1x10 "The Doctor Dances"
The gas mask 'children' surrounded us. The Doctor and Jack stood protectively in front of me as I clutched their hands. The Doctor released my hand and took a step forward. "Go to your room," he said as though speaking to a disobedient child. "Go to your room!" The gas mask 'children' tilter their heads to the side. "I mean it! I am very, very angry with you. I am very, VERY cross! Go - to - your - ROOM!" He pointed violently in no particular direction. All the gas mask 'children' turned and climbed back in their beds. The Doctor sighed with relief as he turned to us, "I'm really glad that worked. Those would've been TERRIBLE last words."
I laughed and said sarcastically, "Your wonderful with children Doctor." I moved from behind Jack, patting his arm as I passed, and sat on the table in the middle of the room. Jack settled down in the chair beside me. "So the gas masks, they're stuck on right?" I asked.
"Not just stuck on," Jack said. "They're not. Those masks are flesh and bone." I shivered a little grossed out about the idea.
"How was your con supposed to work?" the Doctor asked Jack.
"Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space-junk... let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth. Convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put 50% up front - oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for. Never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."
I slapped Jack upside the head as the Doctor rolled his eyes saying, "Yeah. Perfect."
Jack gave me a look before continuing, "The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners - Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day." He laughed at his own joke and I shivered. My mind went to a Doctor Who episode and my eyes met the Doctor's. I looked away quickly, who was I to tell him what happens then. Its one choice, a fixed point in time even with the knowledge I held he was going to do everything needed to keep the timeline the same. The Doctor gave Jack a look and the Time Agent's laughter died. "Getting a hint of disapproval."
The Doctor gestured around the room, "Take a look around the room. This is what your 'harmless piece of space-junk' did."
"It was a burnt-out medical transporter - it was empty," Jack said. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself after seeing the damage first hand.
The Doctor began to walk off and I stared at him a moment. "Faline," he said. I stood from the table and made my way over to him.
"And where are we going?" I asked, following my Doctor blindly. Every companion has done it, following him where they would never dream of going even if it was to the end of the universe.
"We're going upstairs," he said.
I nodded as I saw Jack stand from his seat and call after the Doctor. "I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living - I harmed no-one! I don't know what's happening here, but believe me - I had nothing to do with it."
"I'll tell you what's happening. You forgot to set your alarm clock," the Doctor said. "It's volcano day."
A siren went off in the distance causing me to jump with a squeak. Both turned to me with their own version of an amused look. "What's that?" I asked.
"The all-clear," Jack explained.
The Doctor gave Jack another look and said, "I wish." He then left the 'Medical Ward' with Jack and I following close behind.
"Mr. Spock?" Jack called.
"Doctor?" I echoed. We rushed past a flight of stairs where the Doctor popped his head around the banister. "Have you got a blaster?"
Jack and I slid to a halt and went back to the staircase. "Sure!" Jack said.
We ran up the stairs and down a hall, finding ourselves outside a door. "The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken."
I frowned, "And what happened to them?"
"Let's find out." The Doctor turned to Jack, "Get it open."
Jack grinned and pulled out the blaster, pointing it to the door with childlike glee. The Doctor moved to stand beside me and I laughed softly, "You are so envious of Jack's toy."
The Doctor gave me a look as Jack's blaster cut a perfect square hole around the lock of the door, causing it to squeak open. "Sonic blaster, 51st century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?"
Jack turned to the Doctor slightly surprised, "You've been to the factories?"
Taking the blaster from Jack he said, "Once."
"Well, they gone now. Destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."
The Doctor gave the blaster back, "Like I said - once. There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good."
I laughed and the Doctor turned back to me, "You so caused that to happen." I scrunched my nose. "Never take me there. I hate bananas." I turned and enter the room before Jack or the Doctor. "Nice blaster Captain," I said almost absently. I felt to my left and flicked on the light switch. The room looked as though it had been vandalized. The window was broken and there was paper and video rolls all over the floor.
"What d'you think?" the Doctor asked after we all took a long look at the room.
"SOMETHING got out of here..." Jack said.
"Yeah. And?"
"Something powerful. Angry."
"Powerful and angry," the Doctor said repeating Jack.
Jack entered a room off to the side, where the glass window had been broken separated. The floors and walls were covered with a child's drawings. There were a few toys on the floor and a little bed in the corner. I followed Jack inside as he spoke, "A child? I suppose this explains 'mummy'."
There was a slight pause before the Doctor set off one of the tapes. A doctor was speaking to the gas mask child. Do you know where you are? The doctor on the tape asked.
Are you my mummy?
Are you aware of what's around you? Can you... see?
Are you my mummy?
What do you want? Do you know—the doctor on the tape was cut off as the gas mask child began to throw a tantrum.
I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? I looked at the drawings I was stepping on. I bent down and picked one up. It was a picture of the gas mask child's mother. I looked to the other drawings, all of them were of the gas mask child's mother. Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?
I looked to the Doctor through the broken glass window, "This was the little boy that I followed to the roof." The Doctor nodded.
Mummy?
"He doesn't know who his mother is," I told him.
Mummy?
After a moment I heard the sound of the reels of the tape spin as the tape ended. Yet the gas mask child's voice continued, "Mummy? Please, mummy? Mummy?"
The Doctor paced around the room. "Can you sense it?" he asked us.
"Sense what?" Jack asked.
"Coming out of the walls, can you feel it?"
I flinched when I heard the gas mask child again, "Mummy?"
The Doctor stopped pacing and turned to Jack and I. "Funny little human brains, how do you get around in those things?"
I turned to Jack, "When he's stressed he likes to insult species. Particularly humans, because we do everything wrong." I rolled my eyes.
The Doctor had returned to pacing as I spoke. "Faline, I'm thinking." I stuck my tongue out at him. "There are these children living rough around the bomb site. They come out during air-raids looking for food."
"Mummy, please?" the gas mask child said.
"Suppose they were there when this thing - whatever it was - landed?" the Doctor theorized. Though I suppose with the Doctor being as brilliant as he is, it really isn't that much of a theory.
"It was a med-ship. It was harmless." Jack said.
I rolled my eyes, "You crashed it to the Earth. How do you know that someone wasn't hurt?"
The Doctor nodded, "And suppose one was there to get hurt. Suppose one of them was affected - altered?"
"I'm here!" the gas mask child said in almost glee.
"It's afraid. Terribly afraid, and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do." The Doctor gave a small laugh. "It's got the power of a god, and I just sent it to its room."
"I'm here. Can't you see me?" the gas mask child asked. I finally looked to him, not having to guts to do so before.
"The tape ended. It ran out about 30 seconds ago." The Doctor said.
"I'm here, now. Can't you see me?" the gas mask child said.
I took the Doctor's hand as he said, "I sent it to it's room. THIS is its room." He spun around to face the gas mask child.
"Are you my mummy?" he asked. He cocked his head to the side, looking directly at me. "Mummy?"
I shook my head. "Doctor," I said softly tugging at his hand.
"Okay..." Jack said. "On my signal... make for the door. NOW!" He violently pulled out his blaster and pointed it threateningly at the child, only to see that the blaster had been replaced by a banana.
The Doctor grinned and used his spare hand to produce Jack's blaster. He blasted a square hole in the wall and said, "Go! Now! Don't drop the banana!" He then pulled me with him through the hole.
"Why not?" Jack asked as he followed us.
"Good source of potassium!" the Doctor joked.
The three of us were back in the corridor with the gas mask child approaching us from inside the room. Jack grabbed his sonic blaster from the Doctor, "Give me that!"
"Are you my mummy?" the gas mask child asked.
Jack pointed the blaster at the wall and it rebuilt itself, blocking the gas mask child from getting through the wall to us. "Digital rewind," Jack said tossing the banana back to the Doctor. "Nice switch."
"It's from the Groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate." The Doctor said with a smile.
"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?"
The Doctor gave a slight shrug, "Bananas are good."
The gas mask child caused a crack in our side of the wall as he tried to break through. "Doctor," I said tightening my grip on his hand.
"Come on!" the Doctor tugged me along as we ran down a short flight od stairs and down another corridor. We turned only to see all the other gas mask 'children' bursting out of the Medical Ward calling 'mummy'. We turned back only to be trapped by another wall of gas mask 'children'. We ran back up the stairs and ended up trapped back where we started with gas mask 'children' on both sides. I stood between the two, sandwiched between the two people in the Doctor's world that I trusted the most.
"It's keeping us here so it can get at us," the Doctor said.
Jack pointed the blaster in one direction before turning it in another. He continued going back and forth. "It's controlling them?"
"It IS them. It's every living thing in this hospital," the Doctor explained.
"Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?"
The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver. Jack didn't notice, being too busy pointing his blaster to the gas mask 'children' on his side. "A sonic, er... oh, never mind."
"What?"
The Doctor turned to face the other group of gas mask 'children', switching on his sonic screwdriver. "It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."
"Disrupter? Cannon? What?"
"It's sonic!" the Doctor began to yell. "Totally sonic! I am sonic-ed up!"
"A sonic WHAT?" Jack yelled back.
"SCREWDRIVER!" the Doctor yelled. Jack spun around.
At that moment, the original gas mask child finally managed to punch through the wall. He began to climb through the hole. My eyes widened and I grabbed Jack's wrist and forced him to point his sonic blaster at the floor. "Going down!" I said blasting a hole in the floor. We all fell in a messy heap on the floor of another room below. I gasped in pain, clutching my stomach where Jack he elbowed me painfully. My legs landed over the Doctor's waist and my head on Jack's shoulder, after he had elbowed me of course. Jack quickly took the blaster from me and activated the digital rewind, closing the hole above us. "You both alright?" I asked.
"Could've used a warning...!" the Doctor grumbled as I slowly moved off of him.
"Oh shut up," I grumbled as I stood with the help of Jack.
Jack gave the Doctor a look as he asked, "Who has a sonic screwdriver?"
"I do!" the Doctor said. I rolled my eyes and walked towards the wall trying to find a light switch.
"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks "oohoo, this could be a little more sonic"?" Jack said.
"What, you've never been bored?" the Doctor said. I ran my hands along the wall, trying to find the switch. "Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"
My hand caught the switch and flipped it upwards. I turned only to see a room full of gas mask 'children' sitting up in their beds and calling out 'mummy'. "Fuck," I muttered.
"Door," Jack said. We all rushed to the door as the gas mask 'children' began getting out of bed. Jack jiggled the door only to find it locked. He pulled out his sonic blaster and pulled the trigger, only to find that it wouldn't work. "Damn it!" Jack growled. He stepped back and the Doctor took his place, using the sonic screwdriver to open the door. Jack hit the blaster angrily. "It's the special features, they really drain the battery."
I gave Jack a look, "Seriously?" The Doctor opened the door and we all ran through, me pushing it closed as I passed. We ran down a corridor, blindly following the Doctor. The Doctor led us to a room, slamming the doors shut behind us and locking them with his sonic screwdriver. I looked around the room quickly, seeing that we were in a storage room / break room.
Jack ran to the window, "I was gonna send for another one, but SOMEBODY'S gonna blow up the factory." He glared at the Doctor.
I shrugged, "The first time I met him was right after he had blown up my friends work. Its basically how he communicates."
"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit," the Doctor said coming up beside me.
"The door? The WALL didn't stop it!" Jack growled.
"Well, it's gotta FIND us first! Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"
"Well, I've got a banana, and at a pinch you could put up some shelves."
The Doctor made his way to the window, "Window—"
"Barred, sheer drop outside. Seven stories."
I sighed, "And clearly no other exits unless we plan on having our faces turned to gas masks."
Jack sat down in a very comfortable looking chair, "Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?"
The Doctor turned from the window and eyes Jack for a long moment. He then turned his attention to me. "So, where'd you pick this one up, then?"
"Not the time Doctor," I said warningly.
"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship." Jack smiled at me. "I never stood a CHANCE." I bit my lip and looked away, not wanting to think about being up in the air.
"Okay, one, we want to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?" the Doctor asked.
I turned to Jack only to see that he wasn't there anymore. "Ya. Jack's gone." The Doctor spun around to confirm what I had said. His eyes widened when he saw that I was telling the truth and that the Time Agent had disappeared. We were quiet for a long while before the Doctor sat down in the chair Jack had vacated. I watched him for a moment before walking to him and placing my hand on his shoulder. "Alright, so he left us here." I smirked at him, "Why do the great ones always do that?"
The Doctor gave me a look, "I'm making an effort not to be insulted."
I laughed, "Good, because I was joking."
"Okay. Thanks. That really helped," the Doctor said.
An old radio sprang to life causing me to jump as Jack's voice transmitted through, "Faline? Doctor? Can you hear me?" We both hurried over to the radio, the Doctor picking it up. "I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you." The Doctor turned the radio over only to see that the wires had been ripped out of the radio. "It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it - hang in there."
"How're you speaking to us?" the Doctor asked.
"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grille."
"Now there's a coincidence," the Doctor said, mostly to himself.
"What is?"
"The Child can Om-Com too."
I frowned, "He can?"
The Doctor nodded, "Anything with a speaker grille. Even the TARDIS phone."
"So he can call us?" I asked.
Through the radio the gas mask child spoke, "And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to fiiiiind you." I grabbed the Doctor's arm.
"Doctor, can you hear that?" Jack asked.
The Doctor nodded, "Loud and clear."
"I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do."
"Coming to find you, mummy!" the gas mask child said. I flinched and released the Doctor's arm, backing away from the radio. I was terrified that the gas mask child would somehow be able to harm us through the radio. I shook my head, no he cant. But that doesn't mean it was any less terrifying to even think of the idea and know that, had this been another alien encounter, it could be entirely possible.
"Remember this one, Faline?" Jack asked.
I smiled as Gleen Miller's 'Moonlight Serenade' began to play through the radio. The Doctor turned to me curiously. "Our song," I said, not at all embarrassed. I knew how I felt about Jack, and so did he. I frowned when I saw the Doctor turn away, clearly not liking it. I suppose he didn't know how I felt about Jack. "Doctor," I said softly. "You know who Jack is… right?"
The Doctor turned to me, "No."
"He's the one that kept texting me, the friend I couldn't tell you about." I sucked on my lip ring. "Well, not this Jack of course. But later on in his life he'll be my Jack, our Jack."
"Our Jack?" the Doctor questioned.
I smiled, "He grows on everyone." I made my way to the chair that the Doctor had vacated. I kept to myself for a long while, using the time to check things on my phone, seeing that strangely enough I had internet service, but then that was probably because of the Doctor using his 'jiggery pokery' on my phone. I looked up at the Doctor, after hearing the constant hum of his sonic screwdriver for the past few minutes. "What you doing?"
The Doctor was holding his sonic screwdriver up against the wall near the window. "Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete. Loosen the bars."
I sighed softly, "You don't believe Jack's coming back, do you?"
"Wouldn't bet my life," he said.
"Why don't you trust him?" I asked.
The Doctor countered with, "Why do you?"
I shrugged, "I don't trust this Jack as much as I trust him in the future. But this version did save me from plummeting to my death." The Doctor was silent. "Also trust him because, other than the fact that he's willing to kill and you avoid it at all coasts, you two are the same. … well that and the fact that Jack dates and dances." The Doctor shot me a look. "What?"
"You just assume I'm..." he trailed off.
I smiled, "What?"
"You just assume that I don't... dance." The Doctor sounded like I had just told him I knew whether or not he wore boxers or briefs.
I giggled, "So your telling me you do dance?" I knew he could dance, but I also knew that he just couldn't dance all that well. Well, at least his eleventh regeneration couldn't dance.
"Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume that at some point I've DANCED."
My smile grew, "You?"
"Problem?"
I shrugged, "I don't know. Doesn't the universe implode or … cease existing if you were to dance?"
The Doctor then off-handedly said, "Well, I've got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast."
I stood from the chair and turned up the music on the radio. I turned to the Doctor with a smile. He looked around, completely shocked that I was doing what he thought I was doing. I made my way to the Doctor, holding my hand out as he backed himself against the wall. "You say you can dance. Show me."
The Doctor brushed it off saying, "Faline, I'm trying to resonate concrete."
"Doctor, Jack is coming to get us. So come on, nothing bad is going to happen if the Doctor dances."
The Doctor turned off his sonic screwdriver, replaced it in his jacket pocket, and stepped away from the window towards me with an odd expression on his face. He stood in front of me for a moment, completely confused as to what he was supposed to do. The Doctor took my hands and I watched his face closely. He turned my hands over and asked, "Barrage balloon?"
I nodded, "Ya. I told you about it."
"You were handing from a barrage balloon," the Doctor repeated.
"Yes," I said slowly. He looked back at my hands, "Doctor what's wrong?"
"Hanging from a rope a thousand feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise," he showed me my own hands.
I nodded, "Well Captain Jack kind of, fixed it."
"Oh, we're calling him 'Captain Jack' now, are we?"
I smiled, "He's Jack and he's a captain …"
The Doctor smiled in a self-satisfied sort of way. "He's not really a captain, Faline."
I frowned, "Well I know that. Just like you aren't really a Doctor." I smiled at the shocked look on his face. "I think your just jealous that Jack has the word 'Captain' before his name." I knew very well that 'Jack' wasn't even his real name, but rather the name he had taken from a Captain during a World War. I'm pretty sure it was this war too. The Doctor gave a half nod, not denying it. He took my hands and we began to slow dance. "Good, you found your feet."
The Doctor stood rather close to me which I suddenly noticed causing me to nervously bite on my lip ring. "If ever he was a captain, he's been defrocked."
I smiled, "Kind of a shame I missed that."
"Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock," Jack said. The Doctor and I looked up in surprise only to see that we were standing in the middle of Jack's ship. The Doctor moved away from me looking at his surroundings, "Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."
"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is."
Jack smirked, "Oh, I do. She was gorgeous." I smiled. "Like I told Faline - be back in five minutes." He ducked into a compartment underneath the console.
The Doctor looked around, "This is a Chula ship."
"Yeah," Jack called up, "just like that medical transporter. Only, this one is dangerous."
The Doctor snapped his fingers and his hand was instantly surrounded by nanogenes. "That's what Jack used to fix my hands. He called them 'nanogenes'."
"Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed - all better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws." I smiled and the Doctor banished the nanogenes with a wave of his hand before turning to Jack. "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk."
Jack acted as though he were being nagged, "As soon as I get the nav-com back online." I smiled at the annoyed look that crossed the Doctor's face. "Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were..." he gestured to the two of us, "... doing."
"We were talking about dancing!" the Doctor said innocently.
"It didn't look like talking," Jack said.
I shrugged, "Wasn't much dancing." The Doctor turned to me. "I can't wait until your Eleven. You can dance then, albeit it looks like someone is slowly killing you, it was better than now."
-x-x-x-
I sat next to Jack, as he sat in his pilot seat. The Doctor sat some ways behind me, not taking part in my conversation with Jack. "So, you used to be a Time Agent, and now you're trying to con them. Why?"
Jack fiddled with the controls, "If it makes me sound any better, its not for the money."
"Then why?"
Jack shrugged, "Woke up one day when I was working for them - found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back."
My eyes widened as I stared at him in shock, "They stole your memories?"
"Two years of my life. No idea what I did," Jack paused. "Your friend over there doesn't trust me. And for all I know... he's right not to." The computer beeped. "Okay, we're good to go." I glanced at the Doctor only to see him look up in surprise. "Crash site?"
-x-x-x-
The Doctor, Jack, and I walked over the rail station near the bombsite. My hand was wrapped tightly in the Doctor's hand. Even though he thought that I was falling for Jack, which the Captain and I had agreed would be weird, the Doctor still offered me his hand for comfort and strength. We peered over the barbed wire. "There it is," Jack said. His eyes followed a soldier that paced up and down the line. "Ay, they've got Algy on duty. Must be important."
"We've gotta get past," the Doctor said.
I turned to Jack and smiled. I bumped my hip against his, "Go have fun Jack."
Jack nodded, "I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. I'll distract him." He walked away. "Don't wait up."
As he left the Doctor turned to me noticing me fidget, "Relax, he's a 51st century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing."
I smiled, "Oh, I know." I snickered. "From the show he was on, which is a bit more … dance filled than yours. Jack is normally the one doing the dancing."
The Doctor chuckled, "So many species, so little time …"
I laughed. "Very true. Well for Jack and his 51st century buddies."
The Doctor and I turned our attention on Jack, watching as he jumped down onto the rail track on the bomb site. Jack made his way to Algy, "Hey, tiger! How's it hanging?"
Algy turned to Jack looking inquisitive, "Mummy?"
"Algy, old sport, it's me."
"Mummy?" Algy asked.
Jack's smile faded. "Its me, Jack."
"Jack?" Alg cocked his head to one side, observing Jack with a child-like curiosity. "Are you my mummu?" He coughed, falling to his knees. Before our very eyes Algy's face began to transform into a gas mask. The other soldiers began to hurry over.
"Stay back!" the Doctor yelled.
Jack turned to the soldiers, "You men! Stay back!"
The Doctor and I rushed over to Jack and Algy. Algy lay on the floor, lifeless. "The effect's become air-borne." The Doctor said. "Accelerating."
"What's keeping us safe?" I asked.
"Nothing," the Doctor said.
The air-raid siren began to sound. Jack looked up saying, "Ah, here they come again."
I bit my lip ring, "Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?"
Jack nodded as singing began to fill the background. The Doctor shook his head, "Never mind about that. If the contaminants air-borne now, there's hours left."
"For what?" Jack asked.
"'Til nothing. 'Til forever. For the entire human race," the Doctor paused. "And can anyone else hear singing?"
I nodded and pointed to a shed. "Over there Doctor."
I followed the Doctor to the shed, the singing getting clearer. "Rock-a-by baby, on the tree tops, when the wind blows the cradle will rock...When the bough breaks the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all." The Doctor motioned me to stay where I was as he poked his head inside the shed. He made a motion before entering and the singing continued from its short pause. "Rock-a-by baby on the tree tops, when the wind blows the cradle will rock..." I waited a moment before standing in the doorway, Jack right beside me. We watched the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on the handcuffs that kept the young woman from leaving. The handcuffs snapped open and she stood. We all left the shed, letting one of the gas mask 'children' sleep.
The Doctor led us over to the bomb site. The Doctor and Jack went forward and uncovered the Chula med-ship while the nameless young woman and I watched. I may not remember her name, I was terrible at them, but I knew that she was connected to the original gas mask child. "You see?" Jack said. "Just an ambulance."
The young woman frowned, "That's an ambulance?"
I nodded as she turned to me for the answer, "Ya. Its kind of from another world." I held my hand out to her, "I'm Faline, by the way."
She shook my hand in return, "Nancy."
I nodded and turned my attention back to Jack as he spoke while looking at the controls of the Chula med-ship. "They've been trying to get in."
I rolled my eyes while the Doctor said, "Of course they have." Jack began to fiddle with the controls, I hoped he knew what he was doing. "They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon. What're you doing?"
"Well, the sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll see I had nothing to do with it." The controls exploded with sparks and we all jumped backwards. An alarm began to sound from the chip. "Didn't happen last time."
The Doctor gave him a look, "It hadn't crashed last time. They're the emergency protocols." A red light on the control panel began to flash.
A noise drew my attention to the Doctor, I looked towards the gates and saw that they were shaking. "Doctor!" I cried. He turned his attention to me and then to the gates.
"Captain, secure those gates!" the Doctor cried.
"Why?" Jack asked.
"Jack!" I shouted. "Just do it!" The Captain nodded and obeyed.
The Doctor turned to Nancy and asked, "Nancy, how'd you get in here?"
"I cut the wire," she said.
"Show Faline," he commanded. The Doctor tossed me his sonic screwdriver. I silently mused for a moment about how it was much lighter than I thought it would be. "Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty eight D." I frowned. "Reattaches barbed wire. Go!"
I turned and raced after Nancy, following her to the point where she had cut the wires to gain entrance. I quickly set the sonic screwdriver, surprised it worked but then remembered that it was part of the TARDIS and the TARDIS was psychic. Nancy held the wires while I used the sonic screwdriver to fuse them together. When we finished with one we quickly moved to the other. It was silent between us for a few long moments before Nancy asked, "Who are you? Who are any of you?"
I laughed softly, "I don't think you'd believe me."
"You just told me that was an ambulance from another world. There are people running around with gas-mask heads calling for their mummies, and the sky's full of Germans dropping bombs on me. Tell me. Do you think there's anything left I couldn't believe?"
I sucked on my lip ring a moment before saying, "We're time travellers from the future."
"Mad, you are." Nancy said.
I shook my head, "I'm serious. We have a time machine."
"It's not that. All right - you've got a time travel machine. I believe ya. Believe anything, me." She looked up at the sky. "But what future?"
I followed her gaze, seeing the darkness in this war come to life. There were explosions in mid-air. Planes soared around, dropping bombs. "Nancy, I know how horrible this all looks. But this isn't the end. I've seen the end, this is most definitely not it."
Nancy frowned, "How can you say that? LOOK at it."
I nodded, "I know. War is a dirty, nasty, horrible thing to go through. And cant even begin to understand what you've been through Nancy. But, I'm from over 50 years in the future. I may not be from London, but I've been here."
"Been here?" she asked.
I smiled, "Yes. It's beautiful." She still looked unconvinced. "Don't tell the Doctor I told you," I said to her. "But the Germans don't get to London." I pointed to the planes. "That is as far as they will ever get to taking London." I nudged her shoulder. "You Brits are tough. You win."
"We win?" Nancy asked in disbelief.
I nodded and Nancy half laughed, finding this unbelievably good news. I stood from my crouch, noticing that we had gone through all the wire. "Come on!" Nancy stood with me and we made our way back to the Doctor and Jack.
As the two of us walked up we saw Jack opening the hatch to the Chula med-ship and listened to him speak to the Doctor, "Its empty. Look at it."
"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops?" The Doctor turned to me. "Faline?"
I smiled and handed the Doctor his sonic screwdriver, "Nanogenes."
The Doctor gave me a smile as he took the screwdriver before he wiped the smile from his face as he turned to Jack, "It wasn't empty, Captain. There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."
Jack looked completely shaken as he began to understand, "Oh, god."
"Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night and wearing a gasmask."
I shivered and asked, "They can bring the dead back to life?"
"What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though - these nanogenes - they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like." We all listened to the Doctor as he explained everything to us. "All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do, they patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly - off they go, work to be done. 'Cos you see NOW they THINK they know what people should look like and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire Human Race is gonna be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and NOTHING in the world can stop it!" By the end his voice had risen to almost a shout.
Jack looked shaken as he said defiantly, "I didn't know."
The Doctor gave Jack a cold stare for a few seconds and then went back to examining the med-ship, starting work with his sonic screwdriver. "Faline?" I heard Nancy ask, terror in her voice.
I moved to the young woman, following her gaze. Gas mask 'children' stumbled towards us over the rail-track. They were quiet a distance away, but still too close for comfort. I turned and ran back to the Chula med-ship, looking at the flashing red light on the control panel. "It's calling them, isn't it?" I asked the Doctor.
"The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol," he said.
"But they aren't troops," I said with a frown.
"They are now. This is a battle-field ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up - they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you."
I nodded, "So that's why the Child is so strong. Why he could call us through the radio like Jack."
"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes. All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old - looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them."
The gas mask 'children' surrounded the fence. The four of us looked around nervously. "Why don't they attack?" Jack asked.
"Good little soldiers. Waiting for their commander," the Doctor answered.
"The child?" Jack asked.
"Jamie," Nancy said firmly.
"What?"
Nancy glared at him, "Not 'the child'. Jamie."
The Doctor looked at her while I took her hand. "How much longer until the bomb falls?" I asked Jack.
"Any second," Jack said worriedly.
"What's the matter, Captain? Bit close to the volcano for you?" the Doctor asked.
"He's just a little boy," Nancy said.
The Doctor turned to her and nodded, "I know."
Nancy looked close to tears as she said, "He's just a little boy who wants him mummy."
"I know," the Doctor said. "There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can."
"What can we do Doctor?" I asked softly.
"I don't know," he admitted.
I nodded as tears welled in Nancy's eyes. "It's my fault."
I turned to her, "No it's not."
"It is. It's all my fault," she protested.
I turned Nancy around and gripped her shoulders, "No. It's not." I said firmly. "If I was in the same situation, I would have done the same as you Nancy." Her eyes widened for a fraction of a second. I nodded, "Yes Nancy. I know."
I glanced past her at the Doctor who began to piece everything together. He spun around, looking at all the gas mask 'children' positioned behind the fence, calling for their mummy, and then back at Nancy who had begun to sob uncontrollably. I wrapped my arms around her in a quick hug. The Doctor asked, "Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty-one? Older than you look, yes?"
A bomb landed nearby and I flinched but didn't move from my place. "Doctor, that bomb. We've got seconds." Another landed.
I turned to Jack, "You can teleport us out."
Jack shook his head, "Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Gonna take too long to override the protocols."
The Doctor spoke with his eyes never leaving Nancy, "So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do."
I frowned, looking at Jack with betrayal. I knew him in the future that he wasn't like this. But it hurt knowing that he didn't know me and he was nothing like I knew. I now understand how River Song felt when the Doctor met her for the first time. Jack walked up to me, kissing me on the top of my head in a brotherly sort of way before moving away and making his decision. He teleported himself out.
The Doctor turned his attention to Nancy, "How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway." Nancy, still sobbing, glanced up at him and then away, shame written across her face. "He's not your brother, is he?" Nancy shook her head. "A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied." Nancy nodded, tears streaming down her face. "You even lied to him."
The gates swung open and the original gas mask child, Jamie, stood at the forefront of the army of gas mask 'children', ready to charge. "Are you my mummy?" he asked.
I took Nancy's hand and told her softly, "He'll only keep asking. And after what he's been through, he deserves the truth." Nancy sobbed.
Gas mask Jamie made his way to us, "Are you my mummy?" I gave Nancy a small push in the direction of her son. "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"
"Yes," Nancy whispered. She paused before her voice grew stronger, "Yes. I am your mummy." She faced gas mask Jamie as he began to slowly walk forward.
"Mummy?" he asked.
"I'm here."
"Are you my mummy?"
Nancy knelt before him, "I'm here."
"Are you my mummy?"
"Yes," she whispered.
The Doctor stood by my side and said to me softly, "He doesn't understand. There's not enough of him left."
I shook my head, "He understands."
Nancy looked at her little boy, tears in her eyes. "I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry." She took him into her arms, no longer caring what would happen. The nanogenes surrounded them, making them glow with a golden light. "I am so, so sorry." Nancy began to stroke her son's hair with a small smile.
The Doctor stared intently at the two of them surrounded by the nanogenes. He was both apprehensive and excited, "Come on, please. Come on, you CLEVER little nanogenes - figure it out! The mother. She's the mother! There's gotta be enough information, figure it out!" I grabbed his arm but didn't say anything. Nancy fell away from gas mask Jamie to the ground, as the nanogenes disappeared. The Doctor and I rushed over. The Doctor stared down at the child, hardly daring to hope. " Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." He reached out to the gas mask and removed it, revealing a perfectly ordinary, very sweet little boy underneath. Nancy stared in delighted wonder and the Doctor laughed ecstatically. He lifted the boy into the air, swinging him around. "Ah-ha-ha! Welcome back! Twenty years 'til pop music - you're gonna love it." He hugged Jamie, laughed.
"What happened?" Nancy asked in wonder.
I smiled and said softly, "The Doctor got his one day, where nobody dies."
The Doctor began to explain in more detail, "The nanogenes recognised the superior information - the parent DNA. They didn't change YOU because YOU changed them! Haha!" He placed Jamie down in front of her. "Mother knows best!"
"Jamie!" Nancy said, almost crying with happiness.
A bomb landed nearby causing me to flinch, "Doctor…" I said worriedly.
"Taken care of!" he said.
I frowned, not really remembering how they dealt with the bomb. "How?"
The Doctor gestured to Nancy and Jamie saying, "Psychology!"
The bomb plummeted towards us, but is suddenly snatched out of the air by the same blue force field that had saved my life. A moment later, Jack appeared hovering in the tunnel of light. He called down to us, "Doctor!"
"Good lad!" the Doctor returned.
"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis but it won't last long."
"Change of plan - don't need the bomb," the Doctor said. "Can you get rid of it? Safely as you can?"
"Faline?" Jack said.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Goodbye," he said.
I laughed, "It's not goodbye Jack. I know its not." Jack disappeared and his ship zoomed off into the night sky. The Doctor walked a few paces away, staring intently at his hands. He summoned the nanogenes and they fluttered around his hands. I smiled, "Doctor."
Through I didn't say his name as a question he took it as one and explained, "Software patch. Gonna email the upgrade. You want moves, Faline? I'll give you moves." He threw the nanogenes away from him, towards the gas mask 'children' who were still standing around on the train track. The Doctor gave his widest grin as the gas mask 'children' fell to the floor, nanogenes surrounding them. "Everybody lives, Faline. Just this once. Everybody lives!" The gas mask 'children' began to rise to their feet, only they were no longer gas mask 'children'. They were restored to normal human beings. The Doctor bounded over to an actual doctor. "Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor! World doesn't wanna get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit." He gestured to the former gas mask 'children' standing around. "These are your patients. All better, now!"
Dr. Constantine nodded, completely confused, "Yes, yes... so it seems. They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"
The Doctor was beaming as he said, "Yeah, well, you know - cutbacks. Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you're probably gonna find that they're cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it. Okay?" He ran back to me as people began to approach Dr. Constantine and speak to him, but I didn't bother to listen.
The Doctor called to Dr. Constantine and his patients from on top of the Chula med-ship, "Right, you lot! Lots to do! Beat the Germans, save the world - don't forget the Welfare State!" Dr. Constantine smiled and he and his patients began to walk away. The Doctor bent down and began to speak to me. "Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"
I laughed, "First in line." The Doctor looked at me and smiled causing me to smile in return.
-x-x-x-
The Doctor and I entered the TARDIS, the Doctor chatting away happily while I just smiled and listened, "The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off - because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help - ditto - all in all, all things considered - fantastic!"
I laughed, "Your smiling like your Santa!"
"Who says I'm not?" he chuckled. The Doctor opened his arms in a wide embrace. "And everybody lives, Faline! Everybody lives!" He pinged a switch on the console. "I need more days like this."
I smiled and said, "That's why I didn't need to apologise, because I knew how happy you would be to have this kind of day." I shrugged, "I didn't want to ruin it for you." He smiled back at me but my own smile disappeared. "What about Jack?" The Doctor's smile faded and he carried on working like he didn't want to answer me. "Doctor, why did he say goodbye?" He didn't answer and I was quickly able to connect the dots. My eyes widened. "Doctor! Do something, help him." The Doctor pressed a button and 'Moonlight Serenade' began to play. A smile spread across my face and I ran to the doors while the TARDIS landed. The Doctor joined me as I opened the door. "Let's go Jack," I said. Jack leapt to his feet and dashed into the TARDIS.
The Doctor took my hand and we began to waltz around the TARDIS as 'Moonlight Serenade' played in the background. I tried to teach him how to dance, humming softly as we danced. Jack was spending his time looking around the TARDIS, amazed with her sheer size. "Hmm, right. And turn…" the Doctor spun me, getting my arm twisted behind my back. I laughed, "Alight, lets do that again. Just not to break my arm."
"I'm sure I used to know this stuff," he said irritated. However, his irritation was false. I could tell by the way he rubbed my arm for half a second before turning to Jack and saying, "Close the door, will you. Your ship's about to blow up - there's gonna be a draft." I smiled and leaned against one of the pillars. The Doctor flicked a switch and the engines started up. "Welcome to the TARDIS."
"Much bigger on the inside..." Jack said.
"You'd better be," the Doctor said.
I felt a slight blush cover my cheeks before saying, "What the Doctor is trying to say is … you may cut in."
We grinned and I took the Doctor's hand as if to dance with him. "Faline! I've just remembered!" he said with a smile.
I laughed at his excitement, "What's that?"
'In The Mood' blasted from the speakers, wherever the hell they were. Lights flashed around the room, and the Doctor moved towards me in time with the music, clicking his fingers. "I can dance!" he said.
"I thought that Jack might like a dance," I said.
The Doctor was unfazed as he answered, "I'm sure he would, Faline. I'm absolutely certain. But who with?" I giggled and jumped up the steps to take the Doctor's hands. Its almost as through he was only pretending he couldn't dance before. He spun me around perfectly. The Doctor suddenly threw me backwards over his arm. I gave a quick shriek in shock before laughing. I pulled myself up and giggled into the Doctor's arm. So this is how the Doctor Dances. I laughed to myself, much better then when he danced at Amy's wedding.
END