"Where are we?" River asked, looking around the room and scrunching her hair in her hands, taiming it from the ruff ride.
"It's my bedroom..." Sky said sitting on the end of the bed and clutching her knees to her chest, "It wasn't intential, but I was thinking about home..."
The Doctor sat next to her delicately without saying a word. "Sky?" Someone appeared at the door.
"Charley!" Sky ran too the sudden fourth person in the room and hugged them, "You would not believe how much i've missed you!"
"Missed me? You've only been gone 2 weeks! Left it too Jeff too tell me where you were going! "Going to see parents in Wales" That's all you told him..."
They pulled away from the hug and stared into eachothers eyes for a moment.
"Sorry... I know I should have told you where i was going, it was all sort of..." She trailed off. Charley wasn't paying attention to Sky, but was now looking at River and The Doctor who were both sitting on the edge of Sky's bed beaming at them both.
Sky turned around, "Oh! Charley this is River and The Doctor... Friends of mine and Doctor River this is my... Erm... Girlfriend, Charley"
River smiled. Charley swung an arm around Sky's middle and smiled, causing Sky to blush, "Hey!" Replied Charley. River jumped off the bed and extended her hand, which Charley shook curtly.
"Hello sweetie!" Said River.
The Doctor blinked several times and stood up slowly, offering his hand to Charley after River "Hello." He said shyly.
"Let me guess, Sky didn't even mention me...?"
"Not once..." River shook her head causing her static hair to bounce from side too side.
"Typical!" Charley said pulling Sky closer, causing her too blush a deeper pink. "She does tend too miss out that tiny detail!" Charley laughed, letting go of Sky and putting her hands in the pockets of her tight black skinny jeans, "Right, i'll leave. Let you too carry on... Doing whatever it is you were doing, would any of you like tea?"
Everyone shook their heads and all answered in different variations of "No thank you."
Sky then added, "We'll be down in a moment." Her tone sounded sad. "Everything okay?" Charley asked, bending to see Skys face. Sky looked up at her, "I'll tell you about it later."
She smiled.
Charley nodded, "Okay, i'll be unpacking downstairs if you need me!" At that she left.
"She's nice." Said River.
"Yeah..." Said Sky slightly nervous at their reaction, "She's really nice."
"I have had friends who..." He trailed off smileing.
"Yeah, i was told..." Sky looked awkwardly at them both.
River changed the subject, "Is that why Shah said you couldn't get married?"
Sky nodded, "Its not that big a deal. I never wanted to get married anyway, Never had the time..."
They were silent again.
Sky then asked, "Do you want too talk about it?" Knowing that she was talking about what had just happened River said, "I don't think theres anything more we can say..."
The Doctor then said, "There's something i have to know...?" Sky smiled curtly, "Go for it..."
"How the hell do you know how to use a vortex manipulator!"
All three of them laughed.
It was a nice moment, it cleared the negative air and Sky's next breath was a new one. As she replied, she tapped her temples, "I guess my brain just remembered River using it in the TARDIS..."
She shrugged, giving River the 'You know what i'm talking about' look. River remembered that she could remember the silence without an eye-patch, which meant that whatever it was implanted in her head could remember everything she had ever seen... River reminded herself to never let The Doctor scan Sky. If he found out, Sky had an almost photographic memory he would be like a kid spending all his pocket money in a sweet shop. Manic.
"How come you didn't mention Charley?" River asked changing the subject, as she senced The Doctor was sceptic about Sky's passive attitude.
Sky scrunched up her nose and shrugged, "Never really needed too."
"It would have been nice too know you were..." River started.
Sky cut in, "What lesbian?"
"Yeah..." River said.
"Does it make a difference?" Sky asked, not angrily, but curiously.
"No! Not too me..."
"Nor me!" The Doctor smiled and they all laughed.
"You know what, I do fancy some tea...?" The Doctor added.
"Cmon then, i'll make some..." Sky turned to leave and The Doctor and river followed closely behind her.
"What did she mean by unpacking?"
As the reached the bottom of the stairs, they looked into the open door of the living room and saw Charley surrounded by boxes. She must have had head phones on, because she appeared to be playing air guitar and miming lyrics rather anegetically in the middle of the boxes. All three of them sniggered as the stood in the archway of he door, watching her. She hit the floor on her knees, leaning back and playing air guitar, showing off the black rock chic t-shirt that she was wearing. Her face scrunched up as she clearly hit a high note. She jumped up onto her feet and began strumming furiously. After a while she opened her eyes, seeing clearly the three of them laughing at her in the door way. She blushed the deepest shade of red possable and took out her head phones, "I- I was just... Erm..."
Sky, The Doctor and River suppressed their laughs and squeezed their lips together too hold in the laughing.
Charley sighed, "What did you come down for?"
Sky walked towards her and kissed her on the cheek, making her look even more embarrassed, "We came to make tea..."
Charley smiled, "Oh i'll make it, you sit on the sofa..." With that she left.
The Doctor and River took a seat on the sofa, still laughing and shaking their heads at the moment they had just experienced.
Sky sat on the sofa opposite them, she had stopped laughing, "Sorry you had to see that!" She giggled again.
"Oh don't worry about it!" Said River, "At least she wasn't talking too things..." She leaned back and signalled to The Doctor, pointing out that she was talking about him.
"I do not!" He protested, spotting her gesture.
"Really like what! Whay does he talk too?" Sky asked, smirking and ignoring The Doctor.
"You can't count the TARDIS! She's actually alive!" He protested.
"Oh fair enough but you talk to yourself, to your sonic!" She was making a list with her fingers.
"Yeah okay you got me there..." The Doctor submissed.
Sky chuckled as Charley returned with the tea and placed them all on the coffee table in front of them all and sat down next too Sky, who smiled and moved closer as Charley rested her arm on the back of the sofa behind her, "So how do you know eachother then?" Charley asked addressing the three of them, "Do you know Sky through her parents?" The Doctor cut in, "Have you met them?"
"Who?" Said Charley taking a sip from her hot tea.
"Sky's parents..."
Charley shook her head, "No. Sky told her mum she was moving to London to live with me, but neither of them have ever asked to meet me. I never really wandered why."
The Doctor questioned futher, "Don't you think that's odd?"
"Not for my mum..." Sky said her head hung low as she blew into her cup trying too cool down her tea.
"So you don't know Sky's parent then?" Charley added.
"No, not anymore," Said River, who was much better at convincing people and making up covering stories for The Doctor, "We used to work together, in Wales when Sky was a teenager. It was her first job."
"Oh right yeah! At the bowling alley right? In Cardiff?"
Sky nodded, hating lieing but knowing it was safer if she did, "I worked behind the counter and River was more... The waitress on skates kind of person."
"Exactly!" River said, giving The Doctor a dissapproving look as her smirked at the thought of River on skates.
"So how did you get here? If you don't mind me asking..."
"Not at all!" Said River, once again formulating a story in her head quickly, "I never left Wales, and was really sad when Sky left, it was purely coincidence that i worked in one of the service stations the Sky stopped off at on the way too see her parents."
Sky laughed, "It's nice though, seems like fate!"
"I don't believe in fate..." The Doctor said and River rolled her eyes.
"So how do you fit into this then Doctor?" Charley asked.
The Doctor placed a hand on Rivers knee and looked up, "I'm her husband." He said it so proudly that River had too look away as she blushed.
Charley smiled, "Oh i get it. So they dragged you all the way up here then, the old ball and chain!" They all laughed.
"You wouldn't believe how far we've come!" That made Sky and River laugh again, Charley didn't get the joke but laughed all he same.
Suddenly they felt the room juddering a little. The cups of tea were shaking, making little circles appear in the liquid, "What's happeneing?" Sky asked as the room gave a huge lurch causing The Doctor to reach out to River, trying to protect her from whatever was happeneing.
"I don't know!" The Doctor shouted over the sound of everything rattling and the breaking ornaments.
"Sky?" Charley asked shouting and Sky grabbed her, protecting her head from falling objects.
"Doctor?" Someone called through the mayhem.
"Hold on to something!" The Doctor shouted as the ground and everything around them dissappeared in a bright flash of light. When they recovered The Doctor was the first to open his eyes.
They were all lyeing on the ground, "River, Sky, Charley you okay?"
"Yeah, fine!" Came the reply of River as she pushed herself off the floor rubbing her eyes. "Sky?" River asked.
"Yeah i'm fine! Charley?" Said Sky, also sitting upright and tightening the bobble in her hair, looking at where Charley and the sofa had just been.
"I'm okay..." Charley pushed herself off of the floor, pulling her belted trousers up.
The Doctor was the first to notice them.
Then River.
Then Sky.
And finally Charley, "Oh my... What on earth are they!"
They were looking up at several silents. All with their arms extended. "No. No. Doctor... She's... No." Sky looked into Charleys terrified eyes, "I'm sorry..." She whispered. "For what?" Because Charley had taken her eyes off the silent she could no longer remember them.
"River?" Sky asked. River threw her an eyepatch and she quickly fastened it to Charley's face.
The Doctor payed no attention to Sky, Charley or the silents, although he had noticed them, and knew he was there, that they were a threat but he was looking right at River. She knew exactly what he was thinking.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Teleported." Was his answer.
"How?" Sky asked, turning away from Charley, who was still staring at the silent.
The Doctor answered, "Your wrist." Sky looked down and saw the vortex manipulator was smoking slightly.
"Who would have been able to hack it?"
The Doctor and River shared a worried look, before they turned back to her and The Doctor said, "Lets go and find out shall we?" They all got up off the floor and gathered around The Doctor, who had pulled out the sonic and was whirring it around the space they were in.
Sky reached an opened hand backward, and waited for Charley's to slip her hand into hers. When it didn't her heart skipped a beat and her stomach lurched.
"Charley?" She asked turning her head around and seeing Charley still sitting on the floor staring at the now clicking silent, who was bending over her.
Sky was shocked into silence and The Doctor had turned to see what Sky was worrying about. "Doctor...?" Charleys voice trembled, "What is it? Wy is it in my head?" The Doctor stepped closer to Charley, moving Sky out of the way and into the clutches of River, who started whispering to calm Sky down.
"Charley?" The Doctor asked, stopping short and bending low to be at her level.
Charley's visable eye had locked onto the Silent, who was bending down, stopping The Doctor getting closer to Charley.
"Charley?" The Doctor asked again, "You have to get up now, it's time too go..."
"We've got all the time in the world, time lord." Charleys voice was deep, menacing.
"River how does she-" Sky had began talking panicked.
"Shh Sky let The Doctor think..." River pulled Sky closer as she spoke, tightening her grip around her waist.
"No! Doctor she's not..."
"Sky i know, i can see it for myself." The Doctor didn't snap but his words were stern, "She seems to be being hypnotised by the Silent."
No-one spoke in the beat of hearing nothing but someone's heavy breathing, then The Doctor spoke again, "Charley, who told you i'm a time lord? Do you know anything else about me?"
"Only that your extra special." She blinked almost mechanically before continuing her stare, "But i'm not aloud to tell you why." She laughed robotically as The Doctor moved away and River let go of Sky as she saw the look on The Doctor's face.
Sky stood there looking at him, he grabbed her by the shoulders and said, "Sky... We have to leave her here..."
"What!" Sky shouted, "You can't leave her here! She's scared! She'll be all on her own! No, i won't let you!"
"Sky... She's better off here i promise..."
Sky looked between The Doctor and Charley. Noticing for the first time that River had let go of her she eased her was out of The Doctors strong grasp and went over to Charley. She sat down beside her, the Silent didn't move but all the others in the room slowly moved to make a protective circle around the one who stared at Charley. Sky spoke in an almost unrecognisable pain, "Charley, I have to go but, I will be back for you, I promise. It's my fault that your here, i should never have dragged you into this. We'll go home after this I sware. And if it's the last thing I do, I promise i'm coming back for you." She lifted herself up off the floor and faced The Doctor. She had the same determined look on her face as River had worn many times whilst traveling with The Doctor.
Without saying anything, The Doctor and River nodded at Sky, realising that she truely meant that she would die for Charley. "Let's go..." With that, Sky lead the way out of the room, leaving River and The Doctor with the silents before they too turned and left.