laughter filled the house when Pete, Jackie and Toni arrived at the Doctor and Rose's home. After a busy month Ellen had volunteered to make a wonderful dinner for the whole family. Personally the Doctor thought she just wanted an excuse to get out the good china for once, but seeing the lady happily singing and bustling around the kitchen did make one smile.
"And what are you doing up there miss Verity?" Pete asked his granddaughter, who at the moment was happily ridding around on her father's shoulder in the main hallway.
"I am trying to touch the ceiling." She giggled.
"Now that your grandparents are here I think it is time for little girl's to go wash up for dinner." The Doctor helped her slip down his back and onto the floor.
"Awww…" Verity fussed.
"You come to grandmum and I will get you all fixed up." Jackie wrapped her into a hug, and took her to the washroom.
Turning his attention away from his in-laws the Doctor offered a hand to Toni. "How are you doing Toni?"
"Doing well sir." He shook the Doctor's hand as looked around the foyer, "It has been a while since I have been here."
The Doctor shut the door behind them. "Oh yes, you have been going to Kings College."
"We just finished mid term exams, sir" Toni smiled at the Doctor. "I just hope I did well on them."
"I'm sure you did fine." The Doctor showed them into the lounge. "Toni, would you mind taking your parent's coats? You can put them in the hall closet."
"No problem sir." Toni took his parents coats and went out into the hall with them.
"I wish I could get him to do that." Pete commented. "Having him keep his room clean, much less play the gentleman, is a nightmare."
"When someone is known to have lunches with your headmaster you would butter him up any way you can, Father." Toni jokingly commented as he came back in to the lounge.
"It was the one time Toni." The Doctor picked up one of Verity's dolls that had fallen on the floor. "Besides, it didn't hurt your grades any."
"No it didn't, but did you have to tell him ALL those stories on me?" Toni plopped down in a chair. "I couldn't look him in the eye for weeks."
Everyone was laughing when Jackie and Verity walked into the room. "Doctor, Rose wanted me to tell you to go get James. He is in one of his moods."
"Moods?" Pete asked as the Doctor headed for the door.
"He started Byron Junior School this past September." He said a little uncomfortable, "He hasn't been getting along well with some of the teachers."
"What happened?" Pete asked
"Still too smart for his britches isn't he?" Jackie gave him a wry grin.
"Yes Jackie, he is," The Doctor grumbled. "I'm going to go see what it is."
"While he is getting Jamie, Ellen has dinner ready." Jackie shoo'd them out of the lounge.
"This was excellent Ellen." Pete commented as he sat down his napkin.
"Old family recipe for roast chicken; I'm glad you like it." Ellen started to pick up the plates.
"Let me help you with that." The Doctor started to get up, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder, "You are the host, so you are staying put. Toni, up you get."
Rolling his eyes Toni took a stack of plates from Ellen and followed her out of the room.
"Can we go play?" Verity asked.
"Go on both of you." Rose smiled. "I know you don't want to listen to boring adult talk." Everyone laughed as both children quickly scurried off, and back up stairs to the nursery.
Once the laughter died down, Pete turned to the Doctor, "So why did you really ask us here?"
Rose raised an eyebrow at the Doctor. He ignored it and continued, "I need your authorization to look into something."
"This is a first, you coming to me with an issue." Pete sat back and crossed his arms.
"Dad, hear him out." Rose glared at her father.
"I recently was contacted by Mathew Harker."
"Isn't he the barrister guy that…" Jackie sat up, now very interested.
"Yes the guy with the thing, that helped us… yes him." The Doctor brushed it off. "He has run into some odd dealing and he thought it might be something of interest to us."
"If it has your interest it has got to be something intriguing." Pete stood, and helped Jackie with her chair.
The Doctor stood at the fireplace while he watched Pete read over the documents. Rose sat on the sofa leaning on the arm rest hand on her forehead.
"Here we are" Jackie came into the room carrying a tea tray. "Ellen sent this with me. She and Toni are dishing up pudding. How she gets him to help her in the kitchen is beyond me."
"He knows he isn't getting any of Ellen's famous deserts if he doesn't help." Pete commented from where he was reading.
"So what do you think?" The Doctor asked as he absent mindedly chewed on his thump nail.
"Mr. Harker does have a good case here for something very odd." Pete held out one page, "Three deaths and five people who show signs of sever blood loss coupled with sleep walking, memory loss, personality changes and hallucinations."
"The Medical examiners report shows only a simple puncture would on each of the victims."
"If it was two I would think we had a vampire running around." Pete joked slightly as he took a cup of tea from Jackie.
"Plasmavore actually." The Doctor pinched the bridge of his nose. "The question is why it is leaving people alive."
"Explain." Pete looked up at the Doctor seriously.
"Plasmavores require blood to survive. Generally they can do well by drinking the blood of animals, typically cattle, but some will bridge the gap to humanoids. Considering how rich humanoid blood can be it can become addictive to them."
"Talk about a weird addiction." Jackie said as she handed the Doctor his tea.
"Generally Plasmavores that will come in contact with humans will just find a blood bank somewhere and just slowly siphon off blood. Relatively harmless unless they decide to move to 'fresh' blood; then we start having problems."
"Kind of like a drug addict working in a pharmacy. One or two pills go missing over time, no one will notice; when large batches start going people get suspicious."
"Correct." The Doctor added lemon to his tea.
"Are you alright sweet heart?" Jackie handed Rose a cup of tea.
Rose sat up, "Yeah, just tired. Work has been really busy lately. It's been a struggled to spend time with the Doctor and the children." She took the tea and sipped at it, her attention on the Doctor and her father.
"So you think this is a rogue plasmavore?"
"The first 3 deaths sound very much like plasmavore attacks, but the others are odd because the people are still alive. Plasmavores don't leave their victims alive once they begin draining them."
"Why are they leaving them alive? And what are these odd symptoms?" Pete asked.
"THAT is why I want to take a team out there to investigate."
Pete sighed, "I can give you Rose, Jake, and Arthur Skyler, our new xenobiology expert. The rest of the teams are caught up in other projects."
"When could we have the team together? Rose asked.
"I'll call Jake and Arthur on my way home. They could meet you at Torchwood tomorrow morning 8AM. "
"Make it 9, we will need to get James to school, and Verity to nursery." Rose looked to her Mum. "Would you mind looking after them while we are gone?"
"Ask a Grandmum to spoil her grandkids for a few days, you twisted my arm." Jackie laughed.
Author's Note: I meant to get this out before Halloween, but didn't happen. Are you intrigued? Let me know via a review.