TW the Ghostly threat CH2
The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS about half an hour after Ianto had made the coffee and looked around, wondering where Bella had gotten too. Sighing he walked up to Jack's office and sat down on the long sofa.
"Read this," Jack said throwing a thick, stapled pile of papers to the Doctor, who caught it. "It's what U.N.I.T. is handing in to parliament about the Dalek invasion last November."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow and got out his brainy specs from inside his suit jacket before beginning to flick through the pages, reading impossibly fast. As Jack watched him he smiled, thinking of how awkward the Doctor looked with still being here.
Occasionally the Doctor would give a 'tut' of disapproval or a 'pfft' of annoyance until he looked back up to Jack. "What a load of rubbish, even for U.N.I.T."
"That's what I thought," Jack admitted. "It was written by a Major Ingram."
"Never heard of him," the Doctor said.
"Until this report, neither had I." Jack said as the Doctor took off his brainy specs and stood up before the rolling door opened.
Jack stood up and looked out his door, his mouth dropping. "Gwen?" he asked.
Gwen and Bella had returned, Bella sporting a new hair cut, and both of them carrying about five bags each. Gwen looked up to Jack as he walked out of his office and smiled guiltily and walked towards the TARDIS.
"Jack, I am so sorry." Bella said stopping below Jack as the Doctor came to a halt beside him. "I tried to stop her, but it was like she was possessed by some kind of demon that just needed to keep shopping! Don't worry though, I'll take it all back –"
"No you won't!" Gwen said, dumping her bags in front of the TARDIS doors and turning back to her. "You needed them!"
"I'm not a charity you know," Bella said hotly as Jack exchanged a smirk with the Doctor and she moved over to her. "I have got my own clothes and my own money."
Gwen grinned at her as Bella unlocked the TARDIS doors with the key that she wore around her neck.
"I like your hair," the Doctor said to her as Gwen walked up the stairs towards Jack and the Doctor.
"Thank you," Bella said some of her anger towards Gwen still in her voice as her cheeks flushed a small amount of colour. She picked up some of the bags and pushed the TARDIS doors open, grumbling as she did so, which made the Doctor smile fondly.
"It's okay though Jack," Gwen said coming to a stop beside him. "Everything was on sale."
"Oh, well, I'm so relieved." Jack told her sarcastically.
Ianto walked into the room and walked to Owen's computer frowning. "Jack," he said. "Janet seems upset again."
Jack looked to him sharply. "Again?" he asked.
"Mmm," Ianto nodded, looking to the screen.
"Who's Janet?" Bella asked, poking her head out of the TARDIS doors and looking up to them.
Jack looked down to her. "Maybe I should introduce you and the Doctor," Jack said as Bella stepped out of the TARDIS, closing the door behind her.
Jack led the Doctor and Bella down to the heavy duty cells where they kept the Weevil they had called Janet. He opened the heavy steel door and they both followed him in.
"This," Jack said stopping at the cell which contained the Weevil, "Is Janet." Both the Doctor and Bella moved forward and stared at the alien through the glass. It was standing in the far corner looking at them, groaning as if were in pain.
"What is it?" the Doctor asked as Bella moved forward and leant up against the glass, the Weevil watching her closely.
"I was hoping that you would have been able to tell me that," Jack said feeling disappointed. "Because we didn't know what they were, we just called them Weevils."
"You haven't asked her what she is?" Bella asked looking to Jack who was on her right.
"They don't talk," Jack explained. "We think they communicate telepathically with each other."
"Just like the Ood." Bella said quietly.
Jack nodded. "Only the Weevils aren't as good natured as the Ood, if the teeth didn't give that away, already."
"What do you know about them?" the Doctor asked curiously.
"We're pretty sure that they are extraterrestrial, but there are a couple of hundred living down in the sewers." Jack told him. "Sometimes one of them will go rouge and come to the surface and they attack a human."
"Which is why it's in here," the Doctor guessed.
"Yeah," Jack admitted. "I don't know whether they attack humans because they see us as food or they attack out of fear of being lured into a Weevil Fight Club."
"A Weevil Fight Club?" the Doctor repeated.
"Men were kidnapping Weevils off the street, locking them up and then forcing them to fight with men who thought they were big enough to take them on."
"That's so cruel," Bella said looking up to Jack horrified.
"That's humanity for you," the Doctor said quietly, which made Bella frown as she looked back to the Weevil.
"Not all of us, Doctor," Jack said and the Doctor nodded in semi-agreement accepting that he had a point. "They seem to be time sensitive too."
"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked as he now frowned.
"If there is a dramatic disruption with the rift it is like it causes them physical pain." Jack told him.
The Doctor frowned even more as he seemed to think about what Jack had just told him.
"Where did you find her?" Bella asked quietly as Janet the Weevil walked towards the glass, looking directly at Bella.
"She was burying her dead child," Jack said as he watched the Weevil in semi-amazement. "Weevils may be a calm race and only kill when they feel threatened. Unfortunately, they seem to feel threatened all the time."
Janet raised a hand and put it onto the glass at exactly the same place that Bella had her right hand placed. Bella looked up to the creatures small brown eyes and saw pain and loneliness.
"She doesn't seem to feel threatened at the moment," the Doctor mused, watching the situation carefully.
"I know," Jack agreed looking from Janet to Bella. "I've never seen her act like this before. Normally if any of us were to get as close as Bella, she'd be lunging at the glass. It must be something to do with you, Bella."
Bella looked around to him. "I'm not doing anything though," she told him, surprised.
"I think it might just be you," the Doctor said fondly. "I think she can hear your thoughts, just like the Ood could. She understands them as well. Your mind is extraordinarily unique Bella, and it draws people, for want of a better word, to you."
Bella looked back to the sad looking Weevil. "Do you think you could read her mind, Doctor and see where she's from?"
"I could –"
But just as the Doctor moved forward a step, Janet suddenly lunged at the glass, growling furiously and trying her hardest to get out to him. The Doctor grabbed Bella and pulled her backwards protectively and he moved in front of her slightly.
"I don't think she likes me," the Doctor said matter-of-factly as they watched Janet growl and walk back to the opposite side of the cell.
"Don't get offended," Jack told him seriously. "Bella is probably the first person she hasn't tried to kill."
