Act 3, Scene 4 – "Is it possible that any villainy should be so dear?"

"Can I get you a drink?" Rose asked, smiling brightly at River, who was sitting at one of the desks and tapping purposefully at the computer keyboard in front of her.

At the younger blonde's words, River looked up quickly, a flicker of surprise crossing her face as she realised that her ears hadn't been deceiving her. "Oh, thank you. But don't go to any trouble."

"Don't worry; I was going to make a cuppa for myself anyway. Tea?"

"Mmm… thanks."

Turning in her seat, River sent a questioning look in her mother's direction. Amy shrugged and in turn shot a look at Gwen, who looked equally bemused by the turn of events. They were all thinking the same thing; why was Rose suddenly being so nice to River?

"Right… well that was weird." Amy muttered as soon as Rose was safely in the kitchen. "Where's the Doctor? I haven't seen him since you got back from Weevil Hunt."

"I don't know… I came to tell you about the latest Jack and Donna development and then he was gone." River replied with a shrug. "He's probably tinkering with the TARDIS; you know what he's like. He'll take any chance to play with his toys."

"Amy, can you come and help me with… cataloguing…" Gwen asked quickly, standing up and nodding her head towards the steps to the vault, widening her eyes meaningfully.

Understanding that the Welsh woman wanted to talk to her about something in private, Amy nodded and hastily followed her down the steps. River shook her head and shrugged as they left, returning her attention to the screen in front of her.

Down in the vaults, Gwen glanced over her shoulder, before going into one and sitting on the ledge that ran along the wall. Reluctantly the younger woman followed, looking disgustedly around at her surroundings. In the cell opposite, a Weevil leapt towards the door, banging on it furiously. Amy flinched and leant backwards, even further away from the creature, but Gwen barely registered the movement being so used to the Weevils that their movements no longer affected her at all.

"There's something wrong." She muttered to the younger woman in a low voice. "Why is Rose suddenly being so nice to River?"

The red-head nodded. "I was thinking that. Yesterday she was sending River such dirty looks I was so tempted to slap her into next week. Even this morning she was making bitchy comments about her. So what's changed between breakfast and now?"

"Mmmm… that's the question. What could possibly have happened to make Rose suddenly decide she wants to be River's best friend?" Gwen asked thoughtfully. They sat for a couple of moments, thinking about possible causes. The ones that seemed most likely were the most extreme; 'Rose' was actually a shape shifter and not herself at all, or perhaps she had been possessed by an alien entity when they weren't looking.

Before either of them could express these ideas to the other, they heard the sound of two pairs of feet on the stone steps as someone – or rather two someones – entered the vaults. Neither of the people spoke, however, so the two women in the cell exchanged a curious look. Gwen was about to stand up and move to the door to see who it was, when one of them spoke.

"So, Mickey?" Rose asked, clearly holding back a laugh as she spoke. "How did it go?"

There was a sigh and then a pause. "I showed him the faked video. Well done, he thinks River's lying to him about her feelings."

Amy gasped, but Gwen covered her mouth quickly, listening intently. She crept forwards slightly so that she could see the pair in the corridor. Rose had her back to them, but she could clearly see the expression on Mickey's face. He looked far from happy, keeping his gaze on the ground rather than having to look up at the blonde woman in front of him. Rose reached out to touch his arm, but he shrugged her off, folding his arms over his chest almost defensively.

"Good." Rose nodded, apparently slightly taken aback by his reaction to her. "How did he take it?"

Mickey snorted as though he couldn't believe she'd actually asked that. "How d'you think he took it?"

"I don't know! It's kind of difficult to predict the Doctor." Rose replied shortly.

"Well he was heartbroken, Rose." Mickey told her, his eyes snapping to her face and narrowing in annoyance. He looked at her in disgust and shook his head. "I hope you're happy."

He stamped away up the stairs, leaving Rose standing motionless in the middle of the corridor. Gwen and Amy glanced at each other. There was a split second where nothing happened at all and then, as though racing to be the first to get to the woman, they both rushed for the cell door.

Rose jumped and gasped loudly as she heard the movement in the cell and whirled round in horror, realising at once that the conversation must have been overheard. The two women who emerged from the cell glared furiously at her, both folding their arms and very obviously waiting for some kind of explanation about what they'd just heard.

"What?" The blonde demanded stonily, standing her ground.

Gwen took a step forward, looking her up and down and speaking in a low, deliberate voice that clearly said she wasn't in the mood for messing around. "I think you might want to explain exactly what's going on around here. Because right now I'm thinking that you've deliberately sabotaged River and the Doctor's relationship."

"I really hope you haven't, because I won't be very happy." Amy warned her threateningly, narrowing her eyes.

"So what if I have?" Rose demanded with a shrug. "All I've done is help the Doctor realise that she's not the woman for him."

"He didn't need help to realise that because it's not true!" Amy snapped at her angrily.

"Yeah? Well obviously the Doctor doesn't think so. It wouldn't have been so easy to persuade him if there was no chance he would believe it. He must have been having some doubts about River before."

"How did you do it, eh?" Amy demanded, resolutely refusing to believe what Rose was trying to convince her. "How did you trick him?"

"I got Mickey to edit clips of different conversations from the Hub's CCTV to make it sound like River was confessing that she was just using the Doctor. It worked a treat. You helped, Gwen." She smirked.

Gwen looked horrified. "That's… horrible!"

"It worked though."

"Not for long. We'll just go and tell the Doctor what you've done." Amy told her, moving to push past the blonde and head up the stairs to the main part of the Hub.

Rose smiled and shook her head, grabbing the red-head's arm and pulling her back. "No, you won't."

Before the other women could react, Rose shoved them roughly into the cell and slammed the door closed behind them. It was only possible to open it from the inside and Gwen and Amy realised at the same moment that they were locked in. Angrily they began to batter on the glass, screaming threats and insults and demanding to be released.

"I don't think so, sorry." Rose told them with a shrug and a fake apologetic expression. As she made her way towards the stairs, she took a moment to reach up and reposition the camera so that it was trained too far to the right to pick up the two women in their cell. "Don't worry… I'm sure someone will be down at some point to let you out."