A/N: new chappie! enjoy!
Chapter 7: A Mouth
The Doctor pulled Olivia by the hand down the hall and toward the little girl, Mandy, sitting on a bench in front of a door that slid open. He waved at Mandy before stepping into the door, Olivia by his side to see Amy standing in front of a series of screens, a chair behind. They heard her voice from one of the screens saying something they didn't catch before she pressed a button to shut it off.
"Amy?" Olivia called, catching her attention and Olivia stepped closer to look her over, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"
"What have you done?" the Doctor questioned, stepping into the room as they looked back at the screens for a moment then he looked back at Amy.
"I…I don't remember," Amy replied, frowning at Olivia who looked to the Doctor and in turn, he looked around the room, catching the lamp above the chair in the room. "Why can't I remember?"
"What are you doing?" Olivia questioned the Doctor as he climbed onto the chair then pulled the Sonic from his pocket to use it on the lamp.
He pulled back the Sonic, snapping it outward to look at the result then replied, "Yeah, you're basic memory wipe job. Must've erased about twenty minutes."
"Why would I choose to forget?" Amy wondered as he jumped from the chair and looked over the panel and screens.
"Because everyone does," Mandy called, drawing all their attentions to her as she stood just outside the door. "Everyone chooses the forget button."
The Doctor stepped toward her to lean down at her eye level with a small smile as he asked, "Did you?"
"I'm not eligible to vote yet," Mandy replied. "I'm twelve. Any time over sixteen you're allowed to see the film and make your choice…and then once every five years."
"And once every five years everyone chooses to forget what they've learned," Olivia guessed before shaking her head as the Doctor turned to head back toward the computers. "Democracy in action. Oh, Doctor…that thing you had me investigate a little earlier—"
"You can give me your findings later," he interrupted her. "Right now I need to figure out how to see this film."
"How do you not know about this?" Mandy wondered. "Are you Scottish, too? Or American like your other friend?"
"Oh…I'm way worse than Scottish or American," the Doctor smirked at her. "I can't even see the movie. It won't play for me."
"It played for me," Amy reported.
"Well the difference being the computer doesn't accept me as human," the Doctor replied, glancing back at Amy before looking back at the computers.
"Why not?" Amy wondered, making Olivia frown and the Doctor looked back at her as well as she approached, saying, "You look human."
"No," the Doctor retorted. "You look Time Lord. We came first. Human! That's it! Olivia! Sit here!"
He gripped her hand and dragged her toward the chair to sit her down as she stared at him in confusion.
"Doctor, I don't think this is gonna work," she tried as he pulled Amy out of the way of the screens and he watched them to try to see the film.
"Of course it will, Liv," he grinned. "Any second now it'll play. It plays for humans."
"Doctor—"
"Any second…" he cut in again, making her sigh and she decided to wait and let what didn't happen explain it to him. He frowned at the screens as they remained blank and stepped toward them again, muttering, "Why isn't it working?"
"That's what I was trying to explain," Olivia replied, standing from the chair and stepping to his left but he didn't look at her. "Remember when I didn't change when the Master made everybody with human DNA into him?" He only nodded, still not looking at her. "And do you remember why I didn't change?"
The Doctor frowned in thought before looking to her with wide eyes and breathing, "Oh…"
"And, I don't need to tell you what we did after you regenerated, do I?" Olivia hinted.
He cleared his throat and glanced at Amy who frowned at the couple before he muttered, "No…you don't."
"So she's not human?" Amy asked of Olivia making them both look up at her. "Is she a Time Lord?"
"No," the Doctor replied, looking back to the screens. "She's human, she just has…tweaked DNA, is all."
"But there are other Time Lords, yeah?" Amy smiled, making Olivia look to the Doctor as he stopped and looked to Amy.
"No," he replied and Olivia took his hand as she stood on the other side of him, and he continued, "There were, but there aren't…just me now. Long story. It was a bad day. Bad stuff happened. And do you know what? I'd love to forget it all. Every last bit of it. But I don't…not ever."
He still held Olivia's hand as he stepped back from the panel with the huge buttons that said 'Forget' and 'Protest' to hold a fist over the Protest button, continuing with a smirk, "Because this is what I do…every day…every second. This… Hold Tight. We're bringing down the government."
He slammed his fist onto the button, making it glow read and the door Mandy was standing outside of slammed shut. A sound from the wall opposite the door sounded and the man in the booth turned its head all the way around to reveal a devilishly angry expression. The Doctor pulled Olivia toward Amy as the floor shifted and opened when they huddled into a corner to reveal a red glow below them.
"Say wee!" the Doctor shouted with a grin to Amy and she only shouted, as did Olivia, before they were pulled down into the gap in the floor.
They all shouted as they fell down a long tube before landing one by one into something wet and slimy in a dark room. The Doctor landed first and instantly scrambled to his feet to use the Sonic and scan the area. Olivia came down next and landed on her back, making a disgusted face as she tried to get up, but when Amy came through, she landed right on top of her, making her grunt in pain then blanche in disgust again.
"Ah, high speed air canon," the Doctor explained, still scanning. "Lousy way to travel."
"Sorry, Olivia," Amy blanched in disgust at her surroundings as she moved to get off the other woman.
"Glad I could break your fall," Olivia strained from the pain in her stomach and back and from trying to sit up.
"I said sorry, alright?" Amy retorted as both girls stood.
"It was a joke," Olivia assured her as she stood and they both looked around the dimly lit room. "Doctor, where are we?"
"Uh…six hundred feet down, twenty miles naturally puts us at the heart of the ship, I'd say…" he trailed off as he took in a deep breath through his nose than continued, "…Lancashire. So what's this then?!"
"A cave?" Olivia guessed, whipping her hands out to throw off whatever she was covered in off of them.
"Can't be a cave!" the Doctor argued.
"Looks like a cave," she retorted as Amy struggled to keep her footing.
"It's a rubbish dump," Amy reported, flinging something at the Doctor and hitting him in the back, making him turn around, but he ignored her for a moment to kneel and examine what was at their feet, Amy next to him but Olivia remained standing. He looked up at her as she glared back at him and she shook her head at his silent question before answering it.
"You guys can roll around in whatever this is…I want it off me," she snapped before the two began rummaging around the refuse and she shuddered in disgust.
"Sorry, Liv," the Doctor replied, flinging things all around before bringing something to his face to smell it and making Olivia sneer in disgust at him. "Only food refuse. Organic. Coming from feeding tubes all over the ship."
"It's all squishy, like a water bed," Amy noticed, running her hands over whatever was under the food.
"This is the most disgusting place I've ever been in with you, Doctor," Olivia reported, examining their surroundings from where she stood, then suddenly recalling something the Doctor had said and she looked back at him with wide eyes. "Wait…did you just say feeding tubes?"
"Yes, but feeding what though?" the Doctor wondered as Olivia stared at him with wide eyes.
"It's all rubbery," Amy continued. "Feel it! It's all wet and slimy."
The Doctor jumped to his feet and Olivia shot her gaze all around when they caught a sound that Amy either ignored or didn't hear. He looked to Amy who looked back up at him then he looked to Olivia who swallowed in wide-eyed terror before he waved her toward them.
"Um…" he tried as Olivia made her way toward them. "It's not a floor. It's a…"
"It's a what?" Amy urged, standing when he trailed off as Olivia stepped next to him.
"The next word is kind of a scary word," he admitted, taking one of Amy's hands and one of Olivia's hands to glance between them. "You might wanna take a moment, you two. Put yourself in a calm place. Go om…"
The girls frowned at him, but imitated his meditation hum for a moment as he grinned, trying to make them feel calm, but it only made Olivia a little more uneasy.
"It's a…tongue," the Doctor finally reported.
"A tongue?" Amy questioned.
"A tongue!" Olivia snapped, shoving the Doctor's hand away as he looked to her burning gaze before looking to Amy again.
"A tongue," he confirmed. "A great big tongue."
"This is a mouth," Amy muttered, turning in her spot to look around before looking back at the Doctor. "This whole place…is a mouth? We're in a mouth?!"
"We're in a mouth!" Olivia snapped again, shoving the Doctor toward Amy who shoved him back toward her and he steadied himself again as both of them glared at him.
"Yes, yes, yes…but on the plus side…roomy," he assured them.
"Oh, yes, because roomy makes being eaten better!" Olivia growled, shoving him again and Amy shoved him back as well.
"Would you stop pushing me about?!" he ordered, glancing between their glares.
"How do we get out?!" Amy demanded.
"How big is this beastie?!" the Doctor wondered, using the Sonic as he turned in his spot. "It's gorgeous! Blimey! If this is just the mouth I'd love to see the stomach!"
The noise he'd heard earlier sounded again, louder this time, and he turned to stare at Olivia as she stared at him with wide eyes before glaring at him.
"You just had to say that, didn't you?" she ground out.
"Well…I don't have to see it right now," he amended.
"How do we get out?!" Olivia snapped.
"Ok…it's being fed through surgically implanted feeing tubes," he observed, using his Sonic Screwdriver for a torch. "So…the normal entrance is…"
The three turned in the direction of the mouth entrance but when they saw the teeth unmoving and shut tight, Olivia gripped the Doctor's hand again and swallowed.
"Closed for business," she breathed in realization.
"We could try, though!" Amy reported, starting to head toward the teeth, but a roar sounded and the mouth shook.
"No! Stop! Don't move!" the Doctor called as it shook so badly they all tumbled to the tongue under their feet. "It's too late! It's already started!"
"What has?!" Amy screamed as she fell.
"Oh, don't tell me," Olivia muttered, trying to stand but she slipped and fell face first into the slime.
"Swallowing phase!" the Doctor explained and Olivia threw something at him that hit his face and he called out in disgust, wiping it off his face. "Olivia!"
"I told you not to tell me!" she snapped as they all looked like fish out of water, flopping around on the tongue for a moment before the Doctor aimed his Sonic somewhere.
"What are you doing?!" Amy cried, all of them trying to get to their feet.
"I'm hitting the eject button!" he called back, grabbing Olivia's hand to pull her up when he got to his feet.
"How does a mouth have an eject button?!" Olivia questioned, steadying herself against him.
"Think about it!" he shot back, making her eyes widen at him and he shrugged.
"Oh, God," she groaned as they looked in the opposite direction of the mouth to see a huge wave of stomach contents heading their way. She grabbed Amy's hand as they stared ahead in disgusted awe and the Doctor gripped Olivia's hand, straightening his bowtie with the other.
"Right then…this isn't going to be big on dignity!" he shouted over the noise. "Geronimo!"
"I hate you!" Olivia shouted as Amy shouted in panic before the wave hit them.
Olivia couldn't remember how she'd gotten there, but she found herself coughing and laying on a hard floor in a dim hallway, Amy right next to her doing the same and the Doctor at the door near their feet.
"There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion in either of you," he reported before looking to them. "And yes, you're both covered in sick."
"This is the worst date ever!" Olivia snapped, slowly getting up then stepping toward Amy to help to her feet.
"Where are we?" Amy asked, both girls leaning back on the wall of the curved hallway.
"Overspill pipe…at a guess," the Doctor replied, using the Sonic on the door.
"God it stinks!" Amy called.
"I…don't think that's the pipe," Olivia said, wrinkling her nose.
"Oh…" Amy muttered before taking a whiff of herself and she yanked her nose away from her arm, her eyes watering at the potency.
"Can we get out?" Olivia asked, smiling in amusement at Amy.
"One door," the Doctor replied, turning to step toward them. "One door switch. One condition…we forget everything we saw."
The button that said 'Forget' lit up on the door, drawing their attentions.
"That's the carrot," the Doctor explained before lights came on at the end of the hall to reveal two booths with the smiling men in them. "Ooh! And here's the stick!"
"Doctor, I have to tell you something—"
"Not now, Liv," he cut in as he marched toward the booths and she tried to grab his sleeve before he passed but he was too quick and the girls followed him. "There's a creature at the heart of this ship. What's it doing?"
The heads turned to reveal a frowning expression, Olivia stepping up next to him.
"Doctor—"
"No," he said. "That's not gonna work on me so come on! Big old beast below decks and everyone that protests get shoved down its throat. Is that how it works?"
The heads turned again to show the ugliest of the three faces they'd seen before.
"Doctor…" Olivia tried again.
"Stop it," the Doctor told them. "I'm not leaving, and I'm not forgetting, so what are you fellas gonna do about it? Stick out your tongues? Huh?"
"Doctor! Olivia snapped, yanking on his arm to pull him to face her.
"Olivia! I'm trying to—!"
"They're alive!" she finally reported, making him frown at her in wonder.
"What?" he murmured.
"Doctor!" Amy called, drawing their attentions to the booths.
The doors on the booths opened and the men inside stood to head toward them, making Olivia grab hold of the Doctor's hand as they backed up. Olivia frowned in wonder when she heard something coming up behind them and when she turned to see who it was, she gasped, shoving the Doctor out of the way and Amy shoved herself against the opposite wall as Liz Ten came marching up behind them with a gun to shoot the things marching toward them, sending them to the ground.
She holstered her gun and turned to the three with a smile as the Doctor smiled as well, "Look who it is. You look a lot better without your mask."
Olivia nodded in agreement as Liz Ten turned to head toward Amy with an extended hand and guessed, "You must be Amy. I'm Liz. Liz Ten."
"Hiya," Amy chirped, shaking her hand and Liz gave a disgusted sound before wiping her hand on her cloak as the Doctor and Olivia approached them.
"Nothing here, Amy," she explained, not wanting to offend. "I was talkin' about the…sick."
Amy looked down at herself before looking back to the Doctor and Olivia with wide eyes as Liz stepped toward the door.
"You know Mandy, yeah?" Liz guessed, wrapping an arm around the girl's shoulders as she approached, the three in front of them smiling down at her. "She's very brave."
"How did you find us?" Olivia wondered.
"Stuck my gizmo on you," Liz smirked. "Been listenin' in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So…what's the big fella doin' here?"
"You're over sixteen, you've voted," the Doctor guessed. "Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it."
"No," Liz argued. "Never forget. Never voted. Not technically a British subject."
"Then who and what are, and how do you know me?" the Doctor asked her and Olivia frowned when Liz smiled.
"Little bit hard to miss, love," she smiled, making Olivia straighten and grip his hand a little tighter at her tone. "Mysterious stranger…MO consists of a higher alien intelligence…hair of an idiot."
The Doctor, who had been smirking at the flattery, lifted a hand to his wet hair and tousled it in embarrassment, before Olivia pulled his hand down and shook her head at him when he looked at her, not wanting him to get any more alien puke all over the place.
"I've been brought up on the stories," Liz continued. "My whole family was."
"Your family?" Olivia frowned, but something caught their attention behind them and they turned to see one of the men on the ground moving. "What are they?! Terminators?!"
"They're repairing," Liz explained. "It doesn't take them long. Let's move."
She led the way as Mandy followed her, the Doctor pulling Amy along to have her follow Mandy and Olivia clutching his hand as they brought up the rear. When they came out of the pipe, Liz began to explain and the four followed her.
"The Doctor: Old drinking buddy of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vickie was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she? Knighted and exiled on the same day! And so much for the Virgin Queen you bad, bad boy!"
"Liz Ten!" the Doctor suddenly realized as Olivia came to the same conclusion right about the last part about the Virgin Queen.
"Yeah," Liz replied. "Elizabeth the Tenth…and down!"
The four ducked as she lifted her pistols up and shot the things following them before the Doctor and Olivia looked up at her with wide eyes each, kneeling at her feet. "I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically…I rule."
She turned to lead them through the ship as the Doctor and Olivia fell behind to bring up the rear.
"So…the Virgin Queen?" Olivia chirped to the Doctor expectantly.
"Now?" he questioned, irritably as they continued on. "You wanna do this, now?! Big things are happening and you wanna ask me about that now?!"
"Yes, now, because you never told me about that one!" she snapped.
"We were a bit busy at the time, Liv," he replied.
"We're always, busy…always running, and yet, you still found time to tell me about River!" she shot back in a hushed tone.
"That was different," he waved off in dismissal with his free hand. "I hadn't even met Queen Bess yet when I told you about River."
Olivia yanked her hand from his, making him stop and whirl around to stare at her wide-eyed expression of disbelief as she stood as still as a statue and he suddenly realized what he'd said.
"What?" she breathed.
"Liv…hang on—"
"So…if I'm hearing this correctly…" she cut in, holding a silencing hand toward him when he took a step toward her and he stopped. "…after you dumped me in Cardiff, you proceeded to head for Sixteenth Century England and cheat on me with Elizabeth the First?!"
The Doctor glanced back at the group that was marching ahead without them and hesitantly pointed in that direction when he looked back at Olivia, muttering, "We're…we're losing them…Liv."
"Answer the question," Olivia ground out, making him swallow but he said nothing, and really, she knew she didn't need him to say it. She already knew and her heart clenched so tightly she felt she couldn't breathe as she felt tears prick her eyes. "River was one thing, Doctor. I could accept that…but this?"
"Doctor?" they heard Amy call from down the trail but he didn't look back as he felt his hearts clench in guilt at the look on Olivia's face as she shook her head.
"After all the fuss you've made about Jack, and he and I didn't even sleep together," she snapped then ground out, "You're an idiot."
She marched toward Amy's call, but before she passed him, he gripped her arm to stop her, keeping a firm hold when she tried to pull away.
"This conversation isn't over," he told her, making her glare at him as he met her gaze. "We need to get this sorted now. Will you let me get my word in now?"
"For all the good it'll do you," she snapped, yanking her arm from his hand and turning to face him, crossing her arms in front of her and glaring at him. "Well? What excuse do you have for me?"
"No excuses," he shot back, facing her and placing his hands on her shoulders, looking her in the eye. "The truth. I never slept with her, Liv."
Olivia's eyes widened at him as she lowered her arms to her sides and breathed, "You…didn't? Then…how come Liz Ten just said you did?"
"Because…Bess was a bit of a Drama Queen…no pun intended," he replied and Olivia couldn't help but give a small smile at the joke but said nothing. "I was very drunk. There was a wedding ceremony that I might have been party to, but I swear to you, Liv, when we got to the marriage bed, I passed out cold. Nothing happened. I left the next morning and she was angry with me so made up the story that I did sleep with her. And if ya think about it, she's no longer my wife now. She's long since dead."
"I understand that," she nodded. "What I was upset at was the sleeping with her part of this little rumor."
"So…you're alright then?" he hoped. "We're…made up? I can kiss you again if I want to…when I want to?"
"You can kiss me now, if you want," she confirmed, making him grin before pressing a quick kiss to her lips then grabbing her hand and pulling her in the direction the group had gone.
He hurried ahead to burst through a door they needed to turn into and Olivia was about to head down the hall but when he tugged her back she looked to her left to see a cage-like wall with scorpion-like tails stabbing at it to be free. Liz closed the door behind them as they all stopped and stared at the three tails.
"There's a high speed Vator through there. Oh, yeah. And there's these things," she reported, stepping up next to the Doctor and asked, "Any ideas?"
"Doctor, I saw one of these up top," Amy reported as the Doctor scanned it with his Sonic Screwdriver then read the results. "There was a hole in the wall where it burst through like…like a root."
"Exactly like a root," the Doctor replied, putting the Sonic away again. "It's all one creature. The same one we were inside. Reaching out."
"It must be going through the mechanisms of the entire ship," Olivia guessed, still staring at the things.
"What?" Liz wondered. "Like an infestation?"
The Doctor nodded, neither he nor Olivia taking their eyes off the things.
"Someone's helping it…feeding it…feeding my subjects to it!" Liz growled before marching down the hall with Mandy right behind her. "Come on! We've gotta keep moving!"
Amy was about to follow but when the Doctor and Olivia didn't move she stepped back to them.
"Oh, Amy," the Doctor breathed, glancing at her before looking back at the things. "We should never have come."
He pulled Olivia with him to follow Liz, but when Amy didn't move this time, Olivia frowned back at her as her hand slipped through the Doctor's hand and she stepped closer to the ginger.
"Amy?" she called, making her look to Olivia with huge eyes. "You ok?"
"Yeah," Amy chirped, hurrying toward Olivia. "Sorry. I was just…thinkin'. I'm fine."
Olivia still frowned at Amy as she hurried past her to head after the group, wondering what she was thinking about.
A/N: because Olivia would DEFINATELY have a problem with that whole Liz One business. reviews?
