Run - Part III
The doctor fiddled with the TARDIS controls, scanning for the mortifer and trying to figure out how to get rid of it. The area wouldn't be safe for Annie – wouldn't be safe for anyone – until he got rid of it. He was disturbed from his thoughts by the sound of Annie's cane. He suddenly felt guilty. He hadn't shown Annie how to get from her room to the TARDIS control room. How long since he'd left her? How long might she have been wondering through endless corridors? What if she'd gotten lost, or stumbled on something dangerous?
"Hello?" Annie called out quietly as she approached, and the Doctor leaped from his chair to make sure she was okay.
"Annie! How did you find your way?"
"There's a vibration coming from this room. I followed it."
"Brilliant!" the Doctor grinned.
Annie looked slightly embarrassed.
"I guess so…"
"So, what brings you up here?"
"I wanted to say sorry, for earlier. I was just scared, and…"
"It's all right to be scared, don't worry about it."
Annie lowered her head.
"I was also wondering…" she hesitated. "Do you have anything to eat?"
The Doctor looked her over quickly. He'd noticed she was very small, but in the darkness of the night before, hadn't noticed exactly how small – how thin – Annie was until then. He wondered how long it had been since she last ate.
"Of course! I know someplace we could go–"
"Outside?" Annie almost squeaked as a look of fear passed over her face.
"Yes. I don't really have food, well, the TARDIS can make food, but it's not very good, and-" he paused, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, okay? Nothing can hurt you while you're with me. Besides," he turned to fiddle with some controls. "It's not in the area right now. The TARDIS sensors can't pick it up, so it must be out of range, but then, it's been a very long time since I've seen one, I may have them calibrated incorrectly… and you should ignore everything I just said and not worry about it." He tried to smile reassuringly, taking a few moments to remember that Annie couldn't actually see that he was smiling reassuringly.
"So what do we do about this… thing," Annie finally said after a long silence in which she'd barely touched the sandwich in front of her.
The Doctor sighed, conflicted. The mortifer was too dangerous to let it stay here on Earth, but he didn't want to kill it, not if he could help it. but he had no idea if he would be able to transfer it somewhere else, to a planet with no humans or intelligent life. Preferably, he would have liked to return it to its home planet, where it would have plenty of its natural prey – mouse-like creatures the size of hares. But he wasn't sure where the planet was, or whether it was currently colonized, or even habitable, or what time period he would have to go to if it wasn't… He had no doubt the TARDIS could find it, if it decided to cooperate, which wasn't particularly likely.
He ruffled his hair.
"Well, I know how to kill it…"
To his surprise, she seemed a bit unsettled by this.
"I guess that's the only option, really, isn't it?" Annie said quietly.
"Well…"
Annie raised an eyebrow, waiting.
"It'll be difficult, and dangerous, but I could try to trap it, take it to a different planet where it won't harm anyone."
Annie was silent for a moment.
"You can't blame an animal for its instincts," she said quietly.
The Doctor smiled, "No, you can't."
"I don't want you to kill it," she said.
The Doctor was silent again, trying to think of a plan. He knew there were some stasis crates somewhere in the vastness of the TARDIS, but how would he get the mortifer into one? Especially when he couldn't look at it without risking blindness.
The use of a mirror was the first thought to pop into his mind, but that would be difficult to coordinate, and as far as he knew, could still damage his eyes, even if it didn't blind him. A camera, maybe? But the internal sensors could be damaged just like his eyes would, and then what would he do?
"You'll need my help, won't you?" Annie said suddenly.
The Doctor looked up at her.
"You can't look at it," Annie continued, twirling her hair between her fingers. "But I can 'see' it."
He nodded, thinking. It made sense. He faired much better than humans would with his eyes closed, but no where near as well as someone who had lived without sight for most of their lives. But to ask this tiny girl to help him capture a monster… If something happened to him in the process, her chances were grim.
But if she wasn't around and he failed, it would go after someone else. And his chances of success were better with her than without her.
"I can do this, Doctor," she said, much more firmly than he had heard her speak yet. She put her hands down flat on the table and took a deep breath. "I'm ready to stop being useless."
Annie followed close behind the Doctor as he wandered around the TARDIS, looking for something he had called a "stasis cage." There were lots of bangs and crashes, and Annie soon learned to stay in the hall rather than follow the Doctor into any of the rooms and risk being crushed. How could one man fill a spaceship that seemed to be the size of a city with so much junk?
"Found it!" Annie heard him practically swimming back through waist-high debris. Some objects fell out into the hallway ahead of him, a few clattering away down the hall. She heard a metallic thunk as the Doctor set down the cage. She reached out to touch it. It barely came to her waist.
"It's not very big," she said doubtfully.
"Mortifers aren't very big," the Doctor replied cheerfully, still a bit out of breath. "Not much bigger than a German Shepherd, actually."
"It sounded huge."
"Everything seems bigger when you're scared," he patted her head. The cage scraped the floor as he lifted it. "Come on, we've got to find a rooster now."
"A rooster?"
The rooster, it turned out, wasn't an actual rooster, but a recording of one – a recording good enough to convince Annie that the Doctor had, in fact, been keeping a live rooster in the TARDIS, until he handed her the small electronic device.
"Think it'll fool the mortifer?"
"It fooled me," she said, running her fingers over the device. It didn't feel much different than a cassette recorder. "But will it really… don't tell me the legends about a rooster's crow killing it are real."
"No, no, of course not."
"So why…?"
"Do we have it?" the Doctor finished for her. "On its home planet, the mortifer's only natural predator just happens to sound almost exactly like a rooster. Assuming it hasn't lost that instinct, we should be able to use this to scare it towards the cage."
"Seems like a strange coincidence," she wondered if this man was entirely sane. She wondered if she was entirely sane.
"I've seen stranger, believe me."
She heard him rummaging around
They returned to the control room and the Doctor rummaged around a bit more.
"There we go," she heard him shake something. "This will help us find it."
It didn't take long before they had, and Annie began seriously regretting her decision to help. After setting up the cage, the Doctor tied a handkerchief loosely around his eyes so he could see the ground right in front of him, but wouldn't look at the mortifer accidentally. Annie grabbed the back of his coat, and turned him in the right direction. She could hear - and smell - the mortifer eating something, and was glad her generally strong stomach hadn't decided to break tradition.
"Ten o'clock," Annie whispered, pulling the doctor to the right and skirting around the mortifer.
When they were behind it, the Doctor played the recording, and Annie heard the mortifer take off like a shot.
"It's running, go!" The Doctor took off as well. Annie's feet barely hit the ground as she was pulled along behind him.
Annie heard the mortifer's footsteps change as it darted down the alley, then stop suddenly.
"Stop!" she shouted, tugging the Doctor's coat. He skidded to a stop just past the alley and Annie crashed into his back.
A padded foot took a step, claws clicking on cement, as the creature sniffed the air.
"It's coming out," she turned the Doctor around to face it. He played the recording again. The footsteps hesitated, but the sniffing continued.
"It's not running away," she whispered.
"Oh, I was afraid of that."
"Of what?"
"Well, we don't exactly smell like predators…"
The creature took a step forward.
"It's coming."
"I guess it's time for plan B then."
"What's that?"
"We're the bait."
"What?"
"Where is it?"
"I dont–"
"Where is it?" He reached back and took her hand, prying it off his jacket.
"Dead ahead."
"Okay, get ready to run."
"But I can't–"
"Annie, you have to trust me, please!"
The Doctor backed up, keeping Annie behind him. She heard the mortifer follow.
"We need it to chase us," the Doctor whispered.
Gulping down her fear, Annie tried to manoeuvre them around as the mortifer came towards them, until they were between it and the alley.
"The alley's behind us."
"Good," the Doctor turned and pushed Annie in front of him. His hands left her shoulders briefly, and she realized he was taking the handkerchief off his eyes. "Ready? Run!"
This time it was the Doctor steering Annie. She wasn't entirely sure how long they had run, but they must be nearing the cage…
"When I say jump…" she felt his hands grip tighter. "Jump!"
She barely had time to react before he had lifted her up and thrown her. She hit the ground hard and rolled. There was a crash behind her as something slammed into the cage. She jumped to her feet and ran back towards the sound, but all the wind was knocked out of her as she ran straight into the cage herself.
"Doctor?" she wheezed.
"Phew!" she heard footsteps land beside her, followed by laughter. "That was something, wasn't it?"
A/N: And so, in traditional Doctor Who fashion (though not on purpose) the ending was rather rushed and simple.
Sorry.
I just couldn't think of anything else to do, and didn't want this story dragged on for too long :/
ANYWAYS reviews are always appreciated, as are ideas or requests for future adventures that the Doctor and Annie can have.
