Outside, Zoe chuckled to herself as she skipped down the front steps. She knew that she was the one with the most motherly instinct out of all of them, and it probably made more sense to send Jamie for the milk, but she wanted to give the two men a chance to learn something new. Most of the time they were dashing off to investigate an alien space shuttle or breaking into top secret bases. But when it came to anything domestic, they were both clueless. It would be a good learning experience.
It was a wet London afternoon, Zoe could see as she walked down the sidewalk that was darkened by a drizzle. She shivered and hugged her arms around her body, trying to retain her body heat. The address Henry's mother had given him made sense immediately when she came to the street corner and looked up at the signpost. Bowman Street ran perpendicular to theirs and she could tell by the house numbers that she was a couple blocks away from 4120.
Zoe turned left and walked swiftly down the sidewalk, keeping her head down and avoiding piles of slick wet leaves. The world was silent, except for the wind in her ears. Because of the quiet, she was able to pick up on the slightest tap-tap-tap-tap behind her. It sounded like footsteps, though strange ones. Zoe glanced over her shoulder, expecting to see someone there. She was alone. She glanced up and down the street, but it was abandoned.
She started walking again and immediately heard the tapping start up again. She stopped and spun around in one swift movement, hoping to catch a glimpse of who was following her. There was no one. Zoe shivered, not from the cold, and started to trot down the road, picking up her pace just a little. The tapping came again, also increased in speed. Terror seized her and Zoe broke into a run. This time, there was no tapping, only a loud buzzing above her head like a small engine. She looked up, only to see the sky blotted out by a large dark shaped descending upon her. Zoe screamed and was enveloped tightly. She felt a poke in her arm like a giant needle and she passed into unconsciousness.
Back at the house, Jamie and the Doctor sat across from each other in the sitting room, looking grim. Jamie sat on a sofa and the Doctor was leaning forward on a velvet upholstered chair. Between them, on an ottoman, was Henry. He lay there in the center of the room, kicking and crying.
"Doctor, I cannot stand it," Jamie said, rising from his spot and going to Henry. "Oh, come on, please be quiet. I promise, your mummy will be back soon to get you. Please, just stop," he pleaded with Henry, but it did no good. Henry was hungry and tired of lying down and he was going to cry until someone did something about it.
"What's he saying?" Jamie asked, looking at the Doctor hopefully.
"He's saying, feed me, you incompetent idiots." He sighed. "Or something like that."
"Really?" Jamie asked.
"No, I'm just guessing. He's actually crying now."
"Should I pick him up?"
"I should think that would be the best thing to do," said the Doctor thoughtfully.
Jamie awkwardly reached down and lifted Henry, one hand under the baby's armpit, the other around his chubby thigh. The baby let out an indignant cry.
"That one I got. He says to be gentle, you big oaf."
"Why, I outta drop you right now," Jamie said to the baby. "Big oaf indeed. What's a wee sprite like you going to do to me, eh? I'll not be bullied by the likes of you. I get enough of that around here with the lassie poking fun at me and the Doctor calling me 'simple-minded.' I'll not have it from you too."
Henry laughed at this in his contagious baby giggle and Jamie smiled. He held Henry against his chest and bounced him up and down.
"Ken you how a Whig can fight,
Aikendrum, Aikendrum?
Ken you how a Whig can fight, Aikendrum?
He can fight the hero bright,
With swift heels and armour light,
And his wind of heav'nly might, Aikendrum, Aikendrum!
Is not Rowley in the right, Aikendrum?"
Jamie told the nursery rhyme to Henry. The baby watched him intently. "This isn't so bad, Doctor," said Jamie, grinning. "The wean is gay when he's not thinking about how hungry he is."
"Speaking of food, where is Zoe?" The Doctor checked his wristwatch. "She ought to be back by now, one would think."
"Oh, give her a few more minutes, Doctor. She's probably gone off to get some other supplies for us. You know how she is."
Jamie carried Henry around the house, narrating in a funny voice and making comments about things he didn't understand.
"And that, Henry, looks like a little robotic pet with a long metal pole as a leash. You can take it on walks around the house, but stay away from the stairs."
"That's a vacuum cleaner, Jamie," the Doctor corrected him.
"Alright, so that's a vacuum cleaner. You use it to clean vacuums." He moved on to the next room. The Doctor, unable to keep still for very long, got up and went back to the TARDIS. He went over to the console and checked the readings that Zoe had found for alien tech. She had been right, there wasn't much there, just faint traces, but that was to be expected, especially if there were a museum anywhere within a mile. Half of the artifacts were usually alien in nature.
There was a slightly stronger reading though, nearby, that looked unusual. The Doctor decided to run a second scan just to see if he could get any more information on it. He focused the scanner on a smaller range and waited. Within five seconds, the screen provided him with a reading.
There was definitely something alien nearby, but it was either very old and weak, or very well hidden. There was a halo of alien residue around the house, with even a little bit of a reading inside. He called up all the information that the TARDIS had picked up since they had arrived. Twelve minutes ago there had been a flare in power and then things had returned to a "normal state."
The Doctor exited the TARDIS again, his chin resting on his hand as he frowned thoughtfully. He was worried about Zoe. She had been gone far too long.
"Jamie," the Doctor said.
"Aye?" Jamie was lying on the couch with Henry sitting on his chest. He stopped waving the baby's arms around and looked up.
"I want you to go and find Zoe while I stay here and investigate some more. This house is the focal point for some aliens and I want to figure out why.
"Alright, Doctor," Jamie sat up and carried Henry over to the Doctor. "Here you go."
"What?" The Doctor backed away, looking more afraid than Jamie had ever seen him, even when facing an army of Cybermen.
"You've got to take him," Jamie insisted, grinning wickedly. "I cannot take him out with me, and since you're staying here, you're responsible."
Henry had begun to cry again, and the Scot pushed him into the Doctor's arms. "I'll be back soon," he promised, and left the room. Henry was wailing and the Doctor stared at him, desperately trying to make some sense of his cries.