Chapter 4

"Why do you say it like that?" The Doctor slipped his sonic screwdriver back into his pocket and turned to Tom, one eyebrow raised. "You said 'they're either geniuses or they're up to no good'. Now, that strikes me as a very odd way to say something. Why did you say it like that?"

Tom shook his head. "I don't know," he said, and his voice was distant and confused. He managed a little smile and looked away. "My mother always did say I had a bit more imagination than was good for me. I only saw them once." He narrowed his eyes and stared at nothing. "I was returning home as the sun was setting and the shadows of evening were just filling the streets. I was passing by a printing shop when I thought I saw…a shadow, or the like, the form of a man in the alley behind. I followed it, being filled with curiosity about the matter, and what I saw…" He shook his head. "It defies logic. Five men, printers all, were huddled in the alley, as if at a secret meeting or the like. When I saw them, I thought…it was as if I had found what I had searched for my entire life. I wanted to follow them, to stay with them." He shook his head as if to clear it of the strange notion. "But as I stood there, watching in wonder, it occurred to me that such a feeling was illogical, and that their actions were mightily suspicious. I began to back away lest they see me and accuse me of spying, then they were gone." He pressed his fingers against his temples and squeezed his eyes shut. "Simply…gone. I searched the alley and all areas surrounding it, but I could find no trace of them. It was as if they had been taken from this earth by some force beyond my understanding."

The Doctor just stared at him for a moment—or rather, he stared past him. "Where did you see these printers?" he asked finally.

"James Henderson's shop, on Water street, sir."

The Doctor nodded. "Take me there."

Tom grinned, and saluted. "Yes, sir!" He turned to the shop door, with Rey and the Doctor following, and threw it open. Rey skidded to a stop in the doorway, her eyes wide.

Snowflakes drifted down from the cloudy night sky, and a thin layer of white covered roofs and streets. A still, soft silence reigned.

"It's—snow," she said, softly.

The Doctor turned, and smiled. "Yes, yes it is."

"It's so…quiet." She stepped forward and turned her face to the sky as snowflakes landed on her cheeks with a thousand soft kisses. "Everything's so quiet."

She felt Tom step to her side, and tore her eyes from the thousands of white flakes that drifted towards her. He stood, his eyes shining softly in the yellow light of the streetlamp. She ducked her head and felt a sudden, hot flush creeping up her cheeks.

She took a step forward, watching as her foot left a print in the snow, and watching still as the edges softened, and the print filled again, leaving nothing but a little hollow to betray that she had stood there. She leaned down, and brushed her fingers along the top of the white carpet, and played with a bit of it in her fingers until it melted. She gazed off down the street, and watched as the snowflakes fell, and the streetlamps formed little pools of yellow light amid the soft sheet of falling white.

Unexpected tears stung her eyes. "It's so beautiful."

"Isn't it though?" She turned to see the Doctor leaning against the brick wall of the printing shop, his arms crossed and a little half-smile curving around his lips. "I've seen planets and stars and galaxies that shine like a thousand suns, but…" He reached forward, and caught a snowflake on the tip of his finger. "I will always return to earth in the winter, just to see it snow."

Tom turned to the Doctor and shook his head. "There you go again. Planets and stars and galaxies! No man alive can conceive of journeying among the stars. It is an impossibility!"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Well, you're right there. No one alive right now." He turned, and started off down the street. "Well, come on! We've got a mystery to solve!"

Tom just looked at him for a moment, and then started off through the snow. Rey lifted her skirts and followed him, and they just walked in silence for a moment, their footfalls muffled and the silence of the snow enveloping them.

Tom shot her a glance, and she thought she saw a mischievous smirk. He leaned down, and gathered a pile of snow in his hands.

Before she could stop him, a snowball had smacked her in the back. She leaned down, gathered a snowball, whirled, and let it fly in a single swift motion. It smacked him in the head and his hat fell to the ground.

He ducked his head and laughed. "Good shot, Miss Rey." He smirked, and his eyes twinkled. "This is war."

A little smirk twitched at the corners of her lips, and she raised an eyebrow.

"Challenge accepted," she said, and slid around the corner of a nearby building.

She bent down, and gathered a pile of snow into her skirt, a persistent little smirk tugging at her lips. Perhaps these skirts were good for something after all.

A snowball smacked her in the back, and she whirled, and sent a mass of snow flying at him with a flick of her skirts. He ducked his head, and little bubbles of laughter burst out.

"Oh, you're good."

Soon the sound of their laughter broke the muffled silence of the snow as they darted behind buildings and into alleys, and snowballs flew from unexpected places and missed shots splatted against brick walls. A snowball flew from behind a nearby lamppost and smacked Rey directly in the face.

She raised an eyebrow, and grinned. "Now that," she said, "that is war." She bent down, and gathered the biggest, most lethal snowball yet. He stepped from behind the lamppost, flushing slightly.

"I do apologize, Miss Rey…I did not intend to…" He gestured to his face and looked away.

She stood, and wiped her face with her sleeve. She tilted her head to the side. "No offense taken…" she said, and there was a question in her voice. "I'm not hurt."

He smiled, and ducked his head. "Well…thank you, Miss Rey." He stepped to her side, and held out an arm. "Shall we?"

She just stood there for a moment, looking between his welcoming grin and his outstretched arm. She dropped her arm to her side and gave a barely perceptible shake of her head. Is this how young men and women walked in this universe? Arm and arm, as if they'd known each other for years?

His smiled lowered a bit, and he dropped his eyes. For a moment, they walked in silence together.

"If I may ask, Miss Rey," he said finally, "how did you find your way to my home?"

She looked away. "Just Rey, please. I was…lost…just a little. Your mother is very kind."

"So she invited you in." He laughed. "Knowing my mother, I suppose she rather ordered you to come in and warm yourself by her fire."

She laughed. "She did."

The smile dropped from his face, and he looked at the ground. "I do not believe you would have had such luck if my father had been home." He sighed. "Oh, I do apologize. I should not speak ill of him. But he is…well, he is strict. And he…he sides with the loyalists, while my mother and I…" He shrugged. "Our evenings are often silent ones."

"I'm sorry." Rey looked away, and her voice was low. "I'm sure he…I'm sure he loves you. More than you think."

"Sometimes I wonder." The words were low, almost imperceptible. He shook himself. "Well, I should not speak so much of myself. Where do you come from, Mi—Rey? Your family?"

She stared at the ground. "I don't remember my family," she said.

"Oh." He smiled a little, gentle smile. "I am truly sorry, Rey. And I am burdening you with tales of my own hardships." He reached his hand for hers, and she let him touch it, just for a moment. "I do hope…" A flush rose in his cheeks, and he stammered out the words. "I do hope you'll join us often for supper. Perhaps we…we can be…"

She shook her head, and looked away with a little smile. "I won't be here for long," she said.

"You'll be off to journey among the stars." He shook his head. "You're impossible. You and the Doctor. But yet..." He looked at her, his eyes shining. "I believe it. All of it." He stopped, and looked up. "Oh! We have arrived! Doctor, we have—"

"Right ahead of you." The Doctor appeared around a corner, and pressed the sonic screwdriver to the door. The lock clicked, and he pushed it open and stepped inside, the sonic screwdriver held upright, its blue glow filling the shadowy shop. "Same signal. That's no surprise. It seems…oooh. Look at that." He bounded off across the shop. "Something else. There's something else here!" He skidded to a stop, in front of a cabinet, and scanned the screwdriver up and down. "Nothing here. Not in this—Tom! Rey! Come here!"

They were at his side in an instant, and nodded toward the cabinet. "We've got to move this. Whatever I'm getting, it's behind this cabinet."

"Right." Rey planted herself at the cabinet's side, and shoved. It moved a bit, and she felt another pair of arms join her, and another. The cabinet's feet scooted across the floor to reveal a doorknob.

"Oh yes!" the Doctor cried. With one last shove, the three of them pushed the cabinet away from the door and toward the middle of the shop. The Doctor edged the door open until it smacked into the back of the cabinet, and they squeezed through into a tiny room. The silhouette of a small cabinet sat at the back of the room, and a small window looked out into a shadowy alley. An inkwell sat at a little desk in the corner.

"I've got it!" The Doctor dropped to his knees beside the cabinet, and moved the sonic screwdriver back and forth until it zeroed in on a small drawer near the ground, only visible by a tiny keyhole at the top. He pressed the small device to the hole, and the lock clicked and the door popped open.

A strange sense of dread filled Rey as she approached the Doctor. What was so important that it must be hidden away in a tiny, nearly invisible drawer in the hidden back room of a printer's shop? The Doctor pulled the drawer open, and inside sat a very small, very odd-looking gun. He pulled it out, stared at it for a moment, and scanned the sonic screwdriver over it.

He jumped to his feet and pointed the gun at the inkwell, and pulled the trigger. The bottle of ink disappeared in a wisp of mist, which curled away into the air and dissipated.

The gun fell to the ground with a clatter, and the Doctor stepped back with a little catch of his breath.

"That's a vaporizer," he said.

Tom backed away, his eyes fixed on the little gun. "Sir…what is a vaporizer?"

"Point that thing at a human and they'll turn to mist in an instant." He nudged it away from him with his foot as if it were tainted. "Whoever these printers are, they're dangerous. Very dangerous."

A prickle shot up Rey's arm, and she tensed and turned to the window. "Doctor," she hissed. "There's someone out there."