Forever – The Family of Blood
"Make your decision Mr. Smith." Ordered Jenny, John was panting fearfully, no one saw Tim pull out the fob watch as Baines spoke again.
"Perhaps if the Human heart breaks the Timelord will emerge." Tim opened the watch and the Timelord essence seeped slowly out. The Family looked around excitedly; Rose and Martha both took there chance and spun in the captors arms and grabbed the guns. Martha held hers at Baines, Rose held hers at Mr. Clark. Tim closed the watch.
"One more move and I shoot." Warned Martha.
"Oh, the maid is full of fire!"
"And you can shut up mate!" Martha pointed the gun to the ceiling and shot.
"Careful, Son of Mine. She's all for you, so you can live forever."
"Oh mate, you're gonna wish you hadn't said that." Warned Rose threateningly. Baines raised his gun to her.
"Really? Will he? Would you actually pull the trigger?"
"I wouldn't hesitate. Torchwood has trained me. I fight for King and Country!"
"Matron Smith, comfortable with a gun! Who'd have thought?"
"Every Time Agent knows how to use a gun! You'd know that; you stole my late husband's Vortex Manipulator." Baines lowered his gun. Rose took out her Sonic Screwdriver and pointed it at the gun. Blue light lit the room slightly and the gun fizzled then died.
"I don't like guns." Rose said. She looked over at the crowd, "Everyone get out! We don't need anybody else dying tonight!" People scrambled to the door. John stayed.
"Rose."
"John get out! Go back to the school!" Rose yelled; he left leaving Rose, Martha, and the Family. Martha pushed Jenny back to the group and Rose did the same for Mr. Clark.
"Don't try anything! One more move and sonny boy gets it!" Martha yelled.
"Almost brave this one." Stated Baines calmly as he and the family walked forward.
"I should've taken her form, much more fun; so much spirit." Teased Jenny. Martha and Rose tried to take control, but the family moved forward; backing them into a group of scarecrows.
"What about Jenny, what happened to her?" Asked Rose.
"She is consumed. Her body's mine." Said Jenny with spiteful innocence.
"You mean she's dead?" Martha asked,
"Yes, and she went with gracious little dignity; all that; AIGH, screaming!" Jenny teased happily.
Martha and Rose screamed when they finally bumped into the scarecrows, they ducked away after having the guns taken from them; luckily Rose and Martha managed to keep hold of the Sonic Screwdrivers. Rose and Martha ran from the building and saw John standing there.
"Don't just stand there; move, God you're rubbish as a Human!"
* * *
Tim watched Martha and Rose run passed his spot in the shadows. He held the watch and listened to the mysterious Doctor's voice. Hold me. Keep me safe. Keep me dark, keep me closed. Time is not right, not yet, not while the Family's abroad. Danger! A door opened and a small girl from the village appeared. She held a big red balloon and ran passed Tim.
* * *
"So," announced the headmaster, "Baines, and one of the cleaning staff; there's always a women involved. Am I to gather that some practical joke has got out of hand?"
"Headmaster, sir, good evening, sir, come to give me a canning, sir? Would you like that, sir?"
"You'll keep a civil tongue boy."
"Now come on everyone." Muttered Mr. Phillips; "I expect alcohol has played its part in this. Let's all just calm down. And who are these friends of yours, Baines; in fancy dress."
"Do you like them, Mr. Phillips? I made them myself; I'm ever so good at science, sir. Look;" He ripped the closest scarecrows arm off. "Molecular fringe animation, fashioned in the shape of straw men. My own private army. Ever so good, sir."
"Baines, step apart from this company, and come inside with me." Said the headmaster extending and arm.
"Oh, sir, you, sir, YOU, will send us Mr. John Smith. That's all we want sir, Mr. John Smith and whatever he's done to his Timelord consciousness. Then we'll be very happy to leave you alone."
"You speak with someone else's voice, Baines. Who might that be?"
"We are the Family of Blood." Whispered Baines transfixed.
"Mr. Smith said there had been deaths."
"Yes, sir, and they were good, sir!"
"Well I warn you, the school is armed!" Called the headmaster
"All your little tin soldiers." Baines had his back to the headmaster; he turned and looked at him. "But tell me, sir… Will they thank you?"
"I don't understand."
Baines started to slowly walk to the headmaster, his eyes unblinking and eerie. "What do you know of history, sir? What do you know of next year?"
"You're not making sense, Baines."
"1914… Sir! 'Cause the Family has travelled far and wide looking for Mr. Smith and oh, the things we have seen… War is coming. In foreign fields war of the whole wide world, with all your boys falling down in the mud. Do you think, they will thank, the man who taught them it was glorious?"
"Don't you forget boy, I have been a solider! I was in South Africa! I used my dead mates as sandbags! I fought with the butt of my riffle when the bullets ran out, and I would go back there tomorrow for King and Country!" the headmaster hissed.
"Etcetera, etcetera." Said Baines walked away before turning sharply and raising his gun, then shooting Mr. Phillips.
"Run along Headmaster. Run back to school. AND SEND US MR. SMITH!" John closed the curtain on the window he was looking out of.
* * *
Son of Mine, Wife of Mine, whispered Mr. Clark.
Father of Mine, what have you found?
His Tardis. The Doctor can not escape.
* * *
"Rose, it's not safe here." Said John watching Rose prepare to tend to wounds with Matron Redfern.
"I'm capable of taking care of myself, let me do my duty." She turned her back to him and walked to Joan; John walked to Rose and spoke in her ear.
"Why are you ignoring me, don't I deserve a little faith in this?" He pulled her into a corner away from unwanted listeners.
"Just tell me this. When were we married?"
"What?"
"Our anniversary."
"September 10th."
"When is your birthday?"
"April 18th."
"When's your mother's birthday?"
"November 27th."
"Your father's birthday?"
"Rose, what has this got to-"
"Just tell me… Please."
"April 1st."
"Ok, now tell me. When's Martha's birthday?" He stared at her, slack-jawed. His eyes searched her face. "My birthday?" He remanded silent. "Tell me John; please, tell me."
"Rose." He whispered, "How can you possibly think I'm not real? ... When I kissed you was that I lie?"
"No, no it wasn't."
"When we made love, was it false?"
"No, John, don't think that; don't ever think that."
"This Doctor sounds like some romantic lost prince; would you rather that?"
"I don't know." Rose had tears in her eyes, she didn't want to hurt John, she was in love with him, but she also loved the Doctor; had never stopped loving the Doctor.
"Am I not enough?"
"That's not true. John I love you; will always love you."
"Mr. Smith, if you please!" Called the voice of the headmaster.
"John this is wrong. Those boys are just that; boys. They're only children; they have no need to fight."
"What choice do I have?" He leant down and kissed Rose before turning and following the headmaster voice.
* * *
Tim sat in the shadows as the coward Hutchinson dubbed him; if only he knew. Tim sat and held the watch in both hands he stared down at it and willed it to speak to him.
"What do I do? What do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do?"
Beware…
"Beware of what?"
Her… Tim looked up and saw a small girl with a balloon, one of the Family. He stood and loosely but firmly held the watch behind his back as Lucy Cartwright sniffed the air.
"Keep away." He called.
"Who are you?" She demanded.
"I saw you at the dance. You're with that Family, you're one of them!"
"What are you hiding?"
"Nothing."
"What have you got there?"
"Nothing." Insisted Tim
"Show me little boy."
"I reckon, whatever you are, you're still in the shape of a girl. How strong is she, do you think? Does she really want to see this?!" He lifted the watch and opened it briefly, the golden light spilling out towards Lucy. She was hit with an image of a defiant man standing in fire and water watching on as a whole species drowned. Lucy turned and ran.
Outside in the dark Baines snapped out a small trance sent by his sister.
"Timelord!"
"Inside the device." Added Jenny
"Everything he is concealed in the hands of a schoolboy! … But now we know; all we need to find is the boy, and the watch. What are we waiting for? ATTACK!" The scarecrow-soldiers walked forward around him and his mother, headed toward the barricaded school.
* * *
The boys cried as they shot the scarecrows down, their headmaster stood over them, but no one could pretend this was normal class. Even Mr. Smith held a riffle and shot down the opponents. But then he remembered what Rose had said, he watched as the young boys in front of him shot down these straw men; he lowered his gun, Roses words from the dance echoing in his memory. I don't like guns… He thought of his wife, how could she have done it? His life, his whole life, was fake. Fiction, nonexistent, a lie. He looked up. No one was dead. The straw was just straw. Amongst it stood a little girl. The same girl, Lucy Cartwright looked at the headmaster as he beckoned her to him.
"Mr. Smith?" Said Martha, when had she arrived, his Wife too. He looked at the girl.
"She was, she was, with, with Baines; in the village." The headmaster turned to him.
"Mr. Smith, I have seen many strange sights this night, but there is no cause on God's Earth that'd allow me to see this child in the field of battle, sir!" He turned back to Lucy, "Come with me." He extended an arm to her.
"You're funny."
"That's right. Now, take my hand."
"So funny." She raised a gun and shot the headmaster. He yelled as his whole body disintegrated, but Lucy wasn't done yet. "Now who's gonna shot me, any of you, REALLY?"
"Put down your guns." Said John, his voice cracking.
* * *
Boys ran through the school in all different directions, some down corridors, some hiding in rooms, some upstairs, some in the kitchens; the scarecrows chased and grabbed them searching for Tim. Mr. Smith let some of the boys outside to run and hide. He closed the door, and turned to Martha and Rose.
On the ground floor Jenny, Baines, and the scarecrow army stood holding boys out for Lucy to look at.
"This one, is that him?" Said Baines grabbing the scruff of Hutchinson's shirt and thrusting him into Lucy's face. Lucy sniffed the air;
"No." Baines shoved him aside.
"Right, well we can kill this lot." He raised his gun and was about to shoot when he scented it. The Timelord. Lord of time… "That's him!" Said Baines, twisting his head.
"UPSTAIRS!" Yelled Jenny.
* * *
It'd been empty. Baines stood with his family and his army outside the Tardis in the school grounds.
"You recognise it, don't you?" Whispered Martha as the Family beckoned the Doctor.
"I've never seen it before in my life." Murmured John.
"Do you remember its name?" Asked Martha.
"John, you wrote about it. The blue box that's always there, taking you to faraway places- Your magic carpet." Rose tried to be sorry, but she really needed the Doctor right now. John looked at her, pain in his eyes.
"I'm not… I'm John Smith, that's all I want to be; John Smith. With his life, and his job, and his love, why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?" Chocked John, tears forming in his eyes.
"Yes, yes he is." Soothed Rose her hand on John's back.
"Why can't I stay?" He asked.
"But we need the Doctor." Pleaded Martha, John turned to face her;
"And what am I then? Nothing; I'm just a story." He stood up and walked away.
* * *
"I must go to them." Said John, turning to face Rose. They sat at Lucy Cartwright's table, (Rose's idea). "Before anyone else dies."
"You can't, John." Said Rose, before sitting down, "There must be something we can do. I've faced them before, a lifetime ago. The very same family too; but they got away, scented the Doctor and ran off with Jack's Vortex Manipulator."
"There's nothing you can do without the watch." Whispered Martha,
"You're this Doctor's companion, don't you help?!" Yelled John, suddenly angry. "What exactly do you do for him?! Why does he need you?!"
"Because he's lonely."
"And that's what you want me to become?" John asked depressed again. There was a knock. The all looked at the door. "Is it them?" Asked John,
"I'm not an expert, but I don't think scarecrows knock." Martha turned and walked to the door. She opened it a crack to see Timothy Latimer holding out the fob watch.
"I brought you this." Martha took it then walked into the room, leaving the door open for Tim.
"I've got the watch." She said.
"What? Where was it?" Asked Rose, shocked.
"Tim had it." John stood and walked around the table to look at the watch. Martha held it out to him on the palm of her hand.
"Hold it."
"I won't." John refused.
"Please, just hold it."
"It told me to find you; it wants to be held." Stated Tim.
"You had it all this time? Why didn't you return it?" Asked Rose.
"Because it was waiting… And because I was so scared… of the Doctor."
"Why?"
"Because, I've seen him." Tim walked into the moonlight flooding through a window. "He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm and the heart of the sun."
"Stop it." Whispered John, but Tim didn't stop;
"He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of Time, and he can see the turn of the universe."
"Stop it! I said stop it." Hissed John again.
"And… he's wonderful." Added Tim, staring directly into John's eyes; John stared back breathing heavily.
"I grabbed this; when I changed." Said Rose, and she pulled from her apron John's journal. "I thought it might help."
"Those are just stories."
"That's not true and we all know it." She opened the book and just then the earth shook violently.
"What the hell?" Muttered Martha, the four walked over to the window to see streaks of orange flame hitting different parts of the village.
"They're destroying the village." Murmured Rose.
"The watch." Muttered John moving from the window and taking the watch. He held it and looked closely at its pattern.
Closer, closer, very close, closer…
"Can you hear it?" Asked Tim.
"He's asleep." Stated John, "Waiting to waken."
"Why did he speak to me?"
"Oh, low level telepathic field, you were born with it. Just an extra-syenitic engram- Is that how he talks?" John sounded terrified of the small essence of the Doctor that seeped through him.
"Yea, that's him! All you have to do is open it and he's back." Martha whispered relieved. Another explosion shook the ground triggering the anger in John again.
"You knew this all along, the two of you, and you just watched while Rose and I- while I…" he corrected.
"I didn't know how to stop you!" Whispered Martha, walking around the table. "He gave me a list of things to watch out for but that wasn't included."
"Falling in love, that didn't even occur to him?!"
"Well no…" Said Martha, glancing at Rose.
"Well want kind of man is that. And now you expect me to die."
"HE'S ALREADY IN LOVE!" Yelled Rose advancing to John. She forced her self to calm down, if only a little, before adding in a angry whisper; "It was always going to end. That family only live for so long; that's why they need the Doctor. We hid waiting for them to die; he never thought he'd fall in love because he was already in love with me. And trust me, I didn't like the idea of leading you on, but then," Rose's rage faulted, and she felt tears swelling in her eyes, "John I love you. I really do, but we need the Doctor. In all my life I've never expected anything like this."
"So your job was to execute me?" John said looking between Martha and Rose.
"People are dying out there! They need him, I need him; we all need him!" Said Martha. 'Cause you've got no idea what 'e's like, I've only just met 'im, it wasn't even that long ago but he is everything, he's just everything to me, and 'e doesn't even look at me, but I don't care. 'Cause I love 'im to bits, and I hope to God he won't remember me saying this." The explosions became more rapid the shaking heavier.
"It's getting closer." Muttered Tim looking out the window. John looked at the watch taking heaving breaths.
"I should've thought of it before! I can give them this!" He held up the watch, "Just the watch, then they can leave Earth and I can stay as I am."
"John-"
"You can't do that!" Yelled Martha, interrupting Rose.
"If they want the Doctor, they can have him!"
"We'll never let you do it." Said Martha,
"If they get what they want then, then-" He was interrupted by Rose.
"Then it all ends in destruction. John, the one thing I do know about the Family, is if they get a Timelord – or his consciousness – they'll live for ever, to breed and conquer, a war across the stars for every child." John broke down his face crumpled tears spilling down his cheeks. "Martha, Tim, would you leave us alone for a bit, please." Martha and Tim left the building to sit outside and Rose walked to the crying form of John. She took him in her arms and let him cry into her shoulder, she cried silently into his hair as she thought of what she was going to lose; the life she'd thought about when she was just a child, a life she thought she'd have with Mickey.
* * *
"If I could do this instead of you, I would." Whispered Rose; John looked at her.
"He won't love you."
"But he does John. He does love me. And I love him."
"Bu-"
"That doesn't stop me from loving you too."
"It was real though. I really thought…" He looked into her eyes and she looked back.
"Let me see." She took the watch from his hands and felt the Doctor. Rose. My Rose. My love… The Family; they need to be stopped…
"Can you hear him?"
"Yes." Breathed Rose.
"What do you hear?"
"The truth." He looked into Rose eyes and grabbed the hand that held the watch. Images washed over the two…
John and Rose sat in a doctor's office. She was pregnant! Pregnant!
John took a crying newborn baby from a tired Rose. She looked on and smiled at the sight of him cradling their daughter.
John, Rose and their three children walked in the park, playing and laughing in the autumn breeze.
Rose looked on to an elderly John, on his death bed.
"They're all safe aren't they? The children, the grandchildren. Everyone's safe." He wheezed slowly.
"Everyone's safe, and they all send their love, John."
"Well… It's time… Thank you." John slowly closed his eyes and died.
John gaped at Rose, "Did you see?"
"Time-travellers have such adventures, but I think that, that adventure will never happen."
"But I could, we could. Rose…" An explosion hit so close they saw the red glow surround them. John held the watch in his hand and stared at it panting.
"What are you going to do?" She whispered.
"I-" Before he could finish Rose pressed her lips once more to John's, she knew what he'd do. He was a good man; she loved him and needed this final kiss.
"Before you go, remember I love you John."
"I love you too." He looked down at the watch, Rose placed her hands over his, and together they opened the watch and looked at the golden light flow directly into John. He breathed it in, and fell back into the chair.
"John?" Asked Rose in a hushed whisper. He stirred and grunted slightly. "Doctor?" At that his eyes snapped open.
"Hello." He whispered before sweeping Rose into an almighty hug.
* * *
He ran. They all ran. The Doctor and the Family. The ship exploded and the Family feel to the ground.
He never raised his voice… That was the worst thing; the fury of the Timelord… And then we discovered why; why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he had run away from us and hidden… He was being kind.
He wrapped my father in unbreakable chains forged in the heart of a dwarf star. He tricked my mother into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy to be imprisoned there… forever. He still visits my sister, once a year, every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is. Can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror. Every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you just for a second, that's her. That's always her. As for me, I was suspended in time and the Doctor put me to work standing over the fields of England; as their protector.
We wanted to live forever. So the Doctor made sure we did…
"Why?" Asked Rose once the Doctor returned to the Tarids.
"What?"
"Why. Why did you do that to them?"
"No second chances; that's who I am." Rose remained silent she turned and tried to hide her tears. "You actually loved him didn't you?"
"Yes." Rose whispered.
"Rose, please, come on." He walked across the control room and hugged her as she cried into his shoulder. "Rose, everything John Smith is and was, I'm capable of that too."
"No. Doctor you've said it yourself. Living a life, day after day; the one adventure you can never have." There was a knock, the Doctor went outside and Rose walked into the depths of the Tardis trying to find Martha.
* * *
Rose straightened the poppy on the Doctor's suit then turned and saw an old man in a wheelchair. It was Tim, she could tell. Taking the Doctor's hand the three friends walked over to him.
"You were so brave Tim." Whispered Rose, she kneeled down and he took her hand. "Only a boy and fighting in the greatest war." He looked into her eyes and smiled.
"You," He wheezed, "Haven't aged a day. Any of you."
"Hasn't been a day. Not for us. Only minutes ago were you knocking at the Tardis door. Only minutes ago did I give you that watch." Said the Doctor.
"The wonders- of- the Timelord." Tim said coughing slightly. The Doctor chuckled lightly.
"The wonders indeed."
OMG It's my birthday tomorrow! (31st December)
