Summary: The Doctor and Bella head off to Southwark Cathedral in London after seeing a strange thing on the news; A tall green blur heading for the cover of the church. Is it someone dressing up to scare the city of London or is it something more sinister? They need to figure it out quickly or risk U.N.I.T, who is already on high alert considering the city of London often sees a lot of alien activity over Christmas, getting involved.


Author's note: And I'm Back! Woo Hoo! Anyways, I've got a new story for you all, that pretty much follows straight on from the crossover with the Sarah Jane adventures that I did. You don't need to have read that for this story to make sense, it just starts where that one left off. Sort of. Anyway, just a bit of fluff to get us all started, I hope you all enjoy!


The Emerald Mantis

The Doctor breathed deeply, not wanting to open his eyes. He had yet again fallen asleep beside Bella on her bed. They were starting to make a habit of this, he thought to himself as he smiled.

He opened his eyes as his keen nose detected something that smelt irresistibly delicious and looked around, finding that Bella wasn't beside him in bed as she was supposed to be. Glancing around the rest of the room that the TARDIS had decorated with posters and photographs for Bella when she had first begun to travel with them, he discovered that she wasn't in the comfy arm chair in the corner of the room beside the tall, narrow bookcase either.

He sat up and straightened his brown and blue tie before sliding off the bed to stand up. He moved over to the arm chair and, picked up his brown, pinstriped jacket and slid his arms into the sleeves and did up two of the buttons. He walked over to the bedroom door, opened it and stepped out into the corridor where he breathed in before following his nose.

To the kitchen.

The Doctor leant against the door frame and watched Bella with a fond, crooked smile. She moved around the kitchen with her back to him, retrieving the source of the mouth-watering smell from the oven. She had changed out of the clothes that she'd been wearing the day before and now wore her black converses, a pair of dark denim jeans and what the Doctor knew to be her favourite, dark grey Top Gear jumper.

Eventually, Bella turned around, obviously feeling the Doctor's gaze on her. Her face lit up when she saw that he was smiling at her.

"I've baked a cake," she grinned excitedly.

"I gathered," he laughed as he saw flour on her face. "You've gotten flour everywhere!"

"I know," she said apologetically. "It's just a makeshift present for Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde and Rani."

"A present?" he repeated. "What for?" he asked.

"It's Christmas Eve, Doctor," Bella told him, smiling as she shook her head slightly.

"Is it?" the Doctor asked, tugging on his earlobe as he frowned, wondering where all that time had gone.

"You know, for a Time Lord, you're rubbish at keeping time," she told him with a cheeky grin.

"Oi!" the Doctor reprimanded making Bella's smile widen.

He smiled despite himself and moved forward to look at the cake on the table. It was amazing; a two-dimensional version of the TARDIS lying flat on the cake board. One of the TARDIS doors was open and there was a cake version of himself leaning out the door, waving and a speech bubble was beside his head with the words 'Merry Christmas' written neatly inside of it. There was icing-tinsel and icing-mistletoe placed neatly over the TARDIS and in black lettering underneath the words 'Vworp! Vworp!' was written in Bella's handwriting.

"This is brilliant!" the Doctor beamed.

Bella smiled, like she knew something that the Doctor didn't. "This is nothing," she said winking, "But you'll have to wait and see what else I have up my sleeve."

He looked to her and raised his eyebrows.

"Okay, so I'm a tad excited for Christmas this year," she grinned, "but who can blame me, I've missed out on five, I need to catch up!"

The Doctor watched her guiltily as she put a real sprig of mistletoe on the corner of the cake, above the Doctor's head.

"Hey Bella," he said softly and she looked up to him, "happy Christmas Eve!"

She laughed as he hugged her tightly. "Merry Christmas Eve to you too!"

They laughed fondly and let each other go, Bella glancing down to her watch.

"It's eleven o'clock," she said, "Not too early for a social call, do you think?"

"I think it's the perfect time for a social call," the Doctor smiled.

-o-

The Doctor knocked on Sarah Jane's front door beside Bella, who held a rather large brown box that contained the TARDIS cake, smiling excitedly. After a few moments the door opened and Luke grinned at them.

"You could have come in the backdoor like normal," Luke laughed.

"No we couldn't," the Doctor said seriously, "This is an official visit."

Luke looked to Bella unsure, but Bella grinned back at him.

"It's our way of wishing you all a Merry Christmas," she told him and he smiled and shook his head.

"You guys are so alien," Luke grinned, making the Doctor and Bella laugh.

"Who is it Luke?" they heard Sarah Jane call from in the kitchen.

"It's the Doctor and Bella," Luke said back, standing aside so that the Doctor and Bella could move into the hallway. The Doctor heard footsteps from the lounge room beside them before Clyde and Rani appeared in the doorway, grinning.

"Why didn't they come in the back door?" asked Sarah Jane, Bella exchanging a quick smile with the Doctor before Sarah Jane appeared in the hallway.

"Come in, come in," she said warmly, "I've just put some tea on,"

"Brilliant," the Doctor smiled, following Sarah Jane and Luke into the kitchen.

"What's in the box?" he heard Clyde ask somewhere behind him.

"A present," Bella answered simply before she placed the box gently down on the kitchen table.

"Is is alien tech?" Clyde asked excitedly, hovering around her. "A build-your-own-time machine set?"

Bella laughed as Sarah Jane reprimanded him.

"No Clyde, it's not a build-your-own-time machine," she grinned.

"Shame," Rani said seriously, "we could have used it to go back in time to tell our science teacher not to make his test so hard."

The Doctor grinned at Sarah Jane, who rolled her eyes.

"It isn't much," Bella said to Sarah Jane, the Doctor picking up on a hint of nervousness in her voice.

Sarah Jane smiled at Bella before lifting up the lid off the box and gasping as she took in the detailed cake. "Bella, it's wonderful!" she gushed, hugging Bella tightly (which caught her off guard) while Luke, Clyde and Rani all leant in to have a look.

"Wow," Luke beamed with a massive smile.

"That's amazing," Rani said in awe, "I can't believe that's a cake!"

"Looking good Doctor," Clyde said to the Doctor, winking.

"Naturally, of course," the Doctor said as he straightened his tie, making both Bella and Sarah Jane laugh fondly.

"Did you make it?" Sarah Jane asked Bella.

She nodded, "this morning, I hope you like it."

"I love it!" she said, giving Bella another hug.

"I guess the question now is," Clyde said seriously, suddenly holding onto a rather large bread knife and looking down to the cake with a frown, "Does it taste as good as it looks?"

"Oh Clyde, don't you dare!" Sarah Jane cried, moving forward to grab the knife off Clyde as everyone else laughed. "At least wait until I get some pictures first!"

-o-

The Doctor stood in the doorway of the lounge room watching as Bella, Luke, Clyde and Rani played Cluedo on the coffee table, laughing loudly while listening to modern Christmas carols on the music channel on television while they played.

"She's quite the amazing person," said Sarah Jane softly, appearing at his side with a steaming hot mug of tea for both of them, "Quite the match for someone like you."

"She is much better than I've ever been," the Doctor admitted quietly.

"You're both equally amazing in my book, Doctor," Sarah Jane told him, "and trust me, not many people come close to you!"

Everyone around the table all suddenly cried out as they laughed, making the Doctor and Sarah Jane look to their laughing faces.

"No way!" exclaimed Bella. "It was meant to be the Reverend in the Library with the lead pipe!" She said adamantly with Luke nodding in agreement.

"No, no, it was the professor in the library with the lead pipe."Clyde said, trying to sort through all the cards that had just fallen off the coffee table and onto the floor surrounding him. "Or maybe it was Colonel Mustered in the conservatory with a revolver?"

Bella and Luke exchanged an amused glance, trying their hardest not to laugh at their friend while Rani frowned and looked at Clyde beside her.

"Aww Clyde, you dope, you dropped all the cards!" she sighed.

Bella and Luke burst out laughing while Clyde looked across to them sheepishly. Rani shook her head, smiling despite herself.

"So," Sarah Jane said, turning back to the Doctor as the others began to throw cards at one another childishly, "a quiet Christmas this year then?"

"Yeah," the Doctor said, "I might take Bella to somewhere where it is snowing, I think she'd like that; maybe the North Pole to meet the reindeer?"

"No alien encounters for Earth then?" she laughed at the Doctor's seriousness.

"Not this year," he grinned.

"Doctor," said Bella quietly.

He looked to Bella, and then looked in the direction that she was looking, which was at the television where the midday news had come on. An English reporter stood in a warm black jacket outside in the cold London weather in the middle of a busy square. Behind the man stood in all its glory, Southwark Cathedral.

"Reports from eye witnesses say that all sightings lead back to this very cathedral," the reporter said seriously. "But what exactly is creating the strange drains in the city's power has authorities and experts alike flummoxed. Some believe that it is the work of aliens, seeing as it is Christmas time, some think it is a fault with the lines and some are even going so far as to say it is the work of God himself –"

"The work of God, my –"Clyde began to say before being shushed by Bella and Rani.

"Reports have been saying that several people dressed as human-sized Praying Mantises have been seen and all eye-witness accounts say the same thing; that the people have all been seen in, or around this ancient church. This news has created a mix of fear and excitement among the locals and as you can see behind me, it has certainly drawn out a crowd! Yet is all of this just an elaborate hoax done by the church to gain more interest in their religion and cash in on the new alien obsession caused by the past few Christmas's?"

The reporter paused before turning slightly as the camera zoomed out in order to fit another man that was dressed in black robes with a single white square on his neck below his chin and a large gold cross on a gold chain.

"Reverend Angelo Balin joins us now," the reporter continued, holding up a microphone up for the reverend. "Tell me Reverend, what can you say about the hoax?"

The grey haired man frowned disapprovingly. "Well, I can tell you now that the church has absolutely nothing to do with whatever is going on here."

"So, you are denying that is an elaborate plan to bring more people back into the church?"

"Of course I am denying such a ridiculous accusation, there is no evidence to even suggest that any power defects lead back to here –"

"Is the Vatican involved in anyway?" the reporter pressed.

Bella looked past the frustrated looking Reverend to the cathedral behind him, seeing something tall and green in the shadows move out of sight.

"Doctor," she whispered quietly, shocked by what she had seen.

"Come on!" the Doctor said, already out in the hallway.

Bella instantly stood up and moved towards the door.

"You can't just leave!" complained Clyde as he and the other two stood up, watching as Bella quickly walked away from them.

"I'm sorry Clyde," Bella said, stopping and turning back to them. She was sorry; she would have liked nothing more than to stay with them, but the irresistible call of adventured had already infected her. "This isn't goodbye, now that you've meet us, there is no chance of us staying away!"

"Why can't we come too?" Luke asked, obviously disappointed by the abrupt farewell.

"Have you seen what's happened every other Christmas?" Bella laughed. "If you ever need our help, just give me a call and we'll be right there. Well, right there for you, we might just have to get out of whatever trouble we're in, but we'll definitely be there!"

Sarah Jane smiled at the confused looks on Luke, Clyde and Rani's faces.

"Beauty of time travel," Bella grinned before they heard the Doctor yell impatiently, "Bella, come on!"

"Thanks for everything, Sarah Jane," Bella said as she gave her a warm hug.

"You're welcome –"

"Bella!" the Doctor yelled in sheer vehemence.

Bella rolled her eyes, winked at everyone then ran out the door, down the hall, out the already open back door into the still open TARDIS doors, where the Doctor clicked his fingers and the doors shut behind her.

Sarah Jane and the others waited in silence until they all heard the wonderful sound of the TARDIS dematerialising and then... nothing.

"I am not answering any more of your ridiculous questions!" said the flustered Reverend, stalking away from the film crew on the television.

"Eagar to uncover the truth about the mysterious going-ons surrounding Southwark Cathedral," the reporter continued, unfazed about how the interview with the Reverend had just ended. "We will be here to capture any new development and any glimpse of aliens–"

"So much for a quiet Christmas," Sarah Jane smiled


R.I.P Elizabeth Sladen, You will be forever missed.