"Invisible threads are the strongest ties."
-Nietzsche
The TARDIS, Universe A
"So, you're telling me my mom has known all about this crazy shit for like five or six years?" Savannah was leaning against the console feeling completely overwhelmed.
Silas was walking all over the control room, fascinated. He walked up the steps to the upper deck. Examined the shelves of books there. Back down to the control deck. Studied the controls, marveling at the buttons and knobs and levers. The Doctor was watching him like a hawk and would occasionally snap, "Don't touch that!"
"Doctor." Savannah raised her voice to get his attention. "My mom? She's known about all this for several years?"
The Doctor turned toward her finally, his arms crossed. "Yes. Dayle first traveled with me in your timestream, 2012."
Savannah threw her hands up, incredulous. "I can't believe she never said anything about any of it. We've always been so close. Like, best friends. I thought she could tell me anything."
The Doctor walked toward her, studying her face. "And would you have believed her?"
Savannah thought about it. "I don't know." she admitted. "But... I mean. If she'd have showed me..." She shook her head. "It's like she's just had this whole other life all this time that I wasn't a part of."
The Doctor squinted at her. "You make it sound so selfish. Tell me, does your mother know every little thing about your life? Every little secret? Every adventure you've been on?"
Savannah laughed derisively. "Well now that you mention it. There was that one time me and Barb Schroeder snuck off to Akron to see My Chemical Romance live. Totally smoked a joint that night. Definitely comparable to traveling to another universe and banging a Time Lord." She rolled her eyes and turned her back on him.
"Hey!" The Doctor shouted, indignant. "That is your mother you're talking about."
She turned back to look at him, her eyes narrowed. "Oh, am I being disrespectful to my mom now? Do me a favor. Don't. Don't give this morally superior garbage. You fucking endangered her. From what she told me, she risked her life more than once. Did it ever even occur to either of you that this might affect her kids? What if she had been hurt or... or died even?" She walked right up to him, now definitely pissed off. "And did it occur to you that you may be putting her sobriety at risk? Or were you too busy fighting aliens and having your creepy little space romance to get the memo about her heroin addiction?"
"Alright." Silas stepped between them, all cool-headed and collected. He stepped close to Savannah, put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in her eyes. "I know you have to be feeling all sorts of crazy shit right now. This whole situation is absolute madness. But maybe we should hear what he has to say about those dreams you're having before we do the whole 'you're not my dad' drama?" There was humor in his eyes and he smirked at her.
Silas had a surprisingly calming effect on her. Savannah took a deep breath, then couldn't help but giggle. She made a sound of frustration. "Fine." She turned and walked over to a futuristic looking silver chair. She sat and crossed her arms, stared pointedly at the Doctor.
Silas turned to look at him also, his hands in the pockets of his baggy jeans.
The Doctor glared back at him. "Oh aren't you just the little peacemaker? Your interference wasn't necessary." he grumbled and walked over to the center console to fiddle with some controls.
Silas scoffed. "Dude. She was ready to take your head off." He put his hands up, as if to surrender. "Maybe I should've let her."
"The dreams Doctor." Savannah murmured. "What the hell's happening to me?"
The Doctor sighed. "Well obviously you have some sort of telepathy like your mother." He paused and looked at her expectantly. "I'm assuming you knew that about your mother?"
She nodded and looked at Silas, explaining. "Mom's always been a little spooky. Just kind of knows things about people. Even people she's just met." She turned back and looked up at the Doctor. "But... I'm telling you. Nothing like this has ever happened to me."
He frowned. "Well, there are numerous forms of telepathy you know. There's claircognizance- which is what your mother has. She has the gift of knowing. There is clairvoyance, which is the gift of seeing into the future. There's telekinesis, the gift of manipulating your environment with your mind. There's also-"
"Doctor, I'm telling you. I have none of it. I'm totally boring and ordinary." Savannah shrugged, her brown eyes looking up at him, genuinely confused.
He shook his head, his expression skeptical. "Well that's impossible. Perhaps the gift has been dormant until now. But it must be there." He paused for a moment, then walked over and knelt down in front of her.
He held his hands up toward either side of her head and asked "Do you mind if I take a look?"
Savannah's eyes went wide. "Uhhh. Take a look at what?" She sat back in the chair, shrinking away from him, uncomfortable with his sudden proximity to her.
He looked at her like she might be a little slow. "At your mind. To see what's going on there."
"Will it hurt her?" Silas asked, taking a step toward them.
The Doctor didn't even bother turning to face him to reply. "No Sir Lancelot. It won't hurt her." He rolled his eyes.
Savannah relaxed a bit but was still suspicious. "What will you be able to see?"
"Not much." he assured her, placing his fingertips at her temples. "Just close your eyes and relax."
She sighed and did as she was told. She could feel a strange sensation inside her head. A tickle.
"And by not much, of course, I mean, well, virtually everything." The Doctor muttered softly.
Savannah gasped, about to push him away.
He shushed her. "Keep still. I'm only interested in your telepathic abilities." She grumbled but allowed him to proceed.
It felt... weird and intrusive. But as promised, it didn't hurt and it was over quickly.
When the Doctor took his fingertips away, Savannah opened her eyes and saw that he was gazing at her in surprise. He stood up slowly and walked away, lost in thought. Her heart started to race, imagining what he may have seen.
"Well." Savannah demanded, scrambling to her feet. "What is it? What's wrong with me?"
He turned back to look at her, shrugged. "You're totally boring and ordinary."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Seriously?"
He nodded. "Yes. Seriously. You have absolutely no telepathic abilities whatsoever. You're just a normal human female suffering from a bit of depression because your dull boyfriend Evan dumped you."
"Hey!" she snapped angrily.
The Doctor paid no attention to her reaction. He scratched his head, still looking surprised. "I mean, clearly you have some issues with judgment because you seem to have a bit of a thing for Lancelot here but otherwise, you seem totally normal."
"Goddammit dude! What the hell?" Savannah shrieked at him. She glanced over at Silas, feeling mortified. He was trying his best not to crack up laughing.
The Doctor sighed. "I suppose our next move is to go have a little talk with the Reverend Mother on Karn." He didn't appear to relish the prospect.
"You mean... we're going to another planet?" Silas asked excitedly. He certainly seemed to have adjusted quickly to this absurd situation.
Savannah scoffed. "I suspect we're going to a whole other universe." She crossed her arms, still thoroughly pissed at the Doctor's indiscretion.
The Doctor stepped to the console and pulled a lever. A peculiar wheezing, groaning sound filled the control room.
"Not just yet." The Doctor remarked. "I think I should first go see the Sisterhood in our universe." He pulled a monitor looking thing around and studied it. "After all. If Sienna is connected to them there, then it stands to reason, you are connected with them here."
Silas cleared his throat. "So... who exactly is Sienna?" he wondered.
Thursday Morning, Universe B
Silas pulled up into the parking lot of Dayle's apartment building. He parked his pickup truck quickly and headed into the lobby. He skipped the elevator and took the stairs two at a time. There was no way he'd be able to stand around waiting for the slow ass contraption to make its way to the sixth floor.
He was out of breath when he reached Dayle's door. He knocked loudly and stood shifting his weight impatiently from one foot to the other. He'd been here with Sienna many time and Dayle and Jesse had always been awesome and welcoming to him.
Under the current circumstances, he felt Dayle would be fully justified in kicking him right in the nuts. He couldn't believe he'd just stood by and watched while Sienna got taken by some psycho alien dick.
Dayle opened the door holding her little boy Gabe. Her face was a mirror of his own concern. "Hey Si. Come in." She sounded distracted.
He entered the apartment to see Jesse was home too, pacing the living room. When he saw Silas, he walked over to him quickly. "Tell us exactly what happened. Are you sure it wasn't the Doctor?" He put his arm around his wife and rubbed her back comfortingly.
Silas was at a loss for words. He shrugged. "I-I-I really can't be sure of anything. All I know is that something was not right. The guy was just, you know, bizarre. Like, a little off center."
Jesse gave Dayle a look. "Kinda sounds like the Doctor to me." he pointed out.
Silas shook his head emphatically. "No. I'm telling you. It was like...when he was standing in front of Sienna, he had some hold on her mind. She acted like everything was just fine. The second he was out of sight though, she told me she knew something was wrong. She was about to tell him to leave. To come back when the two of you were around. But the second he opened the door to that TARDIS thing, she just walked right in willingly and the next thing I know, the door slammed in my face and they were just gone." He put his hands over his face and made a sound of frustration. He shouldn't have let her go near that motherfucker.
Dayle put a hand on his arm. "Hey. Let's just calm down. This isn't your fault, you know. You couldn't have done anything differently. And there might be a perfectly logical explanation for all this."
Silas couldn't believe she was comforting him. "I could have done something. I feel like such an asshole. What if something happens to her?"
He saw the fear in Dayle's eyes and knew she was only trying to sound brave.
Jesse hugged Dayle against him. "I think you should try calling him again." He told her firmly. He took Gabe from her and she pulled out her phone.
Her hand was shaking as she dialed the number. She put the phone on speaker and the three of them stood waiting for it to ring through. "I've tried calling five times since you called me." she murmured to Silas. "It's like, it's not reaching him for some reason."
Silas listened as the phone made the normal trilling noise of an outgoing call, followed by a long silence, then an old fashioned dial tone. Then it just disconnected.
"Fuck!" Dayle shouted, looking ready to throw the phone. She looked at Jesse helplessly. "What the hell are we going to do if we can't get a hold of him?" She sounded truly frightened now. It broke Silas's heart.
Suddenly her phone began to ring. She accepted the call without looking to see who it was. "Hello?" she greeted eagerly. Then her face fell. "Hey mom."
Silas sighed in disappointment. What the hell were they going to do? There was no way he was just going to be able to wait around to hear from Sienna. He had to do something.
Suddenly Dayle's tone broke into this thoughts. "What?" She looked up at Jesse and Silas. "Listen to this." She put the phone on speaker.
"Mom. Repeat what you just said about your dream. But tell me the details this time." Dayle held the phone out for everyone to hear.
The voice of a slightly older woman spoke from the other end of the line. "The dream I had. It was that same odd blonde man with the striped pants and long tan coat. In the other dreams it was like he was standing on the other side of some thick glass, knocking and shouting to be heard. I can only ever hear parts of what he's saying. I hear 'help' and "my name is the Doctor' and 'I can't get back home.'"
The woman paused to take a breath. "Well, this time, he was just standing there in a dark space, looking very angry. He was silent most of the time. Didn't speak at all. And then finally, just before I woke up, he said, very clearly, 'The Master has taken Sienna.' It was practically echoing in my mind when I woke up. There was no mistaking his words."
Silas inexplicably felt a chill overtake him at the cryptic words. Dayle and Jesse exchanged a confused look.
"Well, what the hell does that mean?" Jesse demanded.
"Yeah. Who's 'the master'?" Silas wanted to know.
"Mom. Was there anything else? Anything at all different about this new dream?" Dayle questioned.
There was a long pause on the line. Then Dayle's mother spoke again, sounding a little unsure "There was one thing." She paused again. "He had something in his hand this time. Only I couldn't get a good look at it. It was shiny. His hand was closed around it, clenched because he was so angry. I-I-I'd need to see it again. I just don't know for sure..."
"Okay...Okay..." Dayle said gently. "Thanks mom. Thanks for letting me know."
"Something's happened. To Sienna. She's in trouble isn't she?" Sienna's grandmother sounded haunted.
"Mom, we don't know yet. As soon as I know something, I promise to tell you. In the meantime, if you think of anything else...anything at all, please let me know, okay?" They hung up.
Dayle looked at Jesse and Silas. There were tears in her eyes now. It was like everyone in the room knew for certain then that Sienna was in grave danger.
Jesse swallowed. "Keep trying the Doctor." He instructed.
Dayle nodded and dialed again.
