In which things finally come to a head. Thanks to everyone sticking around this long, and especially to those who've left feedback so far!
Same as before, Latin translations available in my profile. Enjoy!
O parens expers maris
Salva nos, stella maris
Partu non violaris
Paris sanctum sanctorum
Charlie knew something was very wrong when he saw the lights on in the flat. It wasn't just the small colored pinpricks of the tree they had set up either, but every electric bulb was burning brightly. Mum just gripped him tighter and moved into the shadows. "Bugger," she muttered to herself. He tucked his head into her shoulder, feeling beyond tired at this point. They had to keep moving though, he knew that. They couldn't stop until they were safe.
"Can we go to the police?" he asked.
Mum shook her head. "Torchwood is beyond the police. They couldn't do anything. Maybe…" she trailed off and twisted around, craning her neck to look up the street. "The train station is barely a ten minute walk from here." To Charlie's surprise, she reached for a pocket on his backpack and withdrew a handful of Euros. She met his eyes. "For you, just incase," was all the explanation she offered. "However, there should be more than enough here to get us a train to Munchen. Then from there…oh, we'll just wing it." Charlie just nodded and leaned his head on her shoulder. Mum re-adjusted her hold on him and scurried down the street, keeping to the shadows.
As they moved, Charlie could see that they weren't taking the most direct route to the train station, using a long and winding route to go a mere few blocks. Being Christmas Eve as well meant they were able to blend into crowds as well, using the others as a mild form of cover. To the average eye, she could have been any young mother carrying her tired child home to await Christmas morning. No one really knew the truth about Rose Tyler though. The truth would be beyond their wildest imaginations.
Eventually their roundabout route led them to the Piazza of Santa Maria Novella, and they moved into the loggia across the square from the church, using the covered walkway to keep them shielded from the people wandering around the square celebrating or heading into the church to pray. Mum slid him down from her waist, steadying him as he landed with a small stumble. "Okay," she whispered somewhere over his head. "The train station is just beyond the church. We're almost there," she grinned.
But Charlie didn't hear her. He blinked rapidly a couple of times and rubbed at his eyes. He may have been a sickly, only half human child, but he'd never hallucinated before. At least, that was what it felt like to him. He could see the piazza with the people milling around on their way to whatever they were doing, but right over it, as if it were two transparent pieces of film with different designs printed on them were layered, was another scene. Same piazza, same church, but brighter lights, a fountain shooting off, more cars zipping past, and a riotous clash of music hitting his ears. "Can't you see it?" he murmured.
"See what?" Mum asked.
"There's…two sets of people there." He wasn't quite sure how to describe it-as smart as he was there were just some things he didn't have the experience to speak of. "Like, there's the people here on the ground, but the invisible ones right next to them."
"You mean like ghosts?"
"No! They're as real as we are, just…different." His ears pricked up and he stepped forward a slight bit, Mum's hands never leaving his shoulders. "And can you hear that? It's the same song as in the church, that last one, but different too! More whistles and drums. Something with strings too. It's all joy."
"Charlie, you're not making sense," Mum said, moving closer to him.
Before he could try to explain, the ground beneath their feet shook, sending them both tumbling to the marble floor of the loggia. Quickly, Mum wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled them back against the wall. "What the hell is going on?" she asked, not really expecting an answer.
Whatever it was, though, it didn't feel wrong, not to Charlie. He could feel something inside his head, something reaching out through the darkness looking for him, even though it wasn't anything harmful. A brief, so brief that he barely caught onto it, idea of the faceless man from his dream a couple of months back flew through his head. Without knowing why, he mentally threw himself after that idea and feeling, squeezing his eyes shut and holding onto Mum's arms with all of his power.
He almost screamed at the sudden coldness sweeping over him, as if he'd plunged headfirst into the sea. The music was still there in his ears, drums and a recorder noise, punctuated with a tambourine and happy shouts, growing louder and louder as the cold did. It was so overwhelming that he could barely hold onto the image of the man, but with a shout of his own he clung onto it.
And then the world seemed to calm.
Charlie sucked in a deep breath, feeling the ground steady beneath him. The air was once again chilled, but it wasn't the soul sucking cold from before. This was an earthly cold, something normal. He looked up quickly, seeing that they were still in the exact same spot as before, having really moved nowhere. The sights were reversed this time though, with the invisible people now fully fleshed out, with the fountains and music in stark existence, and what was real before was now nearly completely faded into the background, disappearing totally with a blink of his eyes.
"Mum!" he gasped, whirling around to see her slumped against the wall, unconscious. Her head leant to the side, and Charlie could see the pulse pounding in her neck and her chest rise and fall with each breath she took. He shook her, trying to wake her up, when something bright and blue flashed in the corner of his eye. He spun towards the blue light on his knees, only to overbalance when the glare hit him fully and send him falling to the ground.
With a soft click the blue light turned off, and Charlie could see a man standing there, mere feet from where they were in the loggia. He was tall and skinny, wrapped in a long coat and wearing trainers, with brown hair and a pair of eyes that looked a lot older than he did. Charlie froze for a brief moment - he knew that outfit. But it couldn't be… "It's okay," he said in a low voice, with an accent similar to his Mum's, "I'm not going to hurt you." He stepped closer, moving slowly.
Without quite knowing how he did it, Charlie stretched out his mind just a little, trying to get a better feeling for things. There was something so familiar here, but his brain was feeling all rattled about from whatever had happened and he couldn't seem to make good sense of things. Just as he made contact with something, he saw the man stumble back a step, shock written all over his face. Was it his mind that Charlie was feeling? And how could he feel someone's mind anyway? He never could before. But his dad was telepathic, he remembered Mum saying…
The man shook his head briefly, as if coming to a fast conclusion, and then moved closer. As he knelt down in front of Charlie he could see that his face was paler than average, and that his hands were shaking a bit. "What's your name?" he asked.
Mum had always told him to never talk to strangers, but this man wasn't strange. It was a very odd feeling, but there was something rather familiar there. Almost as if…he couldn't get stuck on that idea though. It wouldn't be good to hope and then to be horribly let down. He didn't think he could take that right now. He should be worrying about his Mum anyway. "Charlie."
"Charlie, that's a good name. I like that name. And is th-this your mother?" the man continued, nodding at his mum's slumped form.
Charlie nodded. "She got hurt. I'm not sure what happened."
To his total surprise, the man leaned past him and cupped Mum's face in his hand, thumb stroking carefully against her cheekbone. "I'm a doctor," he eventually murmured. "If you want, I can help and figure out what's wrong with her."
"Okay." Who else could he turn to? There was no one - everyone seemed to be out to lock them up for scientific study. Not a very good prospect. But this man seemed to care about them, for a reason that, if it was true, was so improbable it was unbelievable, so maybe it was time to take a chance.
"Good." The man turned his head quickly, looking out over the piazza. "Donna! Come here!" he hollered loud enough to make Charlie wince. He then turned back to Mum and oh-so-gently lifted her into his arms, moving to a standing position with her resting against his chest. Charlie stared at them as the arm that was bracing Mum's upper back made sure that her head was leaning comfortably against his shoulder. Something about the two of them together, even if Mum was injured and unconscious, just looked right.
A woman with rather shocking ginger hair ran up to them. "What is it, Doct—oh my God! What happened?" she said, skidding to a halt in front of them.
"She's been injured," the man nodded down towards his loaded arms. "I'm taking her back to the TARDIS to check her over." He then nodded in Charlie's direction. "That's Charlie, he's coming too. Hold his hand so he doesn't get lost on the way."
"But—" Donna tried to protest, but it was obvious the man wasn't listening. He'd already turned to walk off the loggia, to wherever they were supposed to be going. Donna just shrugged and looked down at the little boy, holding out her hand. "D'you have any idea what's going on here?" she asked. Charlie shook his head no and frowned, grabbing onto the offered hand. "Good, 'cause neither do I!" Donna said, beginning to follow the other pair.
He hadn't quite told the truth to Donna – ideas were brewing in his brain. Little puzzle pieces were fitting together in his head, coming up with the impossible but, for some reason, very right conclusion about the doctor in the brown pinstripes. And didn't Mum always tell him that sometimes, not always, but sometimes, impossible was quite possible, if you knew where to look? As they walked off, the last strains of the music reached Charlie's ears, ending the song with a flourish and a shout.
To be continued in the fifth and last part...
