Chapter 2: Flight of Desperation
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Cathryn woke up, finding herself back in her room. The familiar bedspread, her curtains...the window that displayed the neighbor's house directly in front of the street. Slowly, she pushed herself up in bed, grabbing hold of the bottle of water she left on the nightstand. Just a dream. Just one crazy, realistic feeling dream, she thought. Immediately, she grabbed hold of her iPad, next to her on the bed and frowned. The wireless was down. That meant she needed to restart the modem. Her father wasn't there to do it but her friend had showed her how to disconnect the modem and router long ago.
"Great. Just one more thing." She wondered whether her mother had already left to go to the hospital to visit her father or whether...she frowned at the clock. 4:45 in the afternoon? She had actually fallen asleep during the day? "Crap," she muttered. Visiting hours were almost over in that department, ending at seven. She needed to get to the hospital right now. Quickly, she changed out of her customary nightgown into her jeans and three layers of sweaters. Despite it being nearly summer, Cathryn was constantly cold. The doctor at school warned her about her pulse rate and blood sugar levels. The pharmacy there had given her these disgusting nutrition bars. She ate half of one before she threw out the rest of the contents. What had she done to deserve that type of punishment?
Anxiety overwhelmed her and she checked her bureau drawer for her Xanax medication only to find it gone, along with the rest of her prescriptions. Did her mother move things around in her distraction? It wasn't exactly par for the course that she would touch Cathryn's meds but, circumstances hadn't been normal lately.
Getting into her shoes, she pushed the door open, starting to call out, "Mom?" but the words died in her throat. This wasn't her hallway. It was... "No," Cathryn said in panic. "Oh, please no." The TARDIS hallway. Orange hues, her heart started to race as she ran down the hallway, hoping to find an exit barely hearing the voice of the Doctor saying, "I think it's time we talked, don't you?" Addressing someone else. Bec, Cathryn thought.
She didn't hesitate, storming directly inside. "What the hell have you done?" Cathryn demanded.
He turned to see his newest passenger arrive in the console room. Lifting his chin slightly, he folded his arms across his chest, tapping his retrieved sonic against his arm lightly. "What I said before. Trying to help you."
"This..." Cathryn gasped as her throat squeezed in panic. "This isn't helping!" She looked around the console room frantically. "Where is my medication? They were in my purse and-"
"Taking an active appetite suppressant when you haven't been eating along with lorazepam and zolpidem are contraindicated-"
"My doctor prescribed all of those to me. He said they weren't." She shook her head frantically. "You don't understand. I need that medication... my father!" She protested. "I need to get home." In that moment, her anxiety and dread reached a terrifying degree, she wasn't seeing straight.
She ran straight for the door, not hearing Bec cry out they were in the Vortex. She had already pulled the door open and was eager to end this nightmare one way or another. Surely the delusion wouldn't keep and every time Cathryn fell in a dream, it would prompt her back to consciousness. She just knew she couldn't stay here.
Bec raced after her friend, seeing the state she was in, but the Doctor got there first, wrapping one arm around her waist and pulling her back while slamming the door shut with his free hand. He didn't even respond to her cries, apart from grimacing at her flailing limbs, as he dragged her back across the room. He didn't release her until he'd flicked those two little switches that Bec remembered seeing another man press on the show, didn't release her until he was sure she was safe from fleeing to her death out the TARDIS doors.
"Right! We need a few ground rules," the Doctor told them loudly. "No touching the doors. No touching the console. In fact, no coming in the console room unless I'm here."
Bec turned her back on the man, completely ignoring him. Not only did she want nothing to do with him, but she was far more concerned with the wellbeing of her friend, especially given her traumatized state. "Cathryn, it's okay. We'll be alright, yeah?" She wanted to assure the other that they'd get out of there and find a way home, but she knew she couldn't promise that, and didn't want the Doctor to hear what assurances she might have given. But what could she say? What comfort could she possibly offer after being chased and trapped and taken against their will?
"We just want to go home," Cathryn bemoaned. The circumstances of the situation were not dispersing. "My father...please, he's in the hospital. My mother is all alone. I can't leave her alone...not after..."
Her breathing quickened as the Doctor crouched down directly in front of her. Gently he took her hands, using her wrists as a telepathic point of contact. "It's going to be fine, Cathryn," he intoned vocally with the words sounding softly inside her mind. "Just calm down and you'll be fine." He felt her overwhelming panic, the dread, guilt and anxiety. Everything those medications he stripped from her so successfully numbed. Still, he knew the potential side effects better than anyone.
"Doctor," Rose started quietly having entered the room. "The pills. Maybe you should return them. Cathryn seems to need then and they're prescribed, yeah? So-"
"I can't." He shook his head. "It could be dangerous and I'm not taking the risk."
"But," Rose insisted. "Shouldn't that be their risk to take? How they help themselves?"
"Rose," he said quietly. "I am helping them as the Doctor. That doesn't mean I can turn a blind eye when one or two of them are hurting themselves." He let out a sigh as he looked at his newest passengers, sitting before him, the two girls on the floor attempting to console one another.
"Forget about him," Bec whispered, trying to calm the other girl. "He thinks he knows best, thinks he's in control, but he's not." Bec had suffered her own hardships in her life, but the one thing that had kept her strong was her belief that life wasn't without reason, that all things, good, bad and terrible, were planned and purposed, and that she could trust the one behind the design. "God's in control, not him. It'll be alright, okay?" She continued to whisper reassurances, as she deliberately tuned out the voices of their captor and his companion.
"God's in control," Cathryn whispered in agreement. With the help of her friend, the anxiety had managed to simmer down.
"As for the other rules-" The Doctor turned back to them.
"Too tired," Cathryn said, interrupting him. "Not going to listen about rules." Leaning wearily against the coral. "Not that I would care if I was fully awake." Her quiet mutter was something the Time Lord didn't miss. Yes, both girls would definitely prove to be a handful.
The Doctor inhaled looking at his new charges. He was going to have them go to the medbay and discuss the results while he ran a few more tests but with one girl barely conscious...the discussion would have to wait until tomorrow. Besides, it would give him a little more time to verify the initial results to the DNA typing he had already done. "Let's say we get you two back to your rooms." Cathryn yelped in protest as he quickly her from the floor before carrying her to the room assigned to her by the TARDIS, taking measure to pull back the covers so she could sleep in comfort underneath. Perhaps it was some small mercy that sleep claimed her before he placed her onto the bed. Only then did he make adjustments to circuitry inside her room.
"What's that?" Bec asked seeing the advanced circuitry.
"One part of the neural frame port that connects this area of the ship to the TARDIS," the Doctor explained. "I'm just telling the TARDIS to keep a watch on her vitals." He had been very quick in the injection he gave her ultimately satisfied as he pulled the blanket on top of her.
"Now Bec..." he started, turning to the woman who was simply shaking her head. She didn't want to be here, she didn't want any of this to be happening. She simply wanted to be home with her family, but she restrained her thoughts of her children, fearing she would break if she didn't. Deliberately, she focused on the matter at hand.
"You had no right to take that medication from her," Bec said with slow determination. "Give them back."
"I discarded all those containers."
"How lucky of you. When Cathryn panics, we can just wring our hands together and watch," Bec said with contempt. "Gee, that will be fun. Will there be popcorn?"
" Rebecca," he started, but she pointedly shook her head and turned away.
"I assume there's no point looking for my pills either?" She sighed and cut him off as he tried to answer. "Just… just go away. Just…" She took a position besides Cathryn's bed. "Please, just go away."
After a long pause, he finally backed off. His measured steps faded as she closed her eyes. "Now, how to get out of this nightmare?" Bec pondered to herself.
A few minutes after, he hadn't returned, she pulled the chair from Cathryn's desk next to her bed. She didn't know if this was an exact replica of her friend's room as hers had been, but just in case, she tried to maintain her self-control to not scrutinise everything, thereby invading her privacy. Instead, as she sat, she tried to remember everything she could about the episodes she'd seen, the stories she'd read and the ones she'd written, trying to think of anything that might help them.
But as much as she tried to concentrate, her mind kept slipping to those two little boys waiting to be picked up. She could almost see their tears when their Mummy never came for them, perhaps never came home at all... She ruthlessly held onto the hope that she would get home, even arrive back in the school yard mere moments after she'd left, if not from her perspective.
Her useless thoughts continued to spiral into less and less coherence, jumping from her children, to her family, to her loathing of all things Doctor Who, to everything she'd left behind, until she was merely reciting paradigms from her Greek classes: 'Loo-oh. Loo-ace. Loo-aye. Loo-omen. Loo-eteh. Loo-oosin...'
She jerked in her seat at a soft knock on the door, surprised that she had dozed off in such an uncomfortable position. "Hello?" a voice called in tentatively from the hall. A soft smile crept across the older woman's face. It wasn't Rose's fault that the Doctor had trapped them.
Bec stood and silently made her way to the door. "I didn't know what you wanted," the young Londoner told her, holding out a glass of water. "I'm Rose. And, it was Rebecca, yeah?"
"Just Bec. The only people who call me Rebecca are teachers and other people I don't like." She grinned at her own implication as she accepted the glass. She took a small sip then simply nursed the drink, thinking longingly about a cup of tea.
"Why don't you like the Doctor?" Rose asked, catching on instantly. "He's only trying to help you both."
Bec pressed her lips together as she considered what she could say to the girl. She couldn't risk disenfranchising Rose against the Doctor, or she risked altering the future, and the Doctor and Rose were always meant to be.
"What's the Doctor told you about us?" she asked, testing the waters.
"He said you were in trouble. Something about energy and psycho... telepathic..."
"Of course he did," Bec agreed, her tone flat.
"He can help you, yeah? The Doctor, that's what he does?" The innocent belief in the girl's voice had the small smile twitching at the edge of Bec's lips again.
"Rose, imagine a little old lady walking down the street. She's frail and weak, but when you go and offer to help her cross the road, she vehemently turns you down. Would you force her to accept your help while she screams blue murder as you drag her unwillingly across the road? Turns out she never wanted to cross the road. We don't want… this."
But it wasn't like that, Rose thought. The Doctor had said they were in danger, and he couldn't just walk away, even if they didn't think they needed the help. "You look exhausted," she said, changing the subject. "How about you go have a rest, yeah? I can sit with her for a while and find you when she wakes up."
"Thanks, but no," Bec replied, a flash of resentment shooting through her as she thought of the room that was not her room. "I'd rather just wait."
"How about a bite to eat, yeah? You must be famished by now." Bec smiled at Rose's concern. She truly was as caring as she seemed on the show. She could only hope the Doctor learned a few things.
"Thank you," she said again with a smile. "But we can get something together when Cathryn wakes up." She was worried about how fragile Cathryn was, and she didn't want her to wake alone into this hell and, though she refused to admit it to herself, she didn't particularly want to be on her own either. "Umm, you wouldn't happen to know where my shoes are though, would you?" she asked the girl.
"Yeah, I put them in the cupboard with your other shoes. That's alright, yeah?"
Bec laughed silently to herself. Of course, it made sense that her shoes would be put away where they were meant to be.
"Yeah, thanks," Bec smiled at the young Londoner.
After Rose gracefully left, she returned to her chair and let her mind sink back into fruitless, mind numbing paradigms. 'Log-os. Log-oo. Log-oh...'
She jerked in her seat again when a second voice punctured the silence.
"I'm sorry." Cathryn woke up feeling miserable. "I panicked. I didn't know what I was doing." It was a blur. Running to the door, wanting it to be a dream. Her surroundings certainly seemed so.
"It wasn't your fault," Bec said. "Luckily nothing happened."
'Yes, lucky for me." Cathryn's voice was flat. "So lucky for us this is real."
"He chucked out your medication." She wanted to be straightforward and Cathryn sighed.
"Why wouldn't he? It must be so much more entertaining this way." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. After what you're going through with Matty."
Bec's expression turned stony and she looked away. "But he's okay, he's safe. He has to be and we will get home." Now in privacy, she could share any sense of optimism she had without the Doctor's interference.
"Maybe the rift brought us here." Cathryn said in thought.
"Which means...?" Bec asked in confusion.
"It could be our way home."
"You two are awake!" It was Rose's voice entering the room. "Must be hungry, yeah? Brought back some fish n' chips and-"
"No," Cathryn said, staring at the wall. "No thank you. I have tremendous allergies to pretty much everything but...why don't you two go ahead," she suggested to Bec who looked at her friend with a grimace while Rose appeared incredulous. Bec had hoped that the allergies Laura, the name Cathryn used in her self insert, listed in her story were merely added for depth of character, rather than true allergies Cathryn herself had.
"Allergic to fish n' chips?" Rose exclaimed. The way she consumed them, she'd couldn't imagine such a horrendous possibility.
"Yes, allergic. Soy by-products, msg, cumin, chilli pepper, coconut and..."
"All right." Rose gave a brief sigh. That seemed complicated. Maybe the Doctor could determine a diet regimen for her. "So, 's alright with you? Fish and chips? I grabbed your shoes too. Hope you don't mind. Maybe just..." Rose raised her eyebrows at Bec.
"I don't know," Bec said, glancing back at Cathryn. She didn't want to leave her, but her stomach was grumbling uncomfortably, and the thought of hot chips sounded wonderful. She hadn't eaten anything for a while and only had a drink of water at the Starbucks they were caught in.
"Only take a few ticks, be back before you know it," Rose encouraged.
It was with some reluctance that Bec managed to leave. When she did, Cathryn tossed the covers side. Perhaps, Bec going to the kitchen would be a significant draw to the Doctor to at least check on her progress. Yes, please let him just check on her progress. The kitchen was right next to the console room. She needed only the space of mere minutes and if luck was with her, they would be back in London for a recharge before the next episode. He stipulated rules not to go inside his console room without him being present but perhaps if he thought Cathryn was still laid up, she wouldn't even consider this.
Creeping into the console room, luck was still on her side. She allowed herself a brief smile. She knew where the switches were.
Bec was sitting facing the door trying to wolf down the chips while she surreptitiously pushed the battered fish to the far side of her plate. She reached for her tea only to be jolted as an alarm rang through the TARDIS. Without a second thought, she was on her feet, heading directly into the console room.
"Come on!" Cathryn yelled immediately upon Bec's arrival, over Rose's cry of, "Wait!" They sprinted out the door together, finding themselves across the road from a chip shop where Bec assumed Rose had recently visited.
The world looked out of date. The clothes and hairstyles being out of fashion, at least they would be. Bec nodded internally, remembering a comment Rose made once that chips tasted better back when they used newspaper to wrap them in... Did she say that on the show? Or was that from a story she'd once read? Absentmindedly, she considered using the reference herself, but she angrily shook the thought away as they careened down the street.
"Now what?" she asked, hoping the other had a plan.
They both had their purses in with them. It would suffice. The era with tie die as well as brightly colored clothing, looking mid 1970's. "C'mon," Cathryn prompted as grabbed Bec's hand, heading into the nearest underground station. Luckily their pounds were undisturbed. "The train station."
"Which one?"
"King's Cross," Cathryn said. "Thirty years ago. The technology isn't what we're accustomed to. We can take the bullet train to Paris."
"Couldn't he just materialize the TARDIS inside the train?" Bec was thinking about 'Lost in Reality'. How the Doctor's there knew exactly where Sara had fled too but Cathryn shook her head.
"It's a Faraday cage. Should block any signals that we have." She looked knowingly at Bec. "All the metal. Another fanfiction author, Carol, she has her degree in math, explained it to me. It's like one big bio-dampner."
Bec raised her eyebrows. This plan might actually have some merit. They took the tube station directly to King's Cross, heading to the San Pancreas station adjoining it, buying tickets for the next outbound train before hurrying to the platform.
"I thought...with 'Lost in Time'..." Bec raised her eyebrows. She was referring to how the ninth version of the Doctor caught up with Sara on the train going to Paris.
"Well, to be honest, I didn't know enough about Faraday Cages at the time. I suppose if you want me to explain it away, he made a deduction and he's a time traveler or hacked into the outbound passenger list." Cathryn shrugged. "Still, to be frank, it was just a goof on my part. Carol brought up the concept a few weeks prior and I looked it up to get a better idea." Cathryn nodded. "We'll need to go to a currency exchange." She wished she had the sonic still in her possession. That would have been very useful. Still they had enough cash to lead the Doctor hopefully on a wild goose chase.
Cathryn took care of all the details while Bec kept a lookout. Luckily, there were no unexpected surprises for them, and within forty minutes they were boarding the train. Once they were comfortably seated, Bec pulled out her phone and began rummaging through her apps, photos and notes.
"What are you doing?" Cathryn asked beside her.
"Deleting anything Doctor Who related," she answered without looking up. "It probably won't stop him if he really looked, but if there's nothing to see at first glance, maybe he'll leave it be." Cathryn frowned at the assumption they wouldn't get away. "I couldn't do it earlier, he'd have noticed, but now? Sorry, but I don't want my phone destroyed if I can avoid it."
After a moment, she slipped her phone away and turned to the girl beside her. "While we have this chance, we need to work out what we're going to do. But first, how are you doing, Sweetie?" she asked, concerned for her friend's wellbeing.
"I don't know." Cathryn said. "I don't even want to think right now." She shook her head. "At least when I was home, even though I thought I was in a nightmare, each morning, I felt, hey, I will wake up and it might just all go back to normal." She clenched her hands tightly in front of her. "But now we have this. On top of it, he took my medication away. Everything that sort of kept me sane." She exhaled. "At school, after what happened to my Dad, I would have anxiety attacks. Haven't had those in years. But does he care? No, of course not." Clenching her teeth, she spat out, "Because it's always his way. He's the ultimate authority. He gets to decide everything." She pulled out her iPad from her purse. "But you're right. I have a couple little apps. Best delete them just in case." She went to work through the same monotonous task.
"Is there any chance he can retrieve them?" Bec only managed quietly.
"Of course there is a chance but he would have to know they were there to begin with or whether the iPads or iPhones were worth anything to restore." Cathryn muttered. "If you really want to make everything irretrievable, best to find a vat of salt water and then bake it in an oven. No chance then but your iPad and iPhones will be history along with everything else on it." Cathryn shook her head. "I'd rather not. Not for a couple little, silly trivia games. Episodes maybe but I never downloaded them on these. Just my laptop."
Bec took a deep breath, grimacing at the thought before putting away her devices. They weren't much but they were from home. She didn't see the point in taking such extreme measures.
"What about getting something to eat?" she suggested after they'd been travelling for a while. She beckoned towards the beverage car. They still had another hour on the train to get to Paris.
"I suppose I could always go for a brandy," Cathryn muttered. "When we get to Paris, our best bet is to find a hostel. Enough metal in those things that should hide our signal. We find a job."
"In a place that only speaks French?"
"With British and American tourists there every day? Majority of them speak English. In fact, many Americans work there. I met one that worked at a chocolate shoppe, surprisingly." Cathryn shrugged. "Computers being what they are, at least it will be simpler in those terms," Cathryn said. "As I said, I wish I could have found the sonic but it wasn't in the console room."
"Personally, I'd want to get my hands on the psychic paper. A sonic screwdriver will get you so far, but the psychic paper gives you instant ID and excuses. Having both would probably be the best way to go. Maybe we can work out a plan for next time." Bec pressed her lips together momentarily, biting them between her teeth as she did so. "What if the TARDIS still translates for us when we get there?"
"I don't even want to think about it," Cathryn asserted, and Bec let the subject drop. She doubted they'd gotten away as cleanly as the younger woman seemed to hope, but they had a few hours to live in hope.
They negotiated their way to the buffet car, the Australian choosing both a meal and cup of tea while her American friend chose for herself a stronger drink. Bec smiled as she picked at her hot chicken salad, wondering why, in every universe, healthy meals were always so much more expensive than their greasy unhealthy counterparts.
"Why did you grab that sugar," Cathryn asked, her memory jogged as she watched Bec adding a few sachets worth to her tea.
Bec almost looked sheepish as she remembered her pathetic attempt to fight back against the Doctor. "Ahh… at school, in self-defense class, we were taught that if you hold something, like lipstick or something, inside your fist, it makes your punch stronger and protects your hand from injury more. The sugar was the only thing I could see that I could hold like that." She shrugged as her mind started drifting to other matters.
"We need to make some sort of plan for when he shows up again," she suggested tentatively. She didn't want to push the other, but she wouldn't have been surprised to arrive in Paris and find the Doctor standing there waiting for them. They needed to come up with a plan where he couldn't follow them, because, somewhere out there, he was likely frantically searching for any trace of them. She remembered the months he spent with Donna searching for Sara and Penny, and she had little doubt he would do the same to them. "I was thinking that our best chance will be in Pete's world. He won't have the TARDIS, and if we sneak off at the right moment, he might think we were caught by the Cybermen. In a few years they'll have that dimension cannon. We might be able to get home."
Cathryn looked at Bec with some consideration while sipping her brandy. She knew what Bec was saying. It was logical. Right now, they had a limited amount of cash and it wouldn't last. They didn't have ID's. It might be simpler to achieve a fake but they would still be required to forge or duplicate something that resembled a green card. In Cathryn's grief and shock, she hadn't thought it through and given away the fact that she could open the doors. Or had she? The Doctor wasn't in the console room. She had pulled the switches a few times and heard two clicks. Her timing might have just been lucky. Maybe it was still an ace in the hole. Maybe. The Doctor only gave them rules to not be in the console room or handle the doors without him. He might have thought her stepping into the Vortex was a scare that would put her off from doing the same. She knew the Doctor in all his memory had to actually search and try to recall the little things.
But she didn't like it. It was almost like giving up right now. Handing themselves back to the Doctor. And being the Doctor, he was a lot of things but he wasn't an idiot. He would be suspect if they walked up and handed themselves back over...for Bec's plan to work...
She took another sip of brandy and finally nodded at Bec. "You're right. I wasn't thinking." Cathryn shook her head. "I should of waited but..."
"It wasn't your fault. It was a shock." Bec gave a brief shrug. "It's hard to think clearly when something like that happens. I don't want to give in but..."
"We can't just stand around and wait for him to pick us up, you know," Cathryn said to Bec. "We have to make it look convincing. If the plan for Pete's World is going to work...well, won't you just be a bit suspicious if we got off the train and just sat down on the bench, waiting for him to retrieve us?" Cathryn shrugged. "He might not predict human response all the time but he might think we have something up our sleeves."
"So we have to make our escape look convincing?" Bec asked. It was almost so opposing but there was a logic to it. She remembered how in Cathryn's story, Honor and Laura jumped through different trains in the underground only to be tricked into the TARDIS. Then they conversed and came to terms. A bargain. But Laura in that story had such a way with words. Bec on the other hand didn't like lying no matter what it was called, not to mention she felt she was really bad at it. Half truths, lies by omission. Yet, they were dealing with an adversary. And full out honesty wasn't admittedly going to work here.
"We'll head out of the train station. If we see him, we'll run. We'll put on a good show," Cathryn said. "I'm not going to make it easy for him. Once on board, we'll 'talk'." Cathryn sighed. "I'll try to handle that part of it. Won't lie if I can help it but we'll have to make it seem like we reached a compromise. An accord. Be friendly with Rose. Go along with his tests. Still tell him we want to go home...there's one episode before the Cybermen. He'll romance the courtesan. That's our chance. That time before. Find an extra sonic. Psychic paper."
"And we slip away in Pete's World?" Bec asked.
"It shouldn't be hard," Cathryn asserted. "Rose will go after her father's duplicate. Pete. Mickey will head the other direction to see his grandmother's duplicate." She nodded to herself. "That's our chance when we have those things in order." She gave it some consideration. "If we don't get the psychic paper and sonic before we hit Pete's World, we knock him unconscious and take them when he's caught off guard." Cathryn winced. She hoped it wouldn't come to that. The Time Lord skull was thicker. Once or if they succeeded, they would only have minutes before he woke.
"And if he follows us and not Rose?"
The conductor was starting to announce their stop at the Gare de Nord station in Paris and Cathryn pushed her glass back on the bar. "Then we'll be back with the knocking him unconscious idea. Time to perform," she said, looking at Bec. "Are you okay with this?"
"Ready to frustrate a Time Lord?" she asked with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "You betcha! And if we get split up, let's plan to meet at the Eiffel Tower, no, the Louvre - I've always wanted to see the Louvre - that might give more believability if we have back-up escape plans. 'Though-" She winced comically at herself "-I'll probably get lost..."
Cathryn chuckled slightly, but more at Bec's attempt to cheer her up than at her humour.
The train jolted slightly as it began to slow down. The two had made their way to one of the exits, but unfortunately, so had a great number of the other passengers and they ended up squished uncomfortably to one side. They waited to pull into the station, trying to breathe lightly in the presence of the odourous man beside them.
The carriage bounced to a stop and the girls took a large gulp of fresh air. Bec felt slightly relieved to hear an unintelligible, monotonous male voice making an announcement over the station's sound system. "When disembarking, please mind the gap," the announcement was repeated in English in an equally monotonous feminine voice. Good, Bec thought to herself. If she didn't understand French, that implied the TARDIS was nowhere nearby, didn't it? Or... She frowned. Or that they had yet to be linked to the TARDIS translation circuit. She hoped it was the former, for then they would have some warning when the Doctor was nearby.
"It looks clear," she said after a moment. "Did you want to try finding one of those hotel things you were talking about?"
"Yeah," Cathryn agreed, looking about with equal caution. "We'll catch a light rail and find a hostel close to the station, that way we can have minimum exposure for him to detect us."
They slowly worked their way through the international station, looking for the exit towards the local connections. "Papers?" a woman asked them just as they were about to push through the turnstile.
Obviously she wanted their passports. It was now only fortuitous that the Doctor suddenly appeared, advancing right toward their direction. Oh no, he's not getting the satisfaction of catching us this quickly, Cathryn thought, even though her idea bordered on extreme.
"Wait, you have to help us!" she insisted to the woman in front of her asking for documentation. "That man." She pointed at the Doctor. "That man right there. He was threatening us. He said he had a bomb."
The woman gasped but others heard Cathryn too as they looked at the Doctor in sudden terror before Cathryn plastered a horrified look on her face hoping Bec would follow suit whirling around. "Everyone!" she shrieked. "You have to run. He has a bomb! He said he would blow up the train station!"
Chaos broke out. Screaming. People running each direction as Cathryn grabbed Bec's hand disappearing in the mass of people who were frantically running out of the train station onto the street. Down underground into the metro. Cathryn jumped from one line to another while keeping a close eye on the map. It was easy to understand. All the lines were color coded with the end station being the direction of the train. Finally, they emerged at the beginning of the Champs Elysees. They turned, heading the opposite direction from the Eiffel Tower.
"Where are we going?" Bec managed to gasp.
"The Louvre." Cathryn knew it was essentially down the same road, rounding a juncture through a round about just two blocks distant of the Opera Garnier. "You wanted to see it." She shook her head. "Good thing the pyramid isn't built yet. That was one of the worst ideas they ever had."
"The Louvre." Bec didn't know Cathryn had taken her idea so seriously.
"Why not? It's huge and it takes days to go through," Cathryn said. "Well, you'll see." A tourist outlet allowed them to exchange some of their pounds for francs. In this decade, they hadn't made the switch to Euros. Fortunately, the same retailer also sold tickets to the museum. Pocketing them, they headed across the street and into the museum. There were multiple exhibits. Egyptian. Renaissance objects. Classical art. Cathryn stared at each one trying to make up her mind.
"Cathryn!" Bec hissed. She noticed the TARDIS appearing in an empty corner. The familiar grinding noise. Cathryn nodded and clenched her jaw as the Doctor stepped out giving the two of them a look.
"This way!" Cathryn said decisively, pulling Bec into the Egyptian exhibit. It had multiple hallways, confusing corridors. It was perfect to give the Doctor a good chase to make it convincing. Both knew they couldn't go down without a fight. Cathryn could only hope that the 'bomb scare' worked as a decent instigator. She could only imagine how much use of the psychic paper the Doctor needed for that. Even so, he likely cheated in the time jump to find them.
At least I get to see the Louvre, Cathryn thought. Poor consolation that was. Running here was just a game. When they went to Pete's World, then it would be for real. There would be no second chances after that. It was why so much hedged on making this chase appear real and motivated by desperation. They needed all the help they could get.
The two women ran together through the various displays, but as they fought through the multitudes of people, they were slowly driven apart. "Just keep going!" Bec called, waving her arm forward when the other stopped ahead of her and glanced back. Cathryn met her eyes and nodded, taking off once more.
While Bec found it far more comforting to be fleeing with her friend, she knew that, ultimately, it would make little difference, and they could put up a better show of resistance if they separated regardless. She deliberately turned down a different pathway, and found herself in a dark room with a Technicolor movie playing on ancient Egyptian culture. She hid herself behind a curtain that obscured the staff exit and paused to catch her breath.
A moment later, the Doctor ran into the room, closely followed by Rose and a gangly Mickey. Bec tried to breathe as quietly as possible, but rather than breathing shallowly like people do on the movies, she took deep slow breaths, desperately trying to restrain the urge to gasp for air.
"What do you mean the sonic isn't working?" Rose was asking him as he studied the room.
"Somewhere nearby there's something transmitting a signal that's interfering with my settings. I know they're close but I can't get a lock," the Time Lord was saying with evident frustration, even as he glanced back down at the device. Bec felt a hint of relief flow through her. If she could find Cathryn and let her know, then all they would need to do is stay near the Louvre and he couldn't find them.
"But this is a museum," Mickey interrupted. "How can there be something alien here?"
The Doctor sniffed as he continued scanning the room. The scent was getting stronger, as if lingering in the air. One of them was still in the room. "Exactly," he told the young man. "Someone dug something up they didn't understand so they stuck up on display. Humans." He walked deeper into the room, sniffing the air as he tried to pinpoint the source of the scent.
"Then how are we going to find them?" Rose demanded.
"I can smell them," the Doctor replied simply as his eyes alighted on the curtain on the far side of the room.
"What are you? A bloodhound?" Mickey exclaimed in disbelief, but his comment wasn't quite loud enough to drown out Bec's whispered, "You're kidding me," from the Time Lord's ears.
However, luck was on her side. The Doctor launched himself across the room towards her as the staff door she hid by opened. She slipped past a surprised cleaner, ignoring the woman's shouts, pushed the trolley into the darkened room and slammed the door just as the Doctor reached it. She sprinted down the bright boring hallway listening closely to the Doctor's receding voice shouting at her as she tried to come up with a new plan.
The sonic might not work, but in the maze-like halls and rooms and pathways of the Louvre, he'd have no problems following them if he could smell them.
Her mind drew up images for her of the Doctor searching for the Master at the End of Time, and then she switched to thinking of Laura and Honor and their Time Lord heritage. Surely they couldn't be... She shook her head. No, he could smell Shae and Sara too. It must simply be something about the way she and Cathryn were drawn into this world.
But if he could smell them and follow them through the halls, then their safest option was outside where the breeze could disperse their scent, but then they'd be exposed to his screwdriver... What was it Cathryn said? A Faraday cage. A cage of metal to mask their signal. What better outdoor cage than the Eiffel Tower?
She searched for an exit back into the museum proper, but now she could hear a loud smattering of footsteps rapidly approaching.
She went through the first door she found and raced into a crowded room of paintings. She ran to the nearest security guard, knowing her pursuer was too close to evade unless she stalled.
"Help me!" she begged, hoping the man spoke English. She was surprised by how desperate and fearful her own voice sounded, she didn't even need to try to fake it. "There's a man! He's chasing me!" She turned in time to see the Doctor emerge from the door hidden amongst the paneling on the wall. "Look!" She pointed at him, just as his eyes found on her. The security guard said something, but Bec was already running again.
She heard a commotion behind her and hoped it was enough to slow him down. She found herself wondering where Cathryn had gone, even as she ran through the glass doors to the outside world and fled onto the street.
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Cathryn found herself pulled apart from Bec as she headed through the various contours of the cavernous Egyptian section of the Louvre. She stayed to the exterior, out of the central avenues where the artifacts were being kept under glass. Tourists were pausing to look speaking in mixed tones. It was so convenient to her that it was in entirely in English even though she knew some French. But then she grimaced, realizing the implications as to why.
She glanced behind her, letting out a gasp barely ducking into a small paneled hallway that went into a loop at seeing the Doctor's approach. He had been scanning for her but didn't make eye contact. What was it? Void matter? Or something else? They hadn't stayed on the TARDIS long and Rose didn't seem to ask for much in terms of an explanation or was given a simplified one to hand to Bec. She shook her head. It was something more. She saw his eyes when he used his sonic on her. The expression he had the first time she encountered him.
If it was something else….didn't Carol tell her that artron or other energy could be transferred to pieces of clothing they wore. If they really had time energy in their system… there is nothing to lose… she immediately pulled off her jacket and her scarf. Letting her scarf fall where she stood, she made her way along the corridor, taking a careful glance around the corner of the opposite loop. He was on the other end but distinctly frowning at the readings. He was close enough for her to hear his voice.
"What is it?" Rose asked.
"Multiple readings," the Doctor responded simply before entering into the loop. Cathryn slowly emerged at the opposite end, turning left to head up the stairs.
"Cathryn, stop," his voice suddenly commanded. She turned as their eyes suddenly met. Her scarf in his hand. He was approaching her, giving her a look. She fled, continuing her ascent up the stairs, around the corner and into the cafeteria. Looking around, she spotted a girl with similar hair colour and figure. An idea sprung to mind. "One hundred francs if you wear my sweater and coat," she told her. "I'm playing a prank on this man." She shrugged, rolling her eyes in an exaggerated gesture. "Repayment for something he did to me."
"Ah, man troubles is it?" the girl asked in a French accent. But she didn't argue, accepting the bribe.
"You have no idea," Cathryn said. The exchange quickly done, she ducked down and headed out the door across the outside patio of the Louvre and towards the street. She needed to find Bec. The Eiffel Tower, Cathryn thought. That was their secondary designated meeting spot. It was a distance to run. She immediately headed down into the Metro to buy a pass on their underground line.
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"Now, this is getting out of hand," the Doctor said in frustration. He thought that he spotted Cathryn only to realise it was another girl wearing her sweater and coat. It was any wonder he could smell the trail on her.
"She told me it was trouble with men." The girl smiled. "A prank, no?"
"A prank… very funny." He scowled as he looked around the cafeteria. There was no sign of either girl, but there could be a distinct problem in the Louvre he needed to investigate. He had lost sight of Rebecca when the guards stalled him at the doors and Cathryn only managed to deliver to him a distraction.
"So, how is it that you can smell them?" Rose asked and Mickey raised his eyebrows. The Doctor simply glanced at them. He hadn't discussed it with his companions or with his charges that were simply trying to outpace him. He shook his head, once again, inhaling through his nose before looking down the street. He couldn't get a signal, where they were but he could get their scent on the breeze. He glanced in the direction the breeze was coming from, at the Eiffel Towel. "C'mon," he said to Rose and Mickey, heading back to the TARDIS. "This will be quicker."
"Doctor?" Rose prompted again. He didn't answer her question nor did he answer Mickey's.
Once inside the console room, the Doctor programmed in the coordinates before looking at Rose. How to explain it? "Because… they're family," he admitted finally, immediately turning back to his task.
Rose and Mickey looked at him stunned.
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Cathryn couldn't help but grin upon seeing Bec at the top of the Eiffel Tower. True, she hated heights. She actually had never done this when she went to Paris in the first place but if it would distract the Doctor and have him take this chase seriously… their plan for Pete's World would be even likelier to succeed.
"Bec, thank God you made it," Cathryn said. "I think…" She glanced around. "I think it's more than just void matter. He's able to track it on my clothing so it can be transferred. That and-"
"He can smell us," Bec told her simply, her expression almost cross at the thought.
Cathryn looked at her horrified. "But…" She looked stunned. "That only happens between Time Lords and well…." She thought of Sara in 'Lost in Reality'. He could smell her because of the bond. "We… well, we would have to be absolutely covered in artron for him to pick that up." She knew artron had a sweet smell from parts of her research. The only time it was extremely pronounced was at a planet Honor and Laura visited before the Family of Blood… Cathryn swallowed.
"Couldn't the ninth Doctor smell Sara?" Bec asked, thinking about the first chapter of 'Lost in Reality' when Lilly and Sara first crossed paths.
"Very close proximity and Sara was generating huge amounts of it." Cathryn bit her lip. "This isn't…"
"Weeell, hello, you two." A voice behind them. The Doctor. Cathryn gasped, seizing Bec's hand pulling her to the open elevator. "Sorrrry." The door closed directly in front of them. "Elevator is temporarily out of order."
"The stairs," Cathryn said.
"But it's several hundred steps," Bec protested.
"Which he can't take out of order," Cathryn affirmed as they jogged down to the first landing.
It was an idea that had merit until Mickey stepped directly in front of them on the next landing blocking their progress. "Going down?" He raised his eyebrows. The girls froze, both knowing they couldn't risk injuring a companion. What can I do? Cathryn thought desperately looking at Bec before making the mistake to glance down. A severe case of vertigo threatened as she waivered on her feet. Anxiety built up in her chest, constricting her throat. Her medication wasn't on hand. Can't be here, she thought. I can't be here.
Distantly, she heard Bec argue with Mickey, pleading with him to move. Blindly, Cathryn bolted back up the stairs in panic.
"Mickey the Idiot," Bec challenged. "You've got to let us past."
"Na-ah," the young man denied. "The Doctor says you're in some sor'of trouble, even though you don' believe it."
"Yeah, we're in trouble… from him. You know him, Mickey. You know the danger he puts people in, especially Rose. We don't want that. Please help us," she pleaded.
"How d'you know that?" he demanded suspiciously, but Bec's attention was drawn to the echoing footsteps behind her, except, to her confusion, they were receding not approaching. She turned to see Cathryn fleeing back the way they'd come.
"Cathryn, NO!" she called, following the other girl. She used to be so good at stairs, when she had sixty to walk up to reach her old house every day, carrying children and shopping, but now after only a dozen or so steps her legs and throat were burning.
"Cathryn!" she called again as the other bent under a ribbon with a 'closed for maintenance' sign on it. She could see the Doctor approaching and didn't even care that they were going to reach the barrier at the same time.
He grabbed her by both forearms even as she watched her friend flee. She didn't know why that section was closed off and was suddenly terrified that Cathryn might fall to her death. "Please, help her!" she begged the Time Lord, and his eyes left her and returned to the other's retreating back.
"Stay here with Rose and Mickey," he ordered, looking back down on her. "Right here. Don't move."
She nodded and begged, "Just don't let her get hurt."
He let go and took off after Cathryn, and Rose quickly stepped up beside her. "She'll be alright. The Doctor will help her."
Bec shook her head, her eyes still locked on the distant figures, but she wasn't denying the young blonde's words, but the belief behind them. "She never would have panicked if it wasn't for him. The Doctor isn't here to help us." She wiped the tears of defeat that she was surprised to feel on her cheeks as she watched the two facing each other, their voices tangible but meaningless on the brisk wind.
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Cathryn stumbled along an area finding another staircase that led downwards. The steps felt rickety beneath her feet. In her mind, she was churning. She had to get home. Her father needed her. She couldn't be this far away.
She heard a voice behind her, calling her name. Another step down. One more. Suddenly a horrid screeching of metal. The very step she was on seemed to give beneath her feet. She heard the sound of metal bolts springing loose. She panicked, about to lunge forward for the next step down only for her foot to find empty air. A broken off stair. She struggled for balance…to find the next stairwell but her body was tipping forward and the sound of metal continuing to give echoed all around her.
The Doctor saw what was happening. The staircase wasn't secure. He reacted immediately, using his sonic to temporarily secure some of the bolts but it would only buy him a few precious seconds. That was before he saw Cathryn about to step into empty air. One lunge down, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her directly against him and off her feet as she continued to panic. Her feet meeting only air as he fought to secure his grip while pulling her up the stairwell.
"Cathryn," he said, in his most soothing tone, right above her ear. "It's alright. You're alright. Just calm down. It's-"
"No!" she said in panic. "I'm too far away! I have to get home! He needs me," she gasped. "Can't be this far away. There's no one to watch over him!" She was frantic. "Let go!" she cried out. "Just let go!"
With his arms around her, he sighed as he gently began pressing into her mind. The hypnotic quality his tone took seemed to pervade her thoughts, starting to purge her anxiety. "You're not too far away, are you Cathryn?" His voice was centered. Human telepathy was one thing but now with his thoughts in her mind, the very portion that was once so familiar and he thought lost to Gallifrey. No. This communication was reminiscent of one he used with his own children. "They're alright. You're family is just fine."
He felt Cathryn start to relax in his arms and he started to sigh with relief. "They're just fine?" she asked as her voice trembled.
The Doctor didn't know for certain about the family she was speaking of but he had no reason to doubt they weren't okay. "Just fine," he told her soothingly, giving her every calming sensation he could muster. "But you're tired, Cathryn. You would feel better if you just went to sleep." With that notion planted in her mind, she collapsed in his arms. Lifting her upwards, he was able to carry her out of the dangerous area of the Eiffel Tower, back to his companions and his other charge, who looked at Cathryn in worry.
He looked at Rebecca sternly before glancing down at Cathryn, shaking his head. It was a near miss. They had put their own lives at risk in their attempt to run from him. Neither had taken the chance to hear him out. "Now, I think we really need to talk." His TARDIS parked near the service elevator for the Eiffel Tower was only a few feet away. "Going to run this time?"
Defeat had entered Bec's tone. Mickey and Rose had not left her side. The Doctor was staring at her with those singular ancient eyes, her friend, unconscious in his arms. She was stuck. Besides, this was only to try convince the Doctor that this chase was real, that this was their desperate one last attempt at escape. Cathryn and herself agreed to not go down without a fight but indeed, she was cornered and there was nowhere else to go. Truth be told, the Doctor did seem utterly convinced by their attempt. Cathryn's anxiety attack was the one added touch that neither girl intended that would cement this in the Doctor's mind.
Looking wearily at her guards and at the Doctor standing in front of her, she allowed her shoulders to drop. "And where would I go?" she asked faintly. She allowed her voice to become lackluster. Hopeless. She swallowed thickly as the Doctor finally nodded, turning to lead them back to the TARDIS. Rose and Mickey fell in close behind her. Bec knew why. It was just in case she changed her mind. She could only take a deep breath, steeling herself as she followed the Doctor back up the stairs towards the TARDIS.
She froze when she saw it. She had thought the blue box was wonderful, marvelous, fantastic, but now it felt ominous and intimidating. It wasn't just a prop on a show. It wasn't just a fun game. It was a prison that, despite her words of hope to Cathryn, she feared they couldn't escape from. She had no illusions that they could outwit the Time Lord.
So, with trepidation, she stepped through the doors, even as she tried to bottle all her reactions down. After years of suffering recurring bouts of depression she was good at hiding how she felt, and she hoped she could be convincing enough to fool her captor, even though she doubted it.
As soon as they were on board, the Doctor nodded at Rose who then flicked those two little switches to lock the outer doors. He frowned as he saw Bec quietly observing Roses actions. Even if she didn't know what those switches were for, he doubted it would take her long to work out they were the deadlock now that she'd seen them used. He'd have to come up with a secondary security method until the two women were safely settled onto his ship.
Rose and Mickey dropped back as he'd asked them earlier, while he silently led the way to the medbay where he placed Cathryn gently on a bed and turned to the woman who stared at him challengingly by the door. "Rebecca," he began carefully.
"I'm not interested in what you have to say until you give me a reason to listen," she interrupted, using the same words and tone that she would against her tantrum throwing children. "And you can start by stopping all this telepathy nonsense."
"I didn't have a choice," he told her, his voice rising in frustration. "She was panicking and putting her own life at risk. I couldn't just allow-"
"You could have pulled her to safety then asked me to talk to her, to try to calm her down. Did you even think of that?"
"Of course I did, but in her state of mind she wouldn't have even recognised you. She barely even recognised me."
"You chased her and frightened her into that panic. That's all you've done," she told him, glaring. "I was going to listen to you back at that cafe. Yes, Cathryn panicked, but I was going to listen - right up until you got into my head and forced me to do what you wanted." His eyebrows furrowed slightly at her words. "Well, sorry, you blew it right then. How dare you think that getting into our heads is okay," she fumed.
Behind him, Cathryn began to stir, so Bec stormed past him, ignoring his proximity as the girl woke, mindful of the panic she was likely to feel.
"Hey, Cathryn," she greeted her gently. "We're back on the TARDIS, but we're going to be okay, okay?"
When Cathryn opened her eyes, she remembered. She recalled all the panic she felt at feeling trapped in that metal structure, surrounded by the Doctor and his companions. The overwhelming anxiety, then being seized and having thoughts that weren't her own placed inside her own head before everything went dark. He put her to sleep again. He thought because he had the right and likely because he possessed them he had privy to their own minds.
"He got inside my head," Cathryn told Bec. "Again…." She cast a glare in the Time Lord's direction feeling panic lance through her. She remembered the plan. Yes, frustrate him. Make him believe the chase was real but was he going to usurp their will now that he had them?
"So, no free will now?" Cathryn managed. "Not even the right to our own thoughts? Your ship, your rules?" She shook her head as the Doctor tried to speak. She pushed herself off the bed, feeling anger overwhelm her and with one arm, she scattered a tray filled with medical equipment onto the floor. He took a step towards her. "What are you going to do now? Lobotomize me? Tell me my family is okay? That's what you did before!" She glanced at Bec. "You have no idea. My father is dying and you are locking us onboard this horrendous contraption!"
"Now just wait a moment," the Doctor said. "I'm sorry. I was only trying to save your life."
"That's so convenient," Cathryn told him icily. "When you grabbed Bec's arm and got inside her head, was her life in imminent jeopardy? Was the Starbucks around us about to implode?" She paused. "You think I actually enjoyed sharing your name just to free her from your control? Do you have any idea of what it is like to have your will just taken from you? You take ours so easily."
He frowned. Maybe he hadn't given it full consideration and Cathryn could see his expression. She knew that he was thinking that since they were just humans, he would always know what was best. He was older and wiser. With that, he thought he had authority over them. "I want my pills back," she told him icily.
"I had them destroyed," he said simply.
"You built your TARDIS, which operates on block transfer computations. She can make new ones." Cathryn folded her arms across her chest, ignoring Bec's frustrated groan. It didn't matter now. There was no point in hiding the sum of the knowledge she knew.
His eyes widened. He didn't know how precise their level of precognition was but they were family mixed with human genetics. How their TNA, specifically from the House of Lungbarrow, linking them to him interacted with time was not something he readily anticipated. It could be ancestral knowledge, he knew. "I have an alternative," he offered. The activation of their Time Lord genome was occurring rapidly, which would contribute to both women's apparent anxiety. He meant to give a dosage to Rebecca but she fled off the TARDIS before he could explain it.
Holding out a syringe, he nodded towards them. "This will both help with the anxiety and ease your transition." He glanced at Cathryn. "You already had one dose but it's likely time for another." He looked at Rebecca. "This would also assist you."
"No," Bec said calmly, shaking her head. "Thank you for the offer, but I would prefer the anxiety," she told him in a tone that plainly said she was not thankful for the offer at all.
The Doctor lowered his syringe bearing hand as he considered the two before him. They were obviously set against making things easy for him, each in their own way. Cathryn would react wildly negatively against him while Bec would remain stubbornly intractable.
"But since I can't trust you to not give me something when I'm unconscious or something, I'm making Cathryn my medical proxy. She's the closest thing I've got to next of kin." She remembered the way Laura and Honor had protected each other from the Time Lord and his unwanted medical intervention, and she knew that 'Laura' had simply been Cathryn writing herself into the story, while changing her name and other personal details. She was certain it was safer for her to put her trust in the American girl than the Time Lord in question.
He inwardly approved of her choice of words as they would give him leeway when he needed it. "So do you, both of you-" he glanced at Cathryn to include her "- give your medical and welfare proxy to your closest authoritative kin?"
They eyed him suspiciously as they considered his words. "Yeees," Bec finally agreed slowly with a single nod after finding no loop holes in his statement. Cathryn was from her own universe, so, regardless how many thousands of years back their kinship might go, she was the closest thing she had to family in this universe. She watched as he turned his eyes to Cathryn, even as his use of the word 'authoritative' continued to niggle at her.
"I'm sorry, what do you mean by 'authoritative'?" Cathryn asked.
"It's a formal way to mean your closest relative with the highest level of authority. So if, somehow, another member of your family was present with higher authority than you have over each other, your proxy would then divert to them," he explained. "Does this sound reasonable to you?"
Cathryn gave the matter some thought. In 'Living Fiction', Honor assigned herself as medical proxy and although reluctant, the Doctor allowed it. Considering the two were from the same dimension, they were considered the highest level in kinship. The Doctor, she supposed, was clarifying her wishes. Did she trust Bec enough to make decisions on her behalf when she was unconscious and otherwise unable to? That she would carry out the wishes she thought Cathryn would want? Cathryn thought about their e-mail exchange and how they shared a similarity in faith. She also doubted that Bec would agree to have the Doctor perform any undue treatments while Cathryn was merely asleep or just having an anxiety attack. 'Unless another family member is present.' Well, both their family members were in another dimension. If they happened to arrive here, Cathryn or Bec would then turn over proxy to them.
It did make a certain sense. Cathryn, when she was alone at the hospital would stand as secondary medical proxy for her father. If her mother couldn't be reached, then Cathryn would make decisions on his behalf but she knew regarding her father's medical welfare.
Finally, she nodded. "I agree with Bec in regards to my medical proxy." She glanced at the other girl, nodding. She trusted her. "It sounds reasonable to me."
The Doctor looked at them each and nodded with certainty. Their vocal agreement was all he needed as the head of the house of Lungbarrow. "Then by both your own agreement, I have been designated as your medical proxy," he stipulated clearly. "And as your primary physician, I deem you incapable of making this decision regarding your own healthcare-" He gestured to the syringe "-which will now be relegated to the proxy on both your behalf's."
Cathryn looked at him stunned. "You're kidding. I don't know who you think you are but you're not family." Of course she had written about adoption ceremonies into the house of Lungbarrow but she knew that had not taken place for either herself or Bec. "Bec is from my reality. She's my highest in kin and my proxy."
"And I elected Cathryn as my proxy," Bec told him fiercely.
"I asked you both if you gave your medical and welfare proxy to your closest authoritative kin," he repeated. "You both agreed."
"Yes, and-"
"Before you decided to run off the TARDIS, I was unable to tell you the results of your test, including a simple genetics typing match." He took a deep breath.
"So what?" Cathryn posed. "It's artron energy isn't it? I figured by the way you went after my scarf and probably the girl in the restaurant." She clenched her jaw. "We were exposed in the void or something dormant was activated-"
"Exactly, something dormant was activated." He paused. "How much do you know about your grandfather, Cathryn, on your maternal side."
Bec froze internally, her face a mask of disgust. Don't you dare… she thought.
Cathryn frowned. What did this have to do with anything? "He's dead. Died when I was six."
"Did he ever tell your family about his life growing up?"
"No. It was a very sensitive issue for him. My mother said no one could ever bring it up." She frowned. "It's….you know, it's really none of your business. My family, my grandfather has nothing to do with you."
"I'm afraid he does." He took a deep breath. "The children of my family fled to other realities, before the 'lost dimension', the void space was formed as a result of the Time War. The walls were sealed. At least two of them ended up in your universe and I was able to confirm, you are both my living descendants. The Time Lord TNA and physiology has been activated. The injections are to ease the transition over to-"
"No!" Cathryn let out a shriek. "You're lying! This is all a lie!" Without a thought, she lurched herself at the Time Lord causing him to drop the syringe in a startled reflex. She shoved him hard against the railing. "Liar! Take it back. What you said. Take it back right now!"
Bec only moments before had been frozen. He had used her very words against her, tricking them into an agreement. She was horrified. This was the last thing she ever expected to hear. Distantly, she remembered the Doctor smelling for her, detecting her behind the curtain. Now more than ever, she didn't want to see him. She felt so decisively trapped. Will Pete's World still work if he can… she narrowed her eyes. What if it was a lie? She swallowed, remembered his motto. The rule he lived by. The Doctor always lies. Was this just a trick too?
She couldn't cope with this. She couldn't deal with his lies. She had to get away from them.
Bec turned without a word and walked out of the room.
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Authors' note:
I neglected to mention in the authors' note of the last chapter, emptyvoices and I have been working on this story for a little while now. We have about half a dozen chapters completed, which I will upload every week until we catch up to where we're writing. After that, updates will slow down.
In the meantime, please let us know what you think.
And, thank you again to Almadynis Rayne, Fan Fictional Authoress and LovelyAmberLight for your help and support. We really appreciate you guys!