Hello…(ducks any possible flying objects). Please don't be too angry! I'm so so so so so so sorry for publishing this so late. I've been having a bit of writing issues. I've been doing some novel writing, and got a bit side tracked. I am also working on chapter eleven of this story. You see, I've decided to put in my own adventure for after this one, and I've been having some trouble putting it into words. I've gotten a few pages so far, so hopefully it will blossom into something wonderful. Only time will tell.
So, anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter. It's a bit longer than previous chapters. I look forward to any and all comments and reviews you have!
I do not own Doctor Who, or any of its characters. I do own Roxi, and any and all possible original characters in the future of the story. Thank you!
Roxi clung to the console as the TARDIS jerked in flight. The Doctor and Rose were having as much trouble as she was trying to keep stead as well as flying the TARDIS. She was trying to make sure that a specific button that was essential to keep down, was kept down.
"Hold that one down!" The Doctor shouted to Roxi, gesturing to a button an arms-length away from both her and Rose.
"I'm holding this one down!" she retorted.
"Well hold them both down!"
"It is physically impossible for me to press both buttons. My arms aren't long enough and I'm not stretchy or flexible! I'm not freaking Mr. Fantastic!"
"Use your foot!"
Roxi groaned, trying to keep her balance on her left foot while she used her right to reach up and press the button with great difficulty. "I feel like an idiot doing this!"
"Oi! I promised you a time machine, and that's what you're getting," he yelled, his hands quickly darting to the different switches, buttons and levers. "Now, you two have seen the future, let's have a look at the past…1860! How does 1860?"
"What happened in 1860?" Rose wondered, hating the constant jerking around of the TARDIS.
"Something good I hope!" Roxi sarcastically snapped in a loud voice, glaring at the Doctor.
"Let's find out! Hold on, here we go!"
The TARDIS flew through time, shaking as she went. The three travelers gripped the console to keep their balance, though they were having a lot of trouble doing so. A final shake tossed all three of them onto the floor, Rose on one side of the console and Roxi and the Doctor on the other side, before the ship finally stopped.
"Blimey!" Rose shouted as she laid on the floor. Roxi groaned, and slowly stood up, trying to maintain some sort of equilibrium.
"You're telling me!" The Doctor sat up and rose to his feet, using the console to help him. "Are you two all right?"
"Yeah, I think so," Roxi acknowledge, stretching.
"Nothing broken," Rose mused, standing and shaking her limbs about. "So, did we make it? Where are we?"
Their pilot moved to the video screen and read the results. A proud smile spread across his lips, and he cheered happily, "I did it. Give the man a medal! Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860."
"Oh my gosh, it's Christmas Eve!" Roxi exclaimed, beaming excitedly. "That's so awesome!" Rose joined her.
The Doctor gestured towards the TARDIS doors, his grin threatening to split his face, and he stated, "All yours."
Roxi saw Rose look towards the doors, and then turn her eyes back to the Doctor and said, "But, it's like…think about it, though. Christmas. 1860. Happens once, just once and it's gone. It's finished. It'll never happen again." Rose's eyes had a thoughtful look in them.
The Doctor grinned. Roxi added, looking at him, "Except for you. You can go back and see days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still."
Leaning closer to his two companions and, still smirking proudly, muttered to them, "Not a bad life."
Rose chuckled at the comment, shrugged, and replied, "Better with three."
Roxi, excitement practically pouring out of her, grabbed her sister's hand and was about to bolt to the door, when she stopped, thought for a moment and looked down at her clothes. She glanced back up to the Doctor with a sheepish smile, and asked, "We should probably change clothes, shouldn't we?"
The Doctor nodded in reply. "Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarellas." Pointing towards the corridor across the console, he added, "There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!"
Roxi and Rose, with somewhat stunned eyes, glanced at each other, and ventured cautiously into the hallway.
The Doctor was working under the console when he heard Rose clear her throat. He made sure not to hit his head as he looked and found Rose standing with a grim grin, obviously unpleased by her outfit, which consisted of a dress with a black top and pinkish skirt, a black shawl draped across her shoulders, and her hair up in a braided up-do.
"Well, you clean up nice," the Doctor remarked, slightly teasing, fiddling with some wires. He gazed down at his hands again, focusing on a certain wire as he asked, "Where's your sister?"
"She should be out in a mo'. She was having some trouble finding a dress she liked."
A few seconds later, Roxi emerged to find the Doctor looking at something under the console and Rose leaning against the console, observing his actions. She cleared her throat, causing Rose to look at her right away, smiling big. Then, the Doctor turned around to look at her, his eyes widening when he saw her.
Roxi's hair was like Rose's, but with no loose strands, as well as no back feathers. She wore a purple and black, puffed-sleeved Gothic Victorian gown, with purple satin and black cotton. The gown had a square neckline adorned with small ruffles and a purple ribbon tie. The bodice was fitted with a lace-up back (Rose and the Doctor saw it when she twirled around) and a delicate bow adorning the waist. The skirt was floor length, and was embellished with ruffles. She, too, wore a black shawl.
"Blimey!" The Doctor exclaimed in shock, staring openly at her.
"Don't laugh!" Roxi begged, giggling as she pointed at him in faux seriousness.
"You look beautiful."
Roxi beamed, looking at her feet blushing.
"Considering…" Roxi and Rose gave the Doctor a confused look and a stern look respectively. Rose crossed her arms and asked, "Considering what?"
The Doctor shifted awkwardly at Rose's gaze as he answered cautiously, "That you're human."
Roxi's eyebrow raised at the response, and with a small smile, she remarked, "I think that's a compliment."
Rose scoffed, muttering, "Some compliment."
The blonde American rolled her eyes at her sister's comment, before settling her eyes on the Doctor again, this time with a confused look. "Aren't you going to change?"
The Doctor pulled at the neckline of his sweater and stated, "I've changed my jumper." Shoving his sonic screwdriver into his pocket, he lifted himself out from under the console, standing up. "Come on."
"You stay here! You've done this before!" Rose ran to the door, yelling back, "This is mine!" As Rose stepped outside, Roxi stepped towards the Doctor with a playful grin.
"Ready for another adventure?" She asked him, her tone enthusiastic, as was her smile.
"Ready when you are," the Doctor replied, holding out his arm to her with his face bright with excitement. She raised her hand and gently placed her hand in the crook of his arm.
"Here we go," he commented, gazing towards the door, before turning his eyes to Roxi. "History."
The two time-travelers strolled down the ramp and out the doors, joining Rose out in the crisp snow.
"You know, I was expecting it to be a little less snowy in Naples," Roxi remarked as she, the Doctor and Rose wandered down the street, snow crunching beneath their feet and the sounds of caroling filling their ears. Rose was by her sister's side and Roxi's hand was still on the Doctor's arm.
"Well, it is Christmas," Rose remarked, looking around.
"Still, it's Naples. I was expecting it to be a bit warmer, even if just a few degrees."
The Doctor, with a pondering look, took Roxi's hand off his arm and walked over to a man selling newspapers, his two companions curiously following him. He got a paper, and began reading it, his feet carrying him down the street again. The two sisters exchanged suspicious looks, and then they trailed after him, glancing around at the scenery.
"I got the flight a bit wrong," he told them with a guilty expression, folding up the newspaper and putting it inside his jacket.
"I don't care," Rose answered, Roxi humming in agreement.
"It's not 1860, it's 1869."
"I don't care."
"And it's not Naples."
"I don't care."
"It's Cardiff."
Rose stopped in her tracks while Roxi and the Doctor continued on. Roxi glanced to her left, and found the Doctor grinning apologetically. She smiled brightly at him, and told him, "I've never been to Cardiff. And knowing you, you'll probably find danger somewhere around here."
Rose caught up with the two of them, just as the Doctor told Roxi, "I don't find danger."
Not a second later, when they were near a theatre, the three travelers heard screaming and saw people fleeing the theatre.
"You were saying, Doctor?" Roxi questioned in amusement, causing a stern look from the pilot before all three of them bolted across the street, towards the theatre. As the screaming people scurried out the doors, they managed to weave through them to the interior, where they found a ghostlike apparition soaring above the heads of the crowd, the stream coming from an old woman.
"Fantastic!" the Doctor cheered, going towards the stage and asked the man, "Did you see where it came from?"
"Doctor, what was that!?" Roxi asked in a hushed, but excited tone.
"Not sure," he returned in a tone just as excited.
"Ah, the wag reveals himself, does he?" the man on the stage with quite on impressive beard remarked, anger in his tone. "And he has an accomplice! I trust you're satisfied, sir and milady!"
Roxi's eyebrows rose in reproach, her eyes showing she was slightly offended by the accusing tone. She glanced at the Doctor with a questioning look, which he returned by shrugging his shoulder. She looked towards the house of the theatre.
"Hey, leave her alone!" Roxi shouted at an elderly man and a young woman, who had begun to carry the old woman (now unconscious) out of the theatre. "Doctor, Rose, I'll get them!" She made towards the exit after them.
"Roxi, no!" Rose protested, struggling towards her.
"Be careful!" the Doctor called out as she swept out the door.
Roxi, once outside, spotted the woman and the old man across the street, near a cart. Picking up her skirt, she jogged over to them, calling out, "What're you doing!?"
The young, brown-haired woman faced her with kind, but guarded eyes, as she spoke in a Welsh accent, "Oh, it's a tragedy, miss. Don't worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is…this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary."
Roxi shuffled around her, and felt the old woman's forehead as she lay in the cart. Instead of the warm touch of human skin, like she expected, she was startled to find that the skin was, in fact, like ice. She tore her hand away in surprise.
"She's…cold," Roxi whispered, confused. "She's dead. And has been for a while." Roxi regarded the girl, whose eyes were wide in fear, and wondered in a low tone, "What happened to her?"
The woman didn't get a chance to answer, for after the question left her lips, a cloth was pressed against her nose and mouth. Roxi tried to lash at her attacker, but the person caged her with his arms, and moments later, Roxi's mind tumbled into darkness.
When Roxi awoke from her unconscious state, her eyes fluttering open, she found herself in a strange room, with coffins here and there. She groaned to herself, hating the predicament she was in, and sat up.
Upon hearing a low noise behind her, her head whipped around, and her eyes widened at the sight of the old woman who had been dead and a young man, who looked just as pale as the woman, slowly approaching her, their dead eyes set on the young blonde.
"Zombies and ghosts," she whispered to herself, absolutely terrified. "Of course." Roxi launched herself off the table she was on, and bolted to the door. She tried the handle, but the door was locked. She was trapped.
"Let me out!" she shrieked, desperately pounding on the door. "Open the door, please! Let me out!"
Suddenly, Roxi felt an arm around her neck pull her backwards, away from the door. She tried to elbow him in the ribs, but it had no effect on him.
The door, with a loud bang, swung open, revealing the Doctor, whose eyes held a burning glint, followed by her sister, the old man and the woman who kidnapped her, and another man.
"I think this is my dance," he remarked, grabbing Roxi's outstretched hand, which was reaching towards him, and pulling her out of the dead man's grip and to his side.
"It's a prank," a man behind the Doctor, the man with the impressive beard that Roxi remembered from the theatre, commented in disbelief. "It must be. We're under some…mesmeric influence."
The Doctor, in response, retorted, "No, we're not. The dead are walking." He glanced at Roxi with a large grin and greeted her with an enthusiastic, "Hi!"
Roxi chuckled breathlessly in response, replying, "Hi." With a nod of her head to her left, gesturing to the man who had spoken, she asked him, "Who's he?"
"Charles Dickens."
Her eyes widened in astonishment and brightened with glee, as she uttered a disbelieving, "No."
The Doctor's grin widened with shared enthusiasm, and he nodded. She looked at the man, Charles Dickens, with awed eyes, telling him, "I love your books. I mean, really love them. My favorite by far is Oliver Twist, it's a perfect blend of romantic ideals and realism, but I will say that I do like A Christmas Carol just as much, and-"
"Later, Rox," Rose remarked, interrupting her sister after recognizing that if she didn't stop her from talking now, they'd hear her prattling on for hours. Roxi nodded at this, and shifted her sight back to the zombie-like people in front of her.
"My name is the Doctor," he told the two animated corpses. "Who are you, then?"
"Failing," the zombie man spoke, his voice sounding like multiple voices, most of them high-pitched. "Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us." Both corpses then raised their heads to face the ceiling, and the same illuminating spirits from the theatre exited the bodies with a scream. The spirts returned to the gas lights, and the bodies of the young man and the old woman collapsed onto the floor, returning to their lifeless state.
Roxi marveled in astonishment at the now still corpses. Suddenly, she was pulled back and enveloped in a tight embrace by her sister, who was practically squeezing the life out of her. She returned the hug with equal fervor, before pulling back. Roxi noticed Charles, the old man and the woman go down the hall.
"Never scare me like that again," Rose scolded with brown eyes showing worry, relief and a bit of anger.
"I'll try my best," Roxi assured with a serious expression. "Same goes to you, though."
Rose nodded, and both girls faced the Doctor, who wore a slightly uncomfortable expression on his face as he watched the exchange.
Rose inwardly smirked, and stated, "I'll just go into the next room." She turned and ventured down the hall, leaving Roxi and the Doctor alone.
"Are you all right?" he immediately asked her.
Roxi smiled, and nodded. "I'm just a bit shaken. I'm fine. You?"
The Doctor chuckled at this, remarking, "You were just drugged, kidnapped and nearly killed by corpses, and you're asking me if I'm fine?"
Roxi merely shrugged in response, a small smirk displayed. The Doctor assured that he was fine, and then suggested that they both go into the parlor to talk with Mr. Sneed about the ghost-like apparitions.
"I plan to do some yelling, just so you know," Roxi mentioned in a determined tone, her eyes narrowing in anger at the thought. "So feel free to cover your ears."
Though she couldn't see it, the Doctor smirked with anticipation at her, following her into the next room.
After Roxi shouted at the old man, who she discovered was called Mr. Sneed, it led to the discussion of what was going on and the fact of the rift, a tear in time and space, get wider. After this discussion though, Roxi and Rose followed after the servant girl, Gwyneth, going down to the pantry to help her. The girl, however, protested drastically, insisting it wasn't right. Rose asked Gwyneth about her pay, and then whether or not she went to school. The young brunette, offended, replied that she did, but she did skip one day of school to run on the heath.
Rose and Roxi chuckled in response, Rose mentioning, "I did plenty of that. I used to go down to the shops with my mate Shareen. We used to go look at boys."
Gwyneth suddenly stopped smiling, a shamed look appearing on her face. "Well, I don't know much about that, miss." She turned towards the sink to continue washing dishes.
"Come on, times haven't changed that much," Rose remarked in doubt. "I bet you've done the same."
Gwyneth denied doing so, in a tone that possibly suggested she had. The two visiting girls managed to get out of her the name of the boy that she was fancying, and began suggesting different things to her to get him to notice her.
"I swear it is the strangest thing," Gwyneth laughed. "You two have got all the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like some sort of wild things."
"Maybe we are," Rose conceded with a shrug.
"Maybe…that's a good thing," Roxi added slyly. "You need a bit more in your life than Mister Sneed."
Gwyneth almost immediately defended him, telling the sisters he helped her when her parents died. The girls apologized. Then Gwyneth made a comment about Rose's deceased father that caused Roxi to realize that something was different about Gwyneth. Something very different.
The servant girl went on to say that Rose had been thinking about her father more and more, recently.
"How do you know that?" Roxi wondered, suspiciously.
Gwyneth grinned, and replied, "Mister Sneed says I think too much. I'm all alone down here. I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you?"
Roxi didn't answer, still staring thoughtfully at Gwyneth, while Rose chuckled, "No, no servants where we're from."
"And you've come such a long way."
Both blondes froze at the comment, staring at the servant girl in shock. Rose, when she finally broke out of her astonished state, asked, "What makes you think so?"
Gwyneth looked at Rose, and answered, "You're from London…and your sister is from America. I've seen both London and America in drawings, but never like those. All those people rushing about half naked, for shame. And the noise…and the metal boxes racing past…and the birds in the sky…no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying."
Gwyneth then turned to Roxi, with wide eyes, and continued, "And you…you've flown so far. Further than anyone, even your sister. Across the stars and away from the flames you can't remember." Roxi stared at Gwyneth as the servant girl suddenly, but softly, gripped her arm. The servant girl then spoke so softly only Roxi could hear. "You've been given a gift…a fresh start, but the history is still there. And your history will save you in the end. You've seen so much…oh, the things you've seen. The darkness…the big bad wolf!" Gwyneth jumped back in shock. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, miss."
"It's all right," Rose assured, observing her sister's stunned state, a state that made it hard for her to answer.
"I can't help it," Gwyneth cried. "Ever since I was a little girl. My mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it."
"But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?"
All three girls, Roxi finally snapping out of her trance, looked towards the doorway, where the Doctor stood, a knowing glint in his eyes.
"All the time, sir," Gwyneth answered, looking down in shame. "Every night, there are voices in my head."
The Doctor told her it was because she grew up on the rift, revealing that she may be the key to figuring out what was going on. Gwyneth mentioned that she had tried to figure out what was being told to her by visiting experts.
"Well, that should help," he stated. "You can show us what to do."
Roxi, with her brows furrowed together in confusion, asked, "Show us what, exactly?"
A big grin spread across his face as he answered, "We're going to have a séance."
Silence followed that comment, before Roxi blurted out, "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"
Ta-da! Here it is. Thank you for reading and for sticking with the story through all the brief hiatuses.
Doctor and Roxi: Brief?
Okay, maybe not brief. I hope to read your comments, and if you haven't already done so, please favorite and/or follow this story! Thank you!
