The Unicorn and the Wasp – Part 4
Donna and Agatha leapt forward trying to help as The Doctor jerked this way and that. Jenny, on the other hand, stood up and backed away from the group; her hearts racing and stopping all at the same time. Sure she had seen people die before, like the soldiers on Messaline and Miss Chandrakala, but this was different. She hadn't known them, now, as she watched someone she cared about dying, it terrified her.
"What do we do?" frantically asked Donna as Agatha sniffed The Doctor's drink. "Bitter almonds." she said. "It's cyanide. Sparking cyanide!" The Doctor suddenly jumped from his seat and stumbled out the door. Donna grabbed Jenny's hand as she and Agatha ran after him. The Doctor went straight to the kitchen where he burst through the door yelling out for ginger beer. "I beg your pardon." asked Davenport curiously as The Doctor grabbed hold of him.
"I Need Ginger Beer!"
"The gentleman's gone mad!" yelled the head cook as she watched The Doctor stumble about knocking things off shelves until he found what he was looking for. He uncorked the bottle of ginger beer and poured it all over himself as Agatha cried out, "I'm an expert in poisons, Doctor. There's no cure; it's fatal."
"Not for me!" The Doctor grunted spitting out what ginger beer had actually entered his mouth. "I can stimulate the inhibited enzymes into reversal. Protein! I Need Protein!" he shouted, his body writhing in pain. Donna and Agatha leapt back into action scouring the kitchen. "Walnuts!" yelled Donna ripping off the top of the jar and shoving it into The Doctor's hands.
"Brilliant!" he gasped as he tossed back half the jar of nuts. He slammed the jar down and began miming with his hand, shaking it up and down.
"I can't understand you!" shouted Donna. "How many words?" The Doctor held up one finger. "One… one word. Shake! Milk Shake! Milk! Milk!" she said blurting out words in a panic, but The Doctor shook his head no. "No, not milk. Um, Shake! Shake! Shake! Cocktail Shaker! What do you want, a Harvey Wallbanger?" she yelled as The Doctor finally swallowed the nuts.
"Harvey Wallbanger?!" he yelled back.
"Well, I don't know!"
"How is 'Harvey Wallbanger' one word?"
"What do you need, Doctor?!" shouted Agatha as The Doctor's body convulsed in pain again.
"Salt! I was miming salt. I need salt. I need something salty!" he yelled in pain.
"What about this?!" said Donna running up with a small bag in her hands.
"What is it?!"
"Salt!"
"That's too salty."
"Oh, that's too salty." hastily huffed Donna.
"What about this?" asked Agatha shoving another jar into his hands. The Doctor ripped open the jar and down half its contents.
"What's that?" asked Donna.
"Anchovies." said Agatha never taking her eyes off The Doctor, who started miming again, this time holding up his hands and shaking them. "What is it? What else?" asked Donna before going back to guessing. "It's a song. 'Mammy'. Um, I don't know, 'Camptown Races.'"
"Camptown Races?!" gasped The Doctor finally swallowing the fish.
"Well, all right then. 'Towering Inferno.'"
"It's a shock! Look, shock!" yelled The Doctor miming with his hands again. "I need a shock!"
"All right, then. Big shock, coming up." said Donna grabbing hold of The Doctor and pulling him in for a hard kiss. The Doctor stumbled into Donna, definitely surprised. He quickly back up after a second and threw his head back groaning as a gray mist rose from his mouth. He stumbled a bit more before righting himself. "Ahhh." he gasped finally looking back to his old self. "Detox. I must do that more often." he gave his head a shake to clear his head. He looked at the unreadable look on Donna's face and his face lost the small smile it had been wearing. "I mean the… the detox, not the…" he said leaving the end of that sentence unsaid.
"Doctor, you are impossible. Who are you?" gasped Agatha in surprise and disbelief, but The Doctor just gave her a wink and a click of the tongue before turning to walk out of the room. He didn't make it three steps before he stopped short as he saw his daughter standing frozen by the door. He couldn't quite read the look on her face, but he could tell that she was absolutely terrified. "Jenny?" he asked softly and for the first time everyone turned to the young woman. Jenny just watched her dad slowly approach her holding his hands out to the side. "Jenny." he said again a bit stronger as he stepped up to his daughter. Jenny reached out a shaking hand and touched her dad's ginger beer drenched coat. She looked up at her dad with tears in her eyes. "But you were…" she gasped out.
"I know."
"And now you're…"
"I know."
"I thought you were…" Jenny couldn't finish that sentence as the tears caused her throat to constrict. She just leaned into The Doctor who drew her in for a hug his arms, tightening them when he felt her shaking. "It's all aright. It's over now" he whispered in her ear and kissed her head as she buried her face in his chest. Donna watched the father-daughter exchange with a smile. She was so happy that they were connecting so quickly. She figured that what had happened on Messaline had helped open their hearts (mostly The Doctor's) up to the possibility of love. After a few minutes, Jenny backed away wiping at the remaining tears and gave a small smile. "I have to admit though… that was pretty awesome. Do you think I can do that?" she said, earning a smile from The Doctor and Donna.
"Possibly… and no, you may not try." said The Doctor quickly adding the last part when he saw the excited look on Jenny's face.
"Ahhh, you spoil all the fun." joked Jenny with a smirk.
"Yep that's The Doctor. Mr. Poison Detox Police." laughed Donna. Agatha looked at the group of three in disbelief, amazed that they found this whole situation funny and intriguing. "Who are you people?" she asked, but never received a reply as the time travelers walked from the kitchen laughing. The rest of the day went by without any more incidents. The only thing that changed was a thunderstorm had moved in while they were all having dinner. As the drinks and food were being served The Doctor decided he'd try to weed out their murderer. "A terrible day for all of us." he said looking around the table. "The professor struck down, Miss Chandrakala cruelly taken from us and yet we still take dinner."
"We are British, Doctor. What else must we do?" said Lady Eddison.
"And then someone tried to poison me." continued The Doctor. "Any one of you had the chance to put cyanide in my drink. But it rather gave me an idea."
"And what would that be?" asked Reverend Arnold.
"Well, poison. Drink up." simply said The Doctor and everyone paused lifting their spoons of soup to their mouths. Donna spat the soup out of her mouth, but Jenny placed another spoonful in her mouth quickly. Sure she was scared of actually dying but the idea that she could detox the poison was way more intriguing. But before she could swallow the second spoonful Donna quickly and quietly ordered her to spit it out. "I've laced the soup with pepper." continued The Doctor, much to everyone's relief.
"Ah, I thought it was jolly spicy." said Colonel Hugh.
"But the active ingredient of pepper is piperine, traditionally used as an insecticide." continued The Doctor as he looked around the table and a roll a thunder was heard overhead. "So… anyone got the shivers?" At that moment a loud crash of lightning was heard cut all the electrical power and the wind blew open the windows, which extinguished all the candles that were lit. The group at the dinning table was completely surrounded by darkness, the only light they now had was from the lightning outside. "What the deuce is it?" exclaimed Colonel Hugh.
"Listen, listen, listen." demanded The Doctor as a buzzing sound became louder. The wasp was in the room with them.
"No. It can't be." stated Lady Eddison. The buzzing grew louder and louder but even with the flashes of lightning no could catch a glimpse of the giant insect.
"Show yourself demon." demanded Agatha standing up.
"Nobody move!" yelled The Doctor, but of course everyone started to run in panic trying to get away from an insect they couldn't see. "No! Don't! Stay where you are!" he yelled again only this time Jenny gave a small scream as the wasp suddenly appeared behind her. She jumped up from her seat and took an unsure step toward the insect, but The Doctor grabbed her and pulled in the opposite direction. "Don't move toward it!" he yelled over the cracks of lightning. He pushed Jenny in front of him and grabbed Agatha as he continued to yell. "Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!" He wrenched a door open and led the two women into the hallway where Donna and Greeves, the butler were. Agatha took a step toward the door but The Doctor stopped her. "Not you Agatha. You've got a long, long life to lead yet." he said pulled a sword off the wall.
"Well, we know the butler didn't do it." said Donna out of breath.
"Then who did?" said Jenny opening the door back up and walking back out.
"No, Jenny, wait." yelled The Doctor hurrying after his daughter brandishing the sword as he did so. Back in the dinning room all had calmed down. There were no more screams, no more running, and most importantly, no more giant wasp; it had disappeared again. The electricity sparked back to life and all around the room people were gasping in fear, their faces terrified. "My jewelry." gasped Lady Eddison feeling her neck. "The firestone… it's gone! Stolen!"
"Roger." said Davenport, his voice cracking. Everyone looked to where Roger Curbishley had been sitting and Robina let out a scream and covered her mouth. For there, still sitting in his seat, was Roger, face down in his soup with a knife sticking out of his back.
"My son! My Child!" screamed Lady Eddison her heart shattering into a million pieces as she hugged her son's lifeless body. No one could move as they listened to Lady Eddison's gut-wrenching cries. However, one by one, people left the room, leaving Lady Eddison and Colonel Hugh to mourn their son in private. The Doctor, Agatha, and Jenny sat in the drawing room in silence as more lightning and thunder boomed outside. Jenny and Agatha were staring off into space while The Doctor stared at Jenny. The sight of Lady Eddison crying over Roger had shaken him, sending his mind to relive the moment when Jenny had died not more than a day ago. He was done with all of these deaths; they were going to stop to night, he was going to make sure of it. None of them knew how long they sat there, but they were pulled from their thoughts as Donna entered the room and sat down. "That poor footman." she sighed referring to Davenport. "Roger's dead and he can't even mourn him. 1926? It's more like the dark ages."
"Did you inquire after the necklace?" asked Agatha.
"Lady Eddison brought it back from India. It's worth thousands."
"This thing can sting. It can fly. It could wipe us all out in seconds." said The Doctor his voice hard. "Why is it playing this game?"
"Every murder is essentially the same." wondered Agatha. "They are committed because somebody wants something."
"What does a Vespiform want?" spat The Doctor.
"Doctor, stop it." said Agatha. "The murderer is as human as you or I."
"You're right." he suddenly gasped, his face taking on a look of shocked hope as sat down across from Agatha. "Oh, I've been so caught up with giant wasps, I've forgotten… you're the expert." he said to Agatha.
"He's right." said Jenny, her dad's enthusiasm rubbing off on her. She stood up and walked over to Agatha taking a seat next to her. "You notice things that no one else can, like the leather case in the flowers."
"No, I've told you." said Agatha in frustration. "I'm just a… purveyor of nonsense."
"No, no, no, no, no, no." said The Doctor leaning forward. "Cause plenty of people write detective stories, but yours are the best and why? Why are you so good, Agatha Christie? Because you understand. You've lived, you've fought; you've had your heart broken. You know about people, their passions, their hope and despair and anger. All of those tiny, huge things that can turn the most ordinary person into a killer." During this speech Agatha's face began to brighten as her self-confidence began to rise. "Just think, Agatha." he continued. "If anyone can solve this, it's you."