Hi my lovelies! Sorry it took a while. D: Was having a bit of trouble with the last bit of this chapter, but, here it is! Hooray! :D I hope you enjoy it.

More notes at the end, per usual. :)

Don't own it, or I would probably be in the UK right now . . . And have some sort of accent and not just my Minnesotan one. :)


It felt so close.

Having run into the alley ways behind the houses, going left, right, another right, they just kept going, the creature still going. It felt as if it were right at their heals at times, though, it could just be the fear that an unknown dragon like creature with the nose of a dog was chasing them down. The things you think of when something like that chases you down:

"We're going to be eaten! . . . God, he has impossibly long legs! How am I even keeping up? . . . How could his hand still be cold in mine, you'd think it would have warmed by now. . . Wait. I felt that same touch on my forehead last time I saw him. . . Is that what I woke up to? His hand on my forehead?" she panted as her thoughts raced just as strongly as her heart beat, as her short form had a bit of difficulty keeping up with his lanky one, his hand never losing his grip as he pulled her along, seeming to want to keep her out of harms way.

Another turn into a smaller alley, Carla hears something, almost like a big gush of wind, a kind of 'whoosh'. But it wasn't terribly windy, and the only gush of wind she felt was what went through her hair as they ran.

The Doctor suddenly stopped, she bumping into him at his abrupt halt. He looks behind them, scanning the narrow alley way, a hand going through his hair as his face looked as if he were figuring something out.

With eyes going wide in recognition, he said in a low voice, "It must be trying to get to it's owner." She looked on at him with wide eyes of her own, taking her hand from his, placing her hands on her knees as she was catching her breath.

"Wait. . . An owner? It's a pet? !" she now leaned against the fence that lined the alley, sinking down to the ground as her breathing started to return to normal. The Doctor joined her, stretching out his legs in front of him, crossing them at the ankle as he leaned back, folding his hands in his lap, not especially showing signs that they had been running.

"Yep. Pretty much. Have seen a few of them before, they're usually very nice pets."

"What happened to it, then? Why is it acting that way? Where did it disappear to? And why is it flashing from a dog to a, a dragon thing?" She couldn't help but let the questions flow freely from her mouth. It had started out as such a normal day, one couldn't expect to just accept the strangeness of being chased down by something that looked like a knight should be slaying it.

"First off, it's a Dracul," he corrected her nicely, "B, no, wait, second, yes, second, that strange dog tag it had on it's collar was a cloaking device, a tad like with my TARDIS, which means that pet and it's owner have probably been here for a while." She hadn't even noticed it wearing a collar, let alone having a strange tag. Was too busy focusing on the smoke coming from it's mouth.

His hand jumps to his chin in thought, a wide smile coming to his face after a moment of thinking, leaping to his feet in a whoop of realization, "It's been disappearing! The pet's been disappearing!"

"Yes, I see that." she says with a bit of a bite to her tone, her hand gesturing to the deserted alley before them. He shakes his head, smiling at her, offering his hands to help her up, she accepting the kind gesture.

"It's not just that. That tag must also be some sort of homing beacon."

"It's. . . It's trying to get home?"

"No! The owner is trying to get their pet home! Person from another planet, wouldn't you want a bit of extra insurance that you wouldn't lose your pet?" he grins at her, she starting to think it through.

"So," She starts, a hand going through her hair, biting her lip in thought, putting the shock of him mentioning someone from another planet aside so she could think, "The owner has some sort of, we'll say button, that if they lose their pet, they can press that button and the pet will be home again," he nodding, his eyes flashing as she spoke, "But why isn't the pet home yet?" her eyes growing wide in understanding, "It's broken. That's why the pet, the Dracul isn't home, that's why it's cloaking thing is flashing back and forth. . . Why is it broken though?" she mumbles that last bit to herself, the Doctor not looking as if he paid attention to that last part, his words sounding excited.

"YES! That's why my tracking ball seemed off! Why it kept popping in and out of the screen so much! It's popping everywhere around the area in a different location every time the owner presses that button!" he takes out the tracking thing again, looking at the screen, looking as if he were seeing if it were in the general area.

"That explains why the grocery store parking lot and streets were so empty, why it seemed in shambles. I wouldn't be too keen on sticking around seeing something like that. . . Well, I wasn't, look where I am." she says as the Doctor continues to look at his device, whirling about, looking as if he were trying to get better reception like with a cell phone.

"Aha! It's about three blocks west, just popped on my screen." he starts walking, keeping an eye on his screen, Carla calling out,

"Why was it acting like that, though? Why did it seem so angry?" he stops, turning around, his mouth slightly agape as a small look of shock forms on his face.

"It must have become rabid somehow." he says softly, his hands sliding into his pockets, a thoughtful look coming to his face.

"Then we need to find it before it hurts someone." his eyebrows shoot up to his hairline as she walks to his side, she looking up at him, determination in her step.

"Could be dangerous. Sure you want to?"

"You were just going to leave me here?"

"Well. . ." his eyes wander off, not being able to look at her as a sheepish smile forms on his lips.

"Yes, I'm quite sure. I did have dogs growing up, not exactly a dog, but it seems to be around there," she blushed a bit at her rambling, the Doctor giving her a less guilty smile once again, "Maybe I could be of some help."

"Alright. Let's go, Snow." he said brightly with a grin, taking her hand once again in his, the other holding the device as they moved quickly down the alley, making their way toward the Dracul.

The beeping was becoming louder and louder as they moved closer and closer, but quite suddenly died, the Doctor's face falling dramatically.

"Oh it's gone again!" he looked around, just in case it decided to pop up again, "Looks like the waiting game it is." he mumbles, letting go of Carla's hand, leaning on the fence behind them, hands traveling into his pockets.

"Waiting isn't so bad," she says softly, leaning by him as well, her eyes focusing on a very interesting pattern in the fence across the alley, "Gives you time to think," she lifts the flap of her messenger bag, grabbing a travel sized sketchbook and mechanical pencil, turning to a page with a couple doodles already there, "Time to talk, time to sketch." she finishes, starting to sketch away, the different pattern in the fence becoming a part of her book, a bird being incorporated as it landed just above.

"You do that all the time, don't you?" Carla hears the Doctor ask, not taking her eyes away from the sketch, "Just start drawing when you see something you fancy, yeah?"

"Problem?" she continues with the sketch, a bit of a sarcastic tone to her voice as she was starting to crosshatch a wing. It was. . . good to see the Doctor again, but him having disappeared for nearly three weeks without so much as as a word given wasn't sitting with her all that well.

"No. . ." her eyes wandered over to him for a second, seeing a bit of a confused expression on his face, a glimmer of curiosity in his eye as he tried to see her book, "Just brilliant, is all." she finally looks over at him, finding a small grin on his face, she giving him a little smile of her own.

"It's good practice," she starts, eyes shifting back to the sketch, "Just sketching from different things you see, from observation. I've learned more from this than most anything, really," He stays silent, Carla imagining him giving her a nod of recognition,

"And do you do this all the time? Running after pets that look like mythical beasts?" she says with amusement in her voice, the whole thing seeming so positively absurd that she was wondering if she had gone into some sort of coma.

"More or less." she hears a grin in his voice as she's putting a few more sketch lines on the fence, being happy with what she had at the moment, her pencil going behind her ear as she studied her work to see if it needed anything else.

"Looks brilliant." she jumped slightly, the Doctor appearing right up beside her without her knowing. She looks, still seeing that smile on his face, wondering if he always held that same look.

"Thanks." she says, a blush coming to her cheeks, not used to people seeing her work in person. She closes her sketchbook, placing it back in her bag, remembering the pencil as she was about to close it up.

"What does 'more or less' entail, exactly?" she asks after a moment, hands having now gone in her coat pockets, the wind picking up slightly as they waited for their dragon like creature.

"Oh, just a little of this, little of that. Travel about, around the galaxy, around time and space. Sometimes helping others," his eyes wander about at his thoughts, his brow furrowing a bit, "Sometimes not."

"Yes, in your 'TARDIS'." she raises her eyebrows with her slight mocking tone, giving him the tiniest smirk when she sees that it got to him a teeny bit.

"Yes, my TARDIS," he says in a tad of an incredulous tone, "She's a brilliant old girl, and don't you imply otherwise."

"I agree, a box from the sixties is pretty old." Oh, he looked pissed.

"What's wrong with you? What's gotten your knickers all tied up in a knot so suddenly?" He's up and away from the fence now, standing as tall as he could, hands on hips as he's giving her an angry glare. Biting her lip, she studies him for a moment, wondering if she should continue this argument because she was hurt, or just say the obvious problem that was bothering her?

"Where were you?" she blurted out the reason before fully deciding, going about it in a quiet voice, "Nearly three weeks gone and here you are out of the blue. I know . . . I know we haven't known each other terribly long, but when you visit frequently and just, just stop without so much as a word . . . " her words drift off, not exactly knowing what else to say as she slumps slightly, looking away from the Doctor.

"Oh Carla," she looks back toward the Doctor as she feels his hand taking hold of hers carefully, finding his face quite close with a concerned expression, "I wasn't exactly myself in the time I was gone," he says, taking his hand back and running it through his hair, leaning on the fence once again, looking as if he didn't know how or what to explain.

Before he could though, another gust of wind went through the little alleyway, it being quite the disturbance for how much of a gust it was, the end result of said gust being that the Dracul had appeared once more, right around the corner of the fence they were leaning on.

Both getting the same idea, they shrunk back, peeking just around the corner, the Doctor quite a bit above the short woman, Carla thinking it probably resembled an old cartoon where five or more characters would be stacked up against a door frame peeking about.

"What now?" she asks, watching as the animal went slowly about, Carla seeing something not looking quite right in it's movements.

"We have to stop it, but the question is, how?" He said in a hushed tone, they slinking back to their hiding spot, leaning against the fence, both letting out a simultaneous breath they hadn't realized they were holding.

What seemed an incredible amount of time of the Doctor twiddling his fingers all around, gesturing wildly as Carla could see his thinking power straining his face; he snapped his fingers, a grin appearing wide and bright, she knowing instantly that he knew what to do.

Reaching into his inner coat pocket, he pulls out a different object other than his tracking device. A slim, blue headed gadget. It just sort of looked like a fat pen, really.

"What, are you going to write it a note?" she couldn't help but run with the pen idea.

"What? No! It's a sonic screwdriver," he wasn't looking at her, his eyes focused immensely on the screwdriver, fiddling with the contraption, pressing a button, an odd whirring sound emitting from it as he did, "We need to take the dracul down."

"And you're going to take it down with a blinking screwdriver?"

"It's sonic, Ms. Sassy trousers," She couldn't help but giggle at the supposed insult, "And yes I am." He gives her a grin of 'you dare doubt me?', going back to fiddle with the thing, his eyebrows waggling as it seemed to be ready.

"What I'm going to do," he starts, edging back to the corner of the fence, she doing so as well, peeking out at the creature, it looking confused as it wandered about the small alleyway, grunting out smoke every now and again as the flashing back and forth of a dog and unrecognizable beast was looking more frequent than their last encounter. Something about it's movement still didn't seem quite right, "I'm going to point my sonic at it's tag, hopefully having have found the right frequency with the transporter in it, creating a wave that only it will be able to hear, knocking it out cold. Then, we can examine it more closely." they duck back behind their corner, he giving her another grin, this one filled with 'am I smart or what?'

"Will it hurt it?" yes, it may have been a scary beast like dragon and could possibly be rabid. Though, did it really mean they should hurt the thing?

His eyes become slightly wide, a look of trepidation forming lightly within those orbs, "Well," that 'well' sauntering out in a long drawl, his eyes moving somewhat back and forth as he thought, "I . . . If I found the right frequency and it's a clear shot. . . I don't know." he says quietly, his look of unsureness quickly forming into one of determination, "But I have to do this, Carla. It could or may even have already harmed someone. I have to stop it whether it harms the dracul or not."

She didn't shake her head yes or no, she just looked away, not wanting to see the beast being hurt, even if it was uncertain. She didn't want to take that chance.

"I'm sorry, Carla. It has to be done." he says again, it sounding as if he was convincing himself of the deed at hand and not just assuring the short woman that stood near him.

Sneaking a look around the corner again; the Doctor aims his screwdriver at the animal, he not taking the shot yet as it was turned around.

"Turn around, turn around..." he murmured to himself in a chant, his stance ready to shoot, his attention fully on the dracul.

Though, the Minnesotan's eyes were fixed on it too, studying it as all the Doctor's attention was directed at trying to get a clear shot of it's tag. That's when Carla noticed why it's movement looked off.

"Doctor," she said softly, he not seeming to hear her right away, "Doctor?" She said a touch louder, needing to get his attention, he furrowing his eyebrows in response.

"Doctor." she yawps as she places a hand on his arm to gain his attention.

"Not now. If I don't lock on the tag, it will hurt the dracul-

"But, Doctor!" She interrupts, her grasp on his arm becoming the slightest bit tighter. He shakes her hand off, not aggressively, not saying another word as the dracul started to slowly turn around.

That's when it happened.

Just as the dracul turned around to face them; Carla took a hold of the Doctor's arm that was aiming, thanking whatever was above that his attentiveness was full force on the pet, that he wasn't especially focused on his footing. Pushing upward on his arm strongly, feeling a smidgen of a strain on her catheter site, he topples backward. Falling flat on his bottom, a terribly surprised look washing over his face as he fell.

She quickly makes her way around the corner, hearing the Doctor call out, not catching what he was saying, the pet spotting her right off the bat, making her halt right in her tracks, a growl and smoke billowing from it's flashing mouth.

With determination in her step; she started her way slowly toward the pet, the dracul continuing it's growling, but not making a move towards her. She was terribly thankful so far.

She was chanting in a very low, calming voice (if a tad trembling) as she was nearing her target, "It's alright. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. . ." The dracul's eyes not leaving her for a second, taking a couple steps toward her as it growled, as Carla kept on her slow, careful path.

And without really knowing how she did it; she was there. Right before the flashing creature, studying it's movement and form, seeing the ridges of it's snout when it'd flash to the dracul, the soft muzzle of it's dog form when it'd flash back. It was quite the sight.

Carefully, she slowly dropped to her knees, keeping her eyes forward, not leaving it's for a second. She reached out her hand, leaving it there right near it's mouth, her comforting chant still flowing from her lips, "It's okay, it's fine. You're safe. . ."

The pet gave Carla's hand a sniff and then another, it's piercing eyes eying her warily to the extreme for such a long moment as she waited fearfully with bated breath. . .


And there be chapter nine, arrrr! :D

And I know, I'm sorry, I'M SO SORRY for leaving it on another cliffhanger. D: It was getting long and the next part seemed better in another chapter. :) So there's that explanation.

Cetacea-of-Time - There's your update. ;D

Even Angels Cry - Well, I am extremely flattered that you squealed over a new chapter. :D Though I'm sorry you got some looks. O.O I heart you. ;D Thanks so much for the continued reviews and the kind words. They're brilliant (and so are you!). :D

Disney-Princess-In-Disguise - Yeah, I probably would have responded the same way too. XD Thanks so much for the review, and I'm glad you like her! :D

Well, there you be, my darlings. Next chapter will conclude the story of the dracul. :D Until then, have a lovely time! Cheerio, my honeys!